DENVER - In the crowded newsroom at 9NEWS (KUSA-TV), my colleagues and I watched in in frustration.
We were selected by the judge to provide live video to all television outlets on the planet of the
first court appearance for the suspect accused of killing 12 people in a crowded Aurora, Colo. movie theater.
It was not going well. I could sense the expletives being hurled at us from every control room and newsroom across the face of the globe.
A few minutes in to the court hearing, the video and audio froze-- a little bit at first-- and then so much you couldn't make sense of what was happening.
It's not because 9NEWS doesn't know how to provide good video, it's because we used some newer cellular-based technology to provide the feed.
Long time news managers at 9NEWS cannot remember another instance where a live signal from inside an Arapahoe County courtroom was allowed or even attempted. So the feed, imperfect as it was, was unusual, if not historic.
The court building itself presented some legitimate security concerns regarding wires running in and out of the courtroom.
The court assigned 9NEWS the task of providing video coverage. We offered to use a wireless-based system.
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| The LiveU & camera used to provide pool video of the court hearing. (Brian Willie/9NEWS) |
The black backpack contains a device called a LiveU, one of a couple models of new-age "TV live trucks in a backpack."
Trouble is, the LiveU relies on the cell phone network, making multiple simultaneous connections to cell towers to increase the amount of bandwidth it uses and provide HD-quality video live.
At high quality, we expected an 18-second delay, as 9NEWS photographer
Brian Willie tweeted:
It started out well enough. We got a crystal-clear image of the suspect and his bright red hair. His glazed-over expression. It was an important moment in the development of the case.
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| Watching the feed in the 9NEWS information center. (Brandon Rittiman/9NEWS) |
Aside from some disruption when the camera was in motion, the feed would have been an amazing success. One of the biggest moments in LiveU's history.
But instead the new technology crashed and burned in what could have been its finest moment.
Why? Because the multitudes outside the courthouse started to get information about what was happening inside and whipped out their smartphones.
The sheer volume of data usage in the area sapped the bandwidth that was going to the source of the information: the one feed being relied upon by the world to observe the court hearing.
The mass texting, tweeting, and posting of information in real-time crushed the cell signal providing the information in the first place.
It didn't keep us from having the entire video. Within minutes of the end of the hearing, the
full-quality recording from our camera was fed out to the world.
We agree it would have been nice to have it all work perfectly in real-time.
People much smarter with technology than myself here at 9NEWS are already working on lessons learned and looking for solutions for next time.
Should we have called the cell phone companies and pleaded for booster towers? Should we have looked for some other wireless solution that links back to a traditional TV truck, if the court would have allowed it?
The answers will come.
For all those in the industry who hurled expletives toward 500 Speer Boulevard today, just know that our quick willingness to use new technology may be the only reason we got a live picture at all, however flawed the last half of the transmission was.
UPDATE: @4:39pm:
I received the following statement via a comment on this story from LiveU:
"As you mention, it seems that the cellular conditions in and around the
courthouse were very difficult today – much more difficult than what
you typically might have encountered in previous uses around Denver.
Even so, we believe that the LiveU unit is able to overcome such extreme
conditions with a little tweaking. We’ve emailed some suggestions to
our contacts at the station and hope they can help in future uses in
highly congested locations."
I am told that 9NEWS contacted LiveU in advance of today's coverage in order to determine the best way to configure the unit, but am uncertain how in-depth that discussion was.
UPDATE: @12:58pm:
Received a nice bit of feedback on this post from Brett Holey, Director/Senior Broadcast Producer for NBC Nightly News:
"And by the way, as the director of the network special, I
can tell you we were not cursing you. We have seen the limitations of LiveU
before but never were quite so riveted to its content or limited in our
options.
For what it is worth, we’re all singing the praises of your
station’s work through this crisis and are thinking of your community during
this tough time."
