European TV stations convert 100 percent to iPhone for video reporting

The Mobile Newsroom

European broadcaster fully embraces mobile-based reporting. All reporters now use iPhone for TV newsgathering.

This summer a chain of TV stations in Europe converted to smartphones and all of their reporters are producing all of their field reports with low-cost mobile gear.

Here is a rough translation from articles that appeared in French:

The Geneva-based regional TV chain, looks just like any other local newscast.

Except for one detail: on 29 June and throughout the summer, all will occur, shot, or even mounted on smartphone.

“To my knowledge, only one Scandinavian television has tried it so far, assures the director of the Geneva-based chain, Laurent Keller.

So it will be a national first. “And above all” an opportunity to review how to do television. “The experience is conceived as “a quest for lightness and responsiveness, but also a track to reduce the costs of newscast, “he adds.

The transaction should thus costing a few thousand Swiss francs, which is not a detail for Leman Bleu and CHF 4 million budget.

Throughout the summer, some of these “100% iPhone” reported will be stored prior to distribution, others can be seen live.

What about image quality? “The misconception is that the iPhone generates poorer picture quality than standard cameras,” Keller said. “We believe the opposite. The picture is different, but it offers an interesting grain.

It belongs only to us from reinventing the grammar of the image, learn to shoot differently. For us it is also a welcome boost and renewed pleasure to exercise our profession. “

This follows a trend that started four years ago when Robb Montgomery was hired by the global broadcaster RFE/RL to develop workflows and train their 600 correspondents in smartphone video production.

Montgomery consults with public and private broadcasters in Europe and Asia to build mobile video teams for broadcast and social video streams.

He also produces in-house workshops for the Institute of Physics, University of London, and London PR agencies who are looking to the iPhone as a way to bring pro video production in-house at low cost.

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