Be Prepared for Bad Liveshots

There's a lot of new technology out there that can get us live. You can go live from your computer, live from your phone, etc. But as you may have noticed, the quality of these liveshots is not as good as if say, you had a live truck or sat truck transmitting the video. Keep in mind, the switch to HD makes the quality of the pictures stand out even more. I'm not saying don't use them-- I think you should always use whatever you have access to-- but I am saying compensate for bad pictures.

What to do? I've seen some of these liveshots put in a special graphic frame which makes the picture smaller and the poor quality less obvious. This doesn't have to be any big project-- just have something simple and generic made up that you can slip these shots into when they arise. That way you're not scrambling at the last minute and your show looks a little cleaner. You could also double box these shots with video on the other side... or squeeze into a full screen with bullet points. If your double box is big/little (big on one side, little on the other), I'd suggest you put anchor or video in big box, liveshot in the smaller. As always, use your best judgement and experiment.