Blog: Broadcasting on the move

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BBC Studio Director Jonathan Hallam discusses the technical intricacies of broadcasting from the BBC's US08 Election bus, as BBC Global News continues to cover the presidental race.

The aim of the BBC's US08 Election bus tour is to report from places rarely covered by the big international broadcasters and to convey the mood of Americans from all walks of life. Coverage from outside the Washington beltway often gets short-changed by American networks, but even more so by international broadcasters.

So ahead of an election which is likely to affect large parts of the world, exploring middle and small town America was always going to be a key goal of the BBC's pre-election coverage. But relaying information from the road creates its own set of challenges. Locations can never be recced ahead of time, serendipity is part of the whole experience - you have to expect the unexpected.

For radio, our primary system of broadcasting is still the trusted ISDN GSGC5 with a Nera M4 Sat phone, (we have flown over a number of GCGS5s and M4s enabling all the journalists on our team to file, even at the same time). We also have two bGan HS9201 (Hughes network systems) Inmarsat dishes. But for me, the most exciting thing has been using the Comrex 'Vortex'.

This small bit of kit has the advantage of not needing a steady fix of sight of a satellite, thus allowing us to transmit while on the move. It was used to great effect in a live two-way from Las Vegas. Ordinarily, we would have had to do the whole live from a stationary position, but through the use of the Comrex we were able to drive down the strip in style. The Comrex has been particularly reliable here in the US because wireless cover, which we access through a Verizon Wireless USB device, has been so strong.

Newsgate, the BBC's uploading device, has also been extremely useful while on the road, as it enables us to file audio without having to stop to set up the satellite dish. However, it's been harder to use in areas where there is no broadband access.

Jennifer Copestake is our resident bus video blogger. She and her trusty Z7 have been chronicling the bus tour in pictures. Jennifer cuts on Final Cut Pro and files back to London via the JEX upload system which inputs her cut stories directly in Jupiter.

We're only half way through our journey and many more challenges are bound to creep up along the way as we broadcast from our moving vehicle. In the next few weeks, we continue to travel east towards our final destination of New York on 17th October. But first, is our next stop - the small town of Popular Bluff in Missouri.

The BBC US08 Election Bus Tour is travelling from LA to New York, across 16 states, over 38 days. It is reporting to the world what Americans want from the coming election and what the rest of the world wants from America.

Programming and reports from the BBC US08 Election Bus Tour can be found on BBC World Service English and 12 BBC World Service language services (Persian, Vietnamese, Spanish, Arabic, Kyrgyz, Hindi, Urdu, Pashtu; Albanian, Russian, French and Swahili), BBC World News, BBC America, BBC News TV, BBC Arabic TV, Radio 1, Radio 5 Live and online at www.bbcworldservice.com/talkingamerica