I am beginning to see personal videoconferencing used more often on live television as a video link to interview or interact with people in their own homes and offices. This is a convenience for busy interviewees or experts who no longer have to travel to the studio to shoot a short live segment. This trend is also granting access to television viewers who can contribute to broadcasts from their home computer using a webcam.

A recent example was the 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards Presentation which featured a live videoconference via Apple iChat. Perhaps it was to emphasize the Green With Emmy Campaign which included providing hybrid vehicles for the presenters, delivering the swag in reusable canvas bags and cooking all the catered food in a solar oven. Or the fact that the award presented via the videoconference was going to environmentalist Al Gore who also happens to sit on the board of Apple, Inc., which makes the iChat AV software.

Actor Masi Oka from the series Heros, stood behind a Mac Book Pro with a built-in iSight camera and addressed the television audience. With one of the founders of MySpace online, even though he was sitting in an office across town, Oka said, “We thought it only fitting that we use the technology of the Internet to announce the Emmy honoree for creative achievement in interactive television.”

“So please welcome, all the way from his office in Los Angeles, the president of MySpace and everyone’s first virtual friend, Mr. Tom Anderson.” The TV broadcast cut to the iChat screen as he said, “Tom. Are you there?”

Anderson took over, “Yeah, thanks Masi. I’m honored to present this Emmy to a new sort of network that really lived up to its name, Current TV. Founded in 2005 by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, Current TV is created every day by the people who watch it. Gentlemen, congratulations, come on up, and get your Emmy.”

I think we are going to see more of this type of hybrid internet webcam and professional broadcast as consumer level personal videoconferencing technology improves and is adopted by more people.

Where have you seen webcams employed in broadcast television? Send a comment.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Examples in Use. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.