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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

>> The station should have shipped them all kits with high quality gear.

Have you seen how big a professional camera actually is? There are basic physics reasons why they need to be so big. They are complex machines backed by a team of experts.

https://petapixel.com/2019/12/03/this-video-explains-why-tv-...

A film/tv studio is a factory and, just like a steel mill, what it does cannot be replicated in the home. What we are all watching from these in-home shoots is sub-par footage more akin to 1980s soap operas than modern studio footage.

Watch the various Linux Tech Tips episodes about their storage woes. When you film/edit on 4 or 8k raw footage, just editing together a simple youtube segment requires racks of servers, another thing not practical in homes.

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Sorry. That's not what I'm suggesting. Many local news stations are having their reporters work from home using whatever crap home equipment they happen to have.

I'm suggesting the station help them with better webcams and mics, and tips/help for their setup, like where to put the table lamp.

There's clearly room for improvement, as some of the reporters have decent audio and video (for home equipment), and others don't. Some are barely audible, pixelated, washed out / overlighted, etc.

In short, I mean "higher quality home/consumer gear plus some training".

> I'm suggesting the station help them with better webcams and mics, and tips/help for their setup, like where to put the table lamp.

The issue is likely the suddenness of the shift.

The news studio likely had whatever number of 'field' cameras/mics/lights they use for those "on site" shots, plus a few spares of each to cover for the normal damage that would occur from "in the field" use.

But they very likely did not have enough spares to give the twelve on-air personalities that make up a typical broadcast their own local gear, and still have enough "field" equipment to do those "on site" shots they want to do anyway.

The problem is very likely simple logistics. They had not, ever, planned to have every on air personality who normally works the studio all working from home at the same time, and so they simply did not have enough spare equipment to outfit everyone all at the same time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEC8q9i2fOw

That video explains some low-hanging fruit changes that would massively improve the quality of at-home reporting. About $1,000 or so.

Just a recent iPhone camera would be about 10x better than most USB cameras. I don’t think anyone is suggesting a full on studio rig.

And the Apple Watch already has rudimentary controls for iPhone cameras built in. Without too much effort, it should be possible to have some broadcast-focused control in place, possibly even coordinated/controlled by the broadcaster.

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