CA
Well, it is clearly a matter of opinion and not a case of right and wrong.
I would say the proper way to have aerial footage is not to take two hours to hire a helicopter, get a crew to it, film footage, go back to base, take the tape back to base, edit it, send it out to London so it can go on News 24.
I would say three helicopters would suffice - one for south of England, one for the Midlands, one for the North. They can cover ground very quickly. They can be used for sports events, for street carnivals, for floods, traffic jams, etc. etc.
Fear not, the BBC will be up to it in 10 years time.
AdamP posted:
And I'm saying that the proper way to operate helicopters is not to own them, but to have access to them when needed.
It would be incredibly expensive to have a helicopter for each regional centre. We'd be talking about a dozen of them, and they're not only expensive in themselves, but the kit required to broadcast live is also pricey, and having a pilot (sorry, twelve pilots) hanging round waiting for something to happen would also cost a fortune. If BBC regional centres were to do this, they'd probably have to lay off several journalists in order to pay for it.
And the number of times in a year when a helicopter is really necessary could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. Of course in America, all those local stations who have helicopters feel they need to get as much use out of them as possible, so send them up for every car chase, resulting in loads of coverage for stories which really don't deserve it.
It would be incredibly expensive to have a helicopter for each regional centre. We'd be talking about a dozen of them, and they're not only expensive in themselves, but the kit required to broadcast live is also pricey, and having a pilot (sorry, twelve pilots) hanging round waiting for something to happen would also cost a fortune. If BBC regional centres were to do this, they'd probably have to lay off several journalists in order to pay for it.
And the number of times in a year when a helicopter is really necessary could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. Of course in America, all those local stations who have helicopters feel they need to get as much use out of them as possible, so send them up for every car chase, resulting in loads of coverage for stories which really don't deserve it.
Well, it is clearly a matter of opinion and not a case of right and wrong.
I would say the proper way to have aerial footage is not to take two hours to hire a helicopter, get a crew to it, film footage, go back to base, take the tape back to base, edit it, send it out to London so it can go on News 24.
I would say three helicopters would suffice - one for south of England, one for the Midlands, one for the North. They can cover ground very quickly. They can be used for sports events, for street carnivals, for floods, traffic jams, etc. etc.
Fear not, the BBC will be up to it in 10 years time.