As mobile technologies expand, smartphones are making their way into mainstream media newsrooms.

KPHO in Phoenix is one station leading the charge. The station purchased Verizon Droid X phones for its news staff and rolled them out as news gathering tools.

The Droid X has an 8 megapixel camera that shoots 720p HD video and holds up to 32GB on removable SD chips. It’s at the top of its class in video enabled phones.

In less than a month the staff began experimenting with ways to shoot video and send it back to the station for online and on-air use. They transmit the images through the phones 3G mobile connection.

Michelle Donaldson is a believer that the phones have a place in today’s newsrooms. “The X phones are great, so far. I think we’ve learned more about them and various ways to use them than Verizon knew when we were sold the phones!”

Donaldson adds, “They work great — but we love Gmail more than anything else. If your internal email system rejects large files (as ours does), you’ll want to build a work-around to get those large files into your plant. We established a Gmail destination that our editors can tap into.”

“We were able to have a significant presence from Flagstaff where the Cardinals are working out. Our competitors sent their satellite truck. We sent a guy with a phone! How cool is that? It’s not the ideal way to do things right now, but we’re still experimenting. I have a staff of McGuyvers and it’s amazing what they’ve created so far,” Donaldson says.

The station shoots video in short bursts in 16X9 format, usually about 35 seconds or less. That allows them to email the files without getting backed up in email. The clips are then edited together back at the station and ready for air.

Eric Sperling of KPHO Sports explains the process:

“Because I knew we were going to put the PKG on the air, I shot a 20 second intro and tag with the Droid camera set to the HD settings. Because the file size is so large for HD, I had to rush through when we approached the 20 second mark. For the VO portion, I changed the settings to low resolution so I could talk a little longer. I then e-mailed the files one at a time to the station and they put the clips into the Avid and did some nice movements with the pictures I sent back from camp. Again—not great—but not bad if we’re ever in a pinch without a SAT truck and editing equipment.”

Here is a link to story that aired on KPHO that night. Kudos to the Phoenix team for thinking out of the box and using new technology to solve age old issues.

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