PNG
The PNG (Portable Newsgathering) app has been available to some BBC staff for a number of years. However, it is now available to all staff, allowing users to send any breaking news or content as text, audio, stills or video from their iPhone or iPad and make it available to any part of the BBC that needs it.
Please note, the older versions of PNG (coloured in black and white) have now been discontinued and removed from all devices. You need to be running the latest version (red and yellow icon), which includes a range of additional useful features.
These include:
- Send to more than one destination
- Send to non-news locations such as Castaway
- Ability to Import and Send locally saved audio from a Luci Live broadcast
- Ability to send square and vertical video as well as landscape video
- The link between stills sent via PNG and the Elvis system has now been fixed
Luci Live
The Luci Live app for iPhones and iPads is available to all reporting staff who need it, and enables live radio broadcasting from your device. The latest version of the software has introduced the concept of dual streaming, via both Wifi and Mobile Networks, which should decrease the risk of any broadcast failing due to variable connectivity. Other changes are being introduced across the BBC to improve the way these connections are received from the field, which again are designed to provide more robust connections. These changes reflect the fact that many users have suffered from on-air failures in recent years, with connections failing unexpectedly.
Skype
Skype is a great fallback for live audio and video contributions. Testing conducted by BBC Wales in 2015 and 2016 has shown conclusively that Skype connections are more likely to work in areas of poor connectivity, compared to other live broadcast solutions. Whilst there may be a lower overall quality to this kind of contribution, it’s the least likely to fail.
WMT
Colleagues in BBC News have been working closely with our Dutch partners Mobile Viewpoint (WMT), to develop their iOS and OSX apps for iPhones, iPads and Macbooks. Early versions of these apps are already installed on all BBC Wales News and Sport Macbooks, and the iPhone app is now being made available to all staff who need it. This allows live video contributions – but may soon also allow live audio too. This would provide us with a live broadcast equivalent to the PNG app for recorded content.
Finally, if you’re already wondering why Mobile Journalism matters, then look no further than this short film from former BBC VJ Mark Egan
BBC Wales Technology for Journalism 