I can’t count the number of times in the news room when we all waited for the live truck to get to the scene of a story to get first pictures back.

Those agonizing seconds accounted for more than my share of grey hair. (See blog photo) Yes, technology got better, SNG came along and extended our reach for live, but those big expensive, racks of gear only travel so fast.

Last we met , we talked about Skype and it’s introduction to the Iphone. Mobile live video in your pocket. Well there is another app that’s just as stout, for all those non- Ibelievers, and its built for speed, sharing and live, Qik.

In a nutshell Qik allows you to live stream to the web with a video enabled phone. You simply sign up for a FREE account, download the app to your phone and you are off and running. You  can embed the html code in a website, or share it on social apps like Facebook and Twitter.

I love it when someone figures out the potential of what the web gives us and applies it to day-to-day newsgathering. WCBD-TV in Charleston, SC leads the way in using social media to deliver information to its users and viewers. Count on 2 launched a new initiative using Qik. Each of its multimedia journalists carry Blackberry Curve phones and each have their own Qik account.

It allows the station to bring instant live video from the field to the web. News Director Dan Fabrizio says, “We’ve now added a new dimension to our online presence with streaming video. We give you the scoop as it is happening with results live on our website. When our team of reporters is out in the field, we will go live immediately using our mobile devices and broadcast it to our website and partner sites like Facebook and Twitter. ”

 Here is a link to a sample from reporter Larry Collins, covering a recent festival which draws thousands to the area.

The station also used Qik for live updates from the annual Cooper River Bridge Run, going as far as delivering live coverage while runing in the event. Now that’s perspective!

It’s worth a look whether you are a broadcast station or simply want to share live video on your blog or website, and it beats the live truck in delivering pictures every time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.