The "Handy-Looky"

Television news directors have a persistent nightmare: an unexpected event breaks while the news show is on the air. Even if a film-camera crew can be rushed to the scene, developed and edited film of the story is still more than an hour away. Setting up a conventional live camera and all its lumbering accessories is also slow business. The crash of two elevated trains on Chicago's South Side recently was a perfect example of what directors fear. It occurred shortly after 6 p.m. during the local stations' evening news programs. Yet WBBM-TV was on the air 22 minutes later with live pictures from the crash site, long before competitors could even begin editing film for later broadcasts.

WBBM'S quick action was possible because of a new camera system that is soon to revolutionize TV news coverage.

About the same size as a bread box, the miniature devices can be taken practically everywhere. They eliminate the processing time required for film and reduce the amount of equipment and manpower necessary to put live stories on the air. They promise to make TV crews nearly as mobile--and unobtrusive--as a reporter with his notebook.

The trend toward smaller, portable cameras is not new. Shoulder-held black and white models ("creepy-peepies") made their debut on the floor of the 1964 nominating conventions, and color models were used four years later. Yet their blurred pictures badly needed improvement. CBS led the way with the camera it calls the minicam, and new Japanese models (one is called the "Handy-Looky") now weigh as little as 12 lbs. and produce images of good quality.

With the support of compact videotape recorders and small microwave transmitters, the cameras give TV news an undreamed-of flexibility. Breaking stories can be video-taped on the spot and carried back to the station. If deadlines and local traffic are harsh, the material can be beamed direct to the station for taping and editing there. Or, most dramatically, developing stories can be put directly on the air.

The nation's first extended look at such minicamera coverage of a spontaneous event came in Los Angeles during the May 17 Shootout between police and members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. CBS affiliate KNXT had a tiny camera on the scene minutes after the shooting began. The station's live pictures of the life-and-death holocaust were then fed to other L.A. stations and to the rest of the nation. WNBC-TV in New York City has taken a minicamera into an operating room to broadcast live snippets of a kidney transplant during its two-hour evening news program.

For viewers, the new technology will mean more intimate glimpses into raw, sometimes unpleasant events. Audiences are likely to be both better informed sooner and more frequently horrified. For broadcasters, the equipment means enormous initial expense; a single mini-camera and video-tape unit range from $50,000 to $150,000 (compared with $12,000 to $15,000 for a 16-mm. film camera and accessories). But stations are rushing to buy them. By the end of this year, all 15 of the network-owned stations will have one or more minicameras, and the networks are getting them too. Eventually, the new equipment promises great savings. WBBM spends more than $200,000 a year on film and processing; the exclusive use of video tape would wipe out that expense. Cost aside, broadcasters are giddy at being freed from the shackles of cumbersome equipment. For directors, at least one nightmare is on its way out.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.