Has anyone else noticed how CCTV footage seems to be used now on the news? It always seems to be someone using a camera to film another monitor that’s showing the original footage. On tonight’s BBC Weekend News there was obviously someone using a camera to film a white iPhone that was showing the footage (and shaking all over the place). So we don’t get to see the actual footage properly thanks to the reflection and glare on the screen. Is it too hard to get the original footage properly?
Well, if it relates to an ongoing investigation it's often obtained through leakage, i.e. a person with access to the information filming it on whatever playback device it is.
When CCTV is released by the police or other investigative bodies it is sent through a CCTV hub generally, who will do a post production on it - remove faces, VRMs and other stuff, or circle relevant parties (often these are what are used at court too to make the process easier. If I request CCTV at work, I'll often get 30 cameras that aren't relevant to an offence, or an hour of footage and only 20 minutes will show the incident).
If this is about the man in East London who died after being arrested by the police and swallowing drugs, then it's likely whoever obtained the footage had access to the store CCTV, and media outlets in a hurry to get it onto the news have just filmed someone's screen rather than download it - or the original sender showed it to someone who filmed it. It will be a long time down the line before the IPCC or the Met release the actual footage.
Yes to the above. Additionally if you need to get the material on-air fast, shooting a screen with your camera is often the most straightforward way of getting the material on-air.
Finding someone in the CCTV location who knows how to export the footage onto removable media (which you will need to source), and then converting the exported content into a format that can be edited is a non-trivial process that takes time and in some cases a degree of expertise. (I have experience of this...)
Yes to the above. Additionally if you need to get the material on-air fast, shooting a screen with your camera is often the most straightforward way of getting the material on-air.
Finding someone in the CCTV location who knows how to export the footage onto removable media (which you will need to source), and then converting the exported content into a format that can be edited is a non-trivial process that takes time and in some cases a degree of expertise. (I have experience of this...)
Exactly - each DVR supplier has their own codecs and file formats - tools like SiraView are available to read pretty much anything but good luck finding a terminal with it on in a newsroom
Exactly - each DVR supplier has their own codecs and file formats - tools like SiraView are available to read pretty much anything but good luck finding a terminal with it on in a newsroom
Even less likely to have it on location if you're laptop editing (which is pretty common these days) BBC News have their FIDO app (which is based on ffmbc I think) but that won't do everything.
Having dealt with multiple archaic CCTV systems, the amount of crap that you have to deal with in just getting them to export video is astounding. Some even have to be played in proprietary players just to view, without export options unless you pony up for professional programs. It doesn't surprise me that sometimes shooting a screen ends out to be easier.
Exactly - each DVR supplier has their own codecs and file formats - tools like SiraView are available to read pretty much anything but good luck finding a terminal with it on in a newsroom
Even less likely to have it on location if you're laptop editing (which is pretty common these days) BBC News have their FIDO app (which is based on ffmbc I think) but that won't do everything.
FIDO is a great little app, you drag and drop video files in, and it converts as best it can to uk broadcast rate video, which should then be more easily I,portable into editing software like qEdit. I think it stands for Files In DV Out.
Having dealt with multiple archaic CCTV systems, the amount of crap that you have to deal with in just getting them to export video is astounding. Some even have to be played in proprietary players just to view, without export options unless you pony up for professional programs. It doesn't surprise me that sometimes shooting a screen ends out to be easier.
Exactly the issues we have.
Where I work we battle with NVPlayer, Bosch's proprietary software, London Underground's Hawkeye system and numerous other systems used by retailers and bars. It's a nightmare, about 60% of them will work in SiraView the rest don't - and our organisation's IT system won't let you run any application from a disc or plug in an 'unauthorised' memory stick. A headache to say the least.
I think the BBC is quite cautious with open sourcing internal 'useful bits of software' to avoid allegations of distorting the market place with public subsidies (as SVT have been by both VizRT and ChyronHego over CasparCG) I think that is why Raven remains closed source.
Pure R&D is a different matter - and the BBC have embraced Open Source significantly in that area.