06 March 2006
ShootLive delivers images from the Oscars to the PA Wire in real-time
In March 2006 the PA used its live photography system, ShootLive, to deliver pictures to media customers in real-time from the 78th annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
PA photographers provided live coverage from the event with the ShootLive system. The system was used at the ceremony and ShootLive delivered pictures from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood to the PA's operations centre back in the UK within minutes from camera click.
Images were edited there using the system and were available for sale on the picture wire for PA's media client base around 10 minutes after the picture was taken.
Winners on the night included Philip Seymour Hoffman as Best Actor and Reese Whitherspoon as Best Actress. Crash took the award for Best Film ahead of favourite Brokeback Mountain.
ShootLive-equipped photographers covered the whole ceremony from the first arrivals at 3.30PM LA-time to its close at 10PM to produce a record number of images for sale. PA photographer Ian West alone took over 1,800 images of celebrities as they arrived for the event.
All of these images were transmitted back to the PA's operations centre via a ShootLive box connected to an ADSL (broadband) line in the Oscars pressroom.
Back in the UK, PA's team worked through the night to prepare over 400 pictures for sale by 8.30AM GMT Monday morning. A team of three ShootLive editors selected, enhanced and captioned the best images before sending them to picture desk in London.
Members of the sales team were on hand to liaise with clients and to provide direct feedback to PA's photographers in Hollywood to seek customer-specific photographs.
"In previous years, the most pictures we have sent back direct from the Oscars is just short of 190" said Martin Stephens, who co-ordinated the ShootLive editing and picture desk operation. "Last Year, in total, we ended up with 290 pictures for sale by the following Friday. Using ShootLive we had fully completed the edit of the Oscars with 413 pictures available for the sales team by 8.30AM on the Monday morning."
"ShootLive greatly improved our performance this year" said Dan Law, who co-ordinated the operations in Hollywood. "The photographers were more relaxed. They just concentrated on capturing the images, knowing that the stress of editing to the deadline was being handled by the team in the UK."
ShootLive Telephone: +44 (0)115 844 7447 www.shootlive.com