47 WEATHER FOCUS Live Broadcasting
hen there’s an extreme weather event, people want access to information instantly – preferably accompanied by
WE’RE TELLING PEOPLE TO STAY OUT OF THE WEATHER, ANDWE’RE THE ONES RACING INTO IT vivid, on-the-spot footage. Small teams, even lone journalists, are being deployed to the scene of big weather events to send back live or near-live coverage of potentially life-or-death events. The vast spaces of Australia mean that big teams with satellite trucks need to be deployed sparingly and strategically. What is working well – and it’s an international trend in news collecting – is being able to deploy journalists locally in the areas that need covering. Blended cellular technologies are becoming a mainstream solution for transmitting live from anywhere to anywhere, and are being employed by news and weather organisations in reporting on ever more frequent extreme weather events. Cellular bonding, more frequently called blended connectivity, allows a feed to be carried across multiple data links, including mobile or Wi-Fi, enabling the transmission of more data, faster and with fewer drop outs. Australia lends itself particularly well to the use of these blended cellular units. The Australian network auctioned off the spectrum in the 700-800 Mhz band and put phone services in that. As a result, a lot of the rural areas now have cellular service that a remote broadcaster can use for sending a feed.
FEELING THE HEAT Australian wildfires are becoming more frequent. Cellular bonded tech helps TV crews get to and out of a scene fast
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