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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The other day I saw one of those news trucks with the satellite antenna towers covering some trivial thing. There was a reporter there with a big microphone and those huge cameras the news people carry.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Then it occurred to me to ask: why the heck do they still need all this stuff?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/fox-news-truck-with-tv-antenna-park-in-street-gm601920488-103467627">https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/fox-news-truck-with-tv-antenna-park-in-street-gm601920488-103467627</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>We have cell phones which can transmit reasonably good video real time, no mobile satellite tower needed. No huge microphones needed: a simple Bluetooth phone with a boom mike makes it perfectly easy to understand what the reporter is saying with one of those. Those huuuuuge cameras they carry on their shoulders, why?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>So now we have left over from the old days what musta been a jillion dollars worth of equipment, none of it necessary anymore because we have video cell phones. Yet the old stuff is still in use at least occasionally.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>So puzzling.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>