A Guide to Outside Broadcasting

OBs have been some of the most technically difficult things we've tried to deal with this semester. They regularly cropped up from the beginning of November all the way to the 30th, and we never quite managed to get them to work right. This guide won't give a definitive answer to doing an OB, but it's an accumulation of the knowledge we gained over the last few months. We definitely need to put some more work into it before we'll perfect it, but I have a feeling that if this isn't put down to paper we'll be making all the same mistakes months from now.

Kit

iPhone: I don't know the technical side of it, but we have about ten GVs from Tom the week we went down to London for the student march. He could upload it almost as fast as you recorded the videos, and then it was down to the people in TAB09 to take the videos off youtube and edit the good stuff together. The quality isn't too bad either. So if you have an iPhone, or are thinking of getting an iPhone, keep in mind that it can come to some genuinely good use as OB kit. It's also possible that you can get the same result from many smartphones out there on the market, but I don't know enough about phones to say.

Laptop: With a laptop you can skype and you can film things at a last resort - all laptops have inbuilt webcams these days and they aren't too shabby. Also worth noting, a laptop can be easily balanced to sit on top of a tripod (taking the anchoring slab off the top helps). This was how we filmed Tom's piece to camera on the day of the student march. Mac or PC? Mac is better, simply because their laptops come with a firewire port, so you can hook up a PD170 if you want or need to. This might be possible with a PC but I still haven't figured out how - perhaps a HDMI cable will be enough to hook a HD camera to a PC, but there's experimenting to be done. Stick to a Mac if you can, but if you can't you can manage with a PC, provided you're only using Skype.

PD170: Using a firewire you can plug a PD170 into a Mac, and using iMovie you can stream video straight from your camera to the Macbook's hard drive. Also, if you're streaming to iMovie, you can have a gun (or other) mic plugged into the camera, and that sound will be streamed/captured as well. You can also set Skype to stream from your PD170 instead of the default webcam, so it's useful for a live OB as well. You could bring a person to stand in front of the camera and transmit the footage, rather than feeling like a bit of an awkward plonker trying to do so in front of a laptop.

Cannon 550 (or other camera): The 550 is the camera only media production students are allowed to use as they come out of their budget, but the loan counter claims there'll be more of these eventually that other students can book out, so it's worth putting down. Other cameras, like that £100 canon you might own, can be used. The theory behind them is essentially the same - you can film onto an SD card, transfer it to your computer and upload it to youtube. Most laptops come with an SD card tray these days, so it shouldn't be a problem. They're technically made as still cameras though, so how good the footage will be may vary. The 550's worth mentioning because it's a professional camera - and the more professional the equipment looks, the more respected we are on the field. So a 550 is miles better than that pink little camera you got for your birthday, just because it looks better.

Wireless microphone: We never actually used these, but I think they have potential use so here they are. At the loan counter you have to specifically ask for a wireless microphone-to-minijack cable (a minijack is the norm for headphones/mics on computers, mp3 players, etc). They're not on the system, but they can lend them to you informally. With this cable you can connect the receiving end of the mic to your computer and set it as the mic used.

Firewires: To connect a PD170 to a macbook you need either a 4-to-6 or 4-to-9 firewire cable. Which you need varies from model to model, so check your jack first. If the jack on the macbook is rectangular and resembles a usb jack, you want a 4-to-6 jack. If it is smaller and squarer you want a 4-to-9. Usb cables don't have the capacity to transmit as much information as firewires, which is why they can't be used.

Software 

iMovie: I'm no expert at iMovie and don't really know how to use it very well, but there's three important aspects to it. First, create a new project. Second, once you've plugged in a PD170, you can capture video straight onto iMovie - think of it as skipping the entire necessity of tapes. You're looking for the button with the camera icon on the left side of the screen. From there you want to drag the captured footage onto the timeline, and then edit if you can or want (I can't tell you how on iMovie). Export it and upload it on youtube. This is the closest you can get to our usual method of recording and editing footage.

Skype: You need a skype account to download the program, and then you'll need someone in the newsroom on the line. All you have to do here is wait for the call, and the production team will do their magic on the other end - here I don't know how they record it. If you're doing the OB, you just need to be ready. One thing to note, if you are using a laptop's integrated camera, do not read a script open on a document. We'll all be able to see your eyes flicking from left to right!

Youtube: Youtube has limited editing software. All it really allows you to do is crop the beginnings and ends of videos, but that can has its uses too.

Setups

PD170-Mac

• PD170 (or 150, or Sony HD)
• 4-to-6 or 4-to-9 firewire
• iMovie to capture
• No tape necessary!
• Gun mic can be plugged into PD170, it will be picked up by iMovie

Skype

• Integrated cam can do the job
• A wireless mic can be plugged into any laptop so long as you get out a mic-to-minijack cable
• Skype can be told to use a PD170 to stream

Canon 550 (or other camera)-PC

• SD card with 8+ GB
• The connecting cable
• And youtube

End Bit

First of all, the more put-together a piece is when you put it to youtube, the better. But if not you may have to rely on someone else who doesn't know as much as you do about the package to edit it together. Communication with production and editors is important.

Secondly, there is still one major issue we haven't yet figured out: internet. Where do we find fast, reliable internet, especially for live OBs? How do we split our time between editing/uploading and news gathering? I've done 3 OBs for WINOL and I'm still not sure. This is the major thing holding us back with OBs, if anyone's got an answer, it's more than welcome.