To Build 5G-Enabled Tools for Times Photojournalists, We Studied How They Work
Khai Le
“Our mobile system will send high-resolution photos to the newsroom instantaneously, but it needs to fit our photographers’ workflows.
We’ve all felt the frustration of trying to post a photo or video to social media from a crowded event. When thousands of people are sharing the same cell networks, even a photo with a relatively small file size can take a while, or not upload at all.
For New York Times photojournalists who are tasked with transmitting significantly higher resolution photos (with much larger file sizes) on a deadline, slow uploads are not an option.
Seven years ago, The Times developed the ability to live-stream photo thumbnails from the field to our newsroom editors, who could then select which photos they’d like to receive from the photographer’s camera in full. This system is powered by a small computer, a cellular router for internet connectivity and a cellular multiplexer, which can combine the power of multiple internet and cellular data connections to send photos. (You can read more about this system, called the Backpack, in our last post.)
This year, The Times’s 5G Journalism Lab has been exploring how increased speed and bandwidth could unlock new storytelling capabilities for our newsroom. As part of our research, we dug into the workflows and needs of the photojournalists we work with to explore how we might leverage advancements in media transmission technology to make the Backpack an even better tool for our newsroom.”