OUR COMMON GOAL IS VICTORY, AND WE’RE DOING EVERYTHING IN OUR POWER FOR THIS
Despite the catastrophe enveloping its country, 1+1 has embraced the fierce inspiration the war has ignited – not just in Ukraine, but worldwide. “Our common goal is victory, and we’re doing everything in our power for this. An invincible team spirit is felt now, especially when people are 1000% committed, sacrificing sleep, comfort and safety for this purpose. When all those who were not involved in the news production process learn new things very quickly, and can then help others, it toughens everyone up and unites us!” STAYING CONNECTED At the same time as many western news agencies left Russia, they
were sending units into Ukraine. Broadcasters and their technology teams ramped up quickly, to manage an unmanageable situation. “The threat of war in Ukraine meant we had to plan for massive changes in workflow for the whole team,” according to Jamie Keddie, the location engineering manager for tech operations at UK news production company ITN. In recent years, news teams have become increasingly reliant on the internet – both fixed broadband and mobile networks – for those working in the field. Where journalists previously had to rely solely on satellite (DVB-S2) connectivity, or land-based feed points such as foreign agency
Ukraine,” says Keddie. “We needed to consider how to work in the event of power loss to the national grid.” Most major news broadcasters had to return to a more traditional set-up of flyaway satellite dish equipment – ITN used the Advent FlyDrive 120cm – and portable generators. ITN also took an IP satellite terminal based on Eutelsat’s satellite IP network on a Karbon-75 antenna. “On the morning of the Russian invasion, our Eutelsat dish stopped working, and the modem was unresponsive. I found out this had happened to other networks, too. All we had for backup was an old Hughes BGAN terminal. This was a backup ISDN for comms, with a functioning FlyDrive dish for main vision. “As it turned out, the fixed internet and cell network has continued to work well, right up until now. It’s thought that this is because they’re both actually needed by the invading forces for their communications.” BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY One of the biggest challenges has been in transport and logistics, with swapping staff and transporting kit to location sometimes near impossible – or at best long and slow. “Where before, Kyiv was a 2.5-hour flight from London, we now fly into a neighbouring country and travel in by road or rail. With the roads in a terrible state after winter – they would usually be resurfaced in spring, but obviously
TOP STORY Broadcasters like the UK’s ITV and Channel 4 continue to report live from Ukraine daily
offices, ITN can now send material directly as files over FTP, or via live feeds on LiveU and Aviwest units. “It was important to consider that an invasion could well come with immediate strikes on the infrastructure behind both high-speed hotel broadband, and also the readily available 4G signal in Kyiv and across
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ITV ON THE AZOVSTAL STEEL PLANT SIEGE
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