Live via Mobile is the new Live

When I was a kid, it was a thrill to watch sports live. Up in one corner, there’d bit a big flashing ‘Live – via Satellite’, a distinct differentiator for networks back then.

Now, we’re savvy enough to see if it was broadcast live. Also, networks do the opposite and will label what was normally a live show as ‘re-broadcast of a show recorded on…’

Now the new differentiator is Live with a mobile phone. The videos and audio sent from war zones using satellite phones, the maps of events that update with a stream of notes and photos (writing about the Love the Farm – Leave no Trace, triggered this post), and, of course, the live Qik streams.

Interesting.

Here’s the live map from Glastonbury that we’re using on Nokia Conversations.

1 Comment

  1. Sometimes the news videophone reports are quite poor and it’d better off if they just stuck to audio.

    There was a blackout in the live Germany vs Turkey semi-final this week.
    “The director of sport at German broadcaster ZDF said yesterday it was “the most annoying balls-up imaginable” on a night when up to 32.7 million people were watching. The broadcaster was forced to resort to TV reporter Bela Rethy giving a blow-by-blow account of events in a telephone link when the multiple disruptions occurred. Eventually producers switched to an alternative feed from a Swiss broadcaster, but the winning goal was heard before it was seen.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/27/television.euro2008

    It’s fun to switch between the Glasto map and the Worthy Farm satellite map, you get to see the traces left behind from previous festivals: worn paths, dry stage areas.
    They’re also handing out biodegradable tent pegs, the cows aren’t too keen on the hunrdeds of metal ones left behind each year.
    http://www.nme.com/news/glastonbury/35136
    I wish they did that the year we forgot to ours altogether. We had to go round and swipe one peg — and only one — from other well-pegged tents: one missing peg shouldn’t cause any major disastors 🙂

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