Keeping dry in Kabul
14 November 2006, 4:35 PM
The first thing to do when presenting Channel 4 News live from any distant location is to check out the 'livespot' - how easy is it to get to, does the backdrop make it clear to the viewer where we are and, in places like Afghanistan, is it safe and secure.
Our livespot here in Kabul is on the flat roof of a low rise building in a pretty unprepossessing part of town. It's been given the all-clear by our security consultant whose former regiment I can't reveal otherwise he'd have to shoot me. It is also only five minutes drive from the hotel (or at least it is at 11.30pm at night when we are 'live' - otherwise it's a 20 minute crawl through some of the most anarchic traffic in the world). The backdrop's not much, but we can't risk being too choosy.
The biggest problem is that it is open to the skies - and the weather forecast for the week is rain, and more rain. So it was a great relief when our Turkish hosts offered to put up a canopy for us - and what a fine structure it turned out to be, a sort of open-side asyemtical garden shed made out of roughly sawn bits of old timber which looked like they came from a demolition site, and probably did. Watch it here
As it turned out we didn't need the cover on our first night. It was cold, but thankfully dry - which was probably for the best in view of the spaghetti-like tangle of cables and extension leads which connects our equipment to a generator downstairs. (You can't really on mains electricity here, despite the billions of dollars in western reconstruction aid that has been poured into this country over the past five years).
And so with the exception of a minor hitch in the audio circuit from London before we went on air, all went smoothly from Kabul - even if Alex was turning slightly blue after standing in front of the camera for nearly an hour in just his shirtsleeves. Not so lucky was Kylie, who is with the Royal Marines in the South. A technical glitch in London sabotaged her live debut. We're keeping our fingers crossed for her tonight, and hoping the weather stays dry here in Kabul.
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Readers' comments
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Posted by newswatcher on 16 November 2006, 12:11 PM
Its good to get some background on how the programmes from Afghanistan have been put together.It is too often taken forgranted that a whole team of people take great risks sometimes to get us the news.Do we appreciate it ? Do we deserve it ? this has been an excellent set of programmes.I was rather worried about it in the begining.Some of the photos posted are breathtaking can we have some more please before they come back and perhaps one of the whole team.The two reports so far that I've learnt from are the one about the ex-Russian soldier and the one Kylie did about the life of the women.Well done & get back safe!
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Posted by lazy_camel on 16 November 2006, 11:53 PM
I missed the series of broadcasts from Kabul - oh, misfortune - I heard they were great, and I take a deep interest in all matters Afghanistan, having spent so much of my life in that part of the world. But - misfortune of misfortunes! - none of the videos are available to view here on the website. All of the links to alleged videos click through to the same clip (id=3123), which looks like a sort of introduction to the whole lot. Please, oh please help me out somehow. I really want to see these clips, but have to assume that there is something wrong here, some technical glitch. I can't get the Mr Big clip, I can't get the clip referred to in the comment above, I can't see anything but the aforementioned intro clip. Instructions would be ever-so appreciated.
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Posted by lazy_camel on 16 November 2006, 11:54 PM
I missed the series of broadcasts from Kabul - oh, misfortune - I heard they were great, and I take a deep interest in all matters Afghanistan, having spent so much of my life in that part of the world. But - misfortune of misfortunes! - none of the videos are available to view here on the website. All of the links to alleged videos click through to the same clip (id=3123), which looks like a sort of introduction to the whole lot. Please, oh please help me out somehow. I really want to see these clips, but have to assume that there is something wrong here, some technical glitch. I can't get the Mr Big clip, I can't get the clip referred to in the comment above, I can't see anything but the aforementioned intro clip. Instructions would be ever-so appreciated.
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Posted by lazy_camel on 17 November 2006, 12:17 AM
That is, the TV clips work, but the blog clips all link to the same video.
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