News from the front line

A videophone developed by two UK firms is revolutionising TV coverage from Afghanistan

"Via videophone," announced the titles above the picture of John Simpson, the BBC's veteran war correspondent, as he reported on the first air strikes on Afghanistan a week ago. It was a first for the BBC, leading its 10pm bulletin with pictures whose quality could be called poor at best. But for two of British companies, it was yet another triumph for the technologies they developed and which are revolutionising TV news reporting around the world.

Videophones and videoconferencing are more familiar from boardrooms (and even more so now, with fewer business people getting on planes since the attacks of 11 September). But for journalists, videophones offer a means to get to dangerous places more quickly – and report back directly from them.

Though the pictures of Simpson were grainy and had to be squeezed into a quarter of the screen so that their low quality would not be too obvious, BBC technicians were exultant that a system they have been using for two years has finally come into its own. "Yeah, we're all very pleased," said Steve Pearce, who organises new technologies for the BBC's newsgathering operation.

The videophone itself is called a TH-1 – for "Talking Head" – and is made by 7E Communications, based near Heathrow airport, and incorporates compression software by Motion Media of Bristol.

The software achieves a minor miracle, compressing the picture by a factor of more than 1,000 to squeeze it on to a single phone link, and then decompressing it at the other end. That's like making a car weigh as much as a bag of sugar, and then reconstituting it.

Simpson led the way, but the past week has seen reporters from all over the world rushing to show off the fact that they too are using videophones, from close to the front line – if such a thing can be said to exist in this strange war. GMTV last Thursday had a long videophone sequence with a woman reporter on how difficult life is in Afghanistan. Again, the picture quality (on a full screen) may not have been the best, but the vérité effect was indisputable.

There are some limitations: the software which squashes the picture down works best when there is little movement and the background is a neutral, daylit one. John Simpson's presentation managed neither – his well-lit face contrasted sharply with the night-time background, leading the picture to break up at times.

Never the less, TV news companies love the TH-1. "We reckoned we would probably sell about 50, perhaps 100," said Peter Beardo, 7E's managing director, last week. "So far we've sold about 200-odd, and we can't make them fast enough. They were designed for TV companies, and now all the major networks have them – BBC, CNN, ITN, all the American networks."

The TV companies' enthusiasm is understandable. In an age when being first with pictures is increasingly important, the videophones offer a light and flexible means of getting to a scene. The videophone is part of a pack that weighs about 5kg (11lbs), including a small screen that shows what is being transmitted, a satellite phone which connects to Inmarsat's orbiting telephone system and a satellite dish about as large as a tabloid newspaper.

That substitutes for the one-ton truck that is required to carry a satellite dish, generators and editing system in order to send back a high-quality picture. The truck and its hardware costs tens of thousands of pounds, the running costs (for the vehicle and personnel) are huge, and the "uplink" to connect to the satellite has to be booked and costs hundreds of pounds for a 15-minute "slot". Just learning how to negotiate for that uplink time is an art in itself, usually done by the producer – for the reporter you see on screen is only one of a team of three or four people on the scene. "For me to walk out of the door and go and interview someone, anyone, is five figures," as one TV reporter told me last week.

By contrast, the videophone can be operated by one person, costs about £15,000 and the satellite phone connection can be dialled up anytime, and costs $7 per minute – a huge saving on a dish and truck.

"The videophone can be carried by anybody," said Steve Pearce. "A reporter could just stick the camera on a tripod and report back without anyone else. In practice it helps to have someone else. But you can just move much faster."

Its quick-and-dirty nature, though, means that it will not take over from the "sat truck" in locations where those can be brought in. Although Beardo is eager about the coming implementation of an IP (Internet Protocol)-based version of the phone – "because that's what people are demanding" – that should be more robust in its communications links, the reality is still that broadcasters want to have clean pictures.

However in the midst of war, anything that gets reporters nearer to the front line, and with fewer people, will always be popular with the heads of news, whose budgets are under increasing strain. It's just ironic that it should take a war to bring to fruition a technology that had been promised to revolutionise everyone else's working lives; the real change is in the way our news arrives.

c.arthur@independent.co.uk