Gunnar Garfors, director of mobile services for NRK's development, was very pleased with the test. "The reports gave a new perspective on the race that couldn't have been given otherwise," Garfors says. "It really made a valuable contribution to the show."
The picture was somewhat blurry, but still fulfilled its purpose well. "It can be compared to pictures via satellite-phone which are used sometimes, such as during the Gulf war. But 3G is much easier and cheaper."
Garfors says that since the race, there has been great interest from different editorial offices within the company in using 3G, as well as from other European broadcasters.
"3G phones are perfect for fast reporting of breaking news and events where a fast response is more important than picture quality," he says. "In this way we can make sure to report from big events even if TV equipment is not at hand."
Most rural editorial offices at NRK now have access to 3G phones. "I think we will see a lot of 3G phone reports on TV soon. This will also accelerate with improved bandwidth and picture quality," Garfors says.
NRK is also a pioneer in mobile video. At the NRK WAP site (wap.nrk.no) current TV broadcasts can be streamed live on a GPRS or UMTS phone. The site also includes news, video clips and radio. This Easter, a mobile video version was made of the traditional Easter detective story with a new episode each day. Traffic figures for December show 50,000 started video streams for December.
"Norwegians are interested in the possibilities of new technology. The interest for our WAP site has increased a lot, simultaneously with more sales of video-capable 3G and GPRS phones," Garfors says. "We see that more and more people are using their mobiles for radio and TV and this shows that we were right to go for mobile media at an early stage."
