Monday, August 22, 2011

Sky News in the frontline as Libyan FF's advance


: Sky News in the frontline as Libyan FF's advance ” 

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Sky News: Alex Crawford reporting from Libya
Sky News: Alex Crawford reporting live from the Libyan capital, Tripoli
As the Libyan rebels swept into Tripoli last night and Muammar Gaddafi's regime began to disintegrate, Sky News emerged as the runaway winner in the battle of the broadcasters.
While journalists from the BBC and other networks were contained within the city's Rixos Hotel by armed guards loyal to Gadaffi, Alex Crawford, Sky's special correspondent, scooped all her rivals by broadcasting dramatic live footage from within the advancing rebel convoy.
Her bravery won legions of fans. At one point on Sunday night, Crawford was trending worldwide on Twitter, while Baroness Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, said her reporting was "quite astonishing".
Sky said that Crawford, a three-time Royal Television Society journalist of the year, was able to transmit the footage, including scenes of the rebels celebrating in Green Square, via an ingenious marriage of old and new technology.
Footage from cameramen Jim Foster and Garwen McLuckie was beamed live via an Apple MacBook Pro, connected to a BGAN mini-satellite dish, while the whole setup was powered via a charger attached to their pick-up truck's cigarette lighter socket.
In the back of the vehicle, Andy Marsh, the producer, sat holding the satellite dish and a compass, constantly readjusting the dish to track the satellite above. The arrangement proved so stable that at one stage Crawford was able to broadcast live and uninterrupted for 40 minutes, answering questions from Stephen Dixon, Sky's anchor in London.
Sarah Whitehead, the channel's head of international news, said: "It is still the cigarette lighter that is the source of power for everybody. But another key point is the producer in the back being able to track the satellite. The difference last night was that we were getting a good enough signal to keep filming as they were moving. Andy would have been constantly tilting the dish to track the satellite.