5:44 GMT - KTLA 5 - LOS ANGELES - LIVE BREAKING NEWS - SKY 5
CANYON FIRE - EVACUATIONS/CLOSURES
KTLA has just went into Breaking News mode covering the evacuations and closures
- Reporter doing a live report was nearly blown over by high winds
http://ktla.com/live/#axzz2Qf5aQMrN Sky 5 Pilot/Reporter Mark Kono is live providing coverage.
KABC 7 - LOS ANGELES - LIVE 5:21 GMT 4/30/14
FROM CHOPPER 7 - RAW LIVE FOOTAGE
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/live Wild Canyon fire burning near LA. Mandatory evacuations
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 30 April 2014 6:00pm - 8 times in total
UNMANNED DRONES - FOR NEWS COVERAGE
The usage of drones for news coverage is beginning to heat up. What are your thoughts about the use of this new broadcast technology. I think its a good cost effective tool for broadcasters to supplement their coverage. Especially for small tv stations like London Live, etc to provide aerial views of breaking news or events. Of course their must be safeguards in place that protect the public. I think that it should be flown by a licensed pilot not just anyone. What do you think about their use?
Here is a good article about the subject and drone usage in North America (US/Canada)
http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0086/choppers-v-drones-for-eng/270052 http://www.tvtechnology.com/portals/4/TVT_20140423-9.jpg
The BBC and Sky have them already, wouldn't be surprised if ITN does too. Quite a bit of regulation in place, obviously. Most notably they can't be flown over crowds, within 50m of a road or building unless it's under their control or 500m horizontally or 120m vertically from the pilot.
This was from June 2013, when floods hit areas of Calgary and Southern Alberta in Canada.
In Canada, only three networks utilize helicopters on a daily basis for news coverage: Global, CTV, and TVA.
Global's stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Toronto have helicopters through an arrangement with the Canadian Traffic Network, using a fleet of Robinson R-44s. Previously, Global leased a single Eurocopter AS350 from another chopper company for its Toronto station. All 5 stations have their helicopters in the air during their morning, 5pm, and 6pm news bulletins to cover traffic (travel) conditions, and every other bulletin when breaking news happens. There is a pilot and 1 or 2 traffic reporters in the chopper; one of the reporters provide reports for Global and operate the on-board cameras, the other reporter provide reports for radio stations who also use CTN. Each traffic segment from the helicopter is accompanied with a short ad voiced by the traffic reporter - a sample of a typical traffic report is below.
These choppers are able to fly during very cold winter mornings, however they generally do not fly if the ceiling is low. It's sometimes awkward when a traffic report is covering a serious or fatal crash, and is accompanied by an advertisement.
CTV stations in Toronto and Vancouver have helicopters, both Bell 206 Longrangers. CTV Toronto shares their helicopter with CP24, and is sometimes branded on-air as "Chopper 24". Generally CTV uses their helicopters for news gathering/breaking news, though I am not sure if the choppers are used on the local morning shows on CP24 and CTV Vancouver. I believe the agreement CTV has with their helicopter providers is similar to what you would find in the US. CTV Toronto was the first TV station in Canada to utilize an ENG helicopter.
TVA's flagship station in Montreal also has a helicopter. I am not sure if the chopper is used for traffic reports, but it is certainly used to cover breaking news, as the ad below shows.
TVA used to fly a Robinson R44 until it crashed in December 2009. It has been replaced by a Eurocopter AS350.
If you have interesting bits to add you are welcome like everyone else to post on the site. The information about Canada and from Australia recently was interesting. Unfortunately Choppers arent used
extensively
as news gathering tools in other places. By adding links people can see how they are being used the moment the link is placed on the thread and how they are used to cover certain stories, like live car chases, fires, and tornadoes coverage that may not get the same coverage in other areas. This thread is in NEWSROOM and HELICOPTERS section, if it doesnt interest you then you are free to pass it by or add you own coverage links or info about news choppers like others have contributed and enjoyed.
In Canada, only three networks utilize helicopters on a daily basis for news coverage: Global, CTV, and TVA.
Too bad the CBC is going thru budget issues and they dont really utilize choppers for their news coverage regularly.
I remember watching that Calgary Flood coverage on the Global website. Global Calgary did a great job that day. And really the chopper was the only way to the get a good perspective of the damage. It was horrible.
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 12 May 2014 4:50am - 2 times in total
I don't think it would have been good use of taxpayer funds for CBC to lease a dedicated helicopter for ENG purposes. CBC has chartered helicopters ad hoc numerous times to cover a story, and that's probably good enough for them.
.... as an aside the Helicopter pictures coming in from the Cycling Tour of California (Eurosport now) are quite exceptional, the aircraft literally hedge hopping at times,.
I don't think it would have been good use of taxpayer funds for CBC to lease a dedicated helicopter for ENG purposes. CBC has chartered helicopters ad hoc numerous times to cover a story, and that's probably good enough for them.
And with CBC cutting back now, chartering helicopters may even be less frequent.
