One-Man Reporting Band (Part II)

For Part I, click here.

Ten Steps to Transmitting Video via a Satellite Phone

You’re out in the field and you need to transmit back to the studio. All you’ve got is one or two Inmarsat satellite phones; a power source; a video compressor that is essentially your computer; a video camera; and possibly a box to combine the two phone signals. How do you do it? Here are veteran field reporter Jim Bruton’s suggested steps:

Step 1: Orient yourself. Look around. Where are you? Where do you have good visibility?
Step 2: Determine which satellite region is visible to you. There are four major ocean regions: Atlantic Ocean East, Atlantic Ocean West, Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. Save frustration in the field. Determine your ocean region before you leave.
Step 3: Open your dish or dishes.
Step 4: Plug in the transceiver to your power supply. Two most popular options are an inverter off a camera battery or car cigarette lighter.
Step 5: Set the dish at a 45-degree angle and slowly pan watching your signal strength. Come back to your strongest point. Then repeat the procedure with an elevation check locking into the strongest signal.
Step 6: Plug in your video source. If not using a camera built into the computer, video can be connected by FireWire, composite or S-video.
Step 7: At this point your communications system (satellite dish) and video compressor (computer and camera) are online. You forgot one major thing; you’re shooting video. Set up your shot and test the audio.
Step 8: You’re ready to transmit. Call the newsroom. Are they ready to receive? Fire it up and send a test.
Step 9: Newsroom discusses final composition issues. There may be noise in the transmission. If so, set up shot again.
Step 10: Go live! Network receives your transmission. The station transmits your signal to the affiliates who then in turn transmit it to their customers. Always shoot for the best quality. Degradation sets in at every step of the process.

Bruton claims that once on-site he can be up and shooting live within 10 minutes. But that’s assuming there are no problems like getting a strong signal, to losing the signal.

But Bruton prefers his equipment over the satellite truck. With traditional satellite systems, there’s more preparation: "Before you go out in the field, you say, ‘OK, we’re going to be in this part of the world, we’re going to use this satellite, our amplifiers are this powerful, we’re going to bring it down to this teleport and get it back to the studio this way. And that’s called a link budget. And the link budget accounts for everything right down to the power of the amplifier you’re using. And that does not exist before you go into the field. This is dial on demand."