9News Weather Live From Home!

Never in a million years did I ever think I’d be working from home in news. Enter Coronavirus in March 2020.

At 9News I was able to take the technology I used to do weather live in the field and got us all set up to do it from home. I took a whole minute to feel accomplished that I’d mastered the technology then thought ‘shit… I don’t want to work from home.’

It’s been a few months now and I’m pretty used to it and have actually found myself enjoying parts of it. But I’ve gotten a million questions about how I’m going live from home… So here you go!

The Camera:

An iPhone 7S (which one of my engineers lovingly said ‘s’ is for simple which made me laugh!) but somehow this old phone does the job. And bonus – it has an audio jack!

Audio:

Good old fashioned lav mic I plug into the old school headphone jack. The wire for the mic was weirdly short so I ordered an extender on Amazon.

Light/Stand:

18″ ring light from Amazon that includes a spot to put the iPhone right in the middle. The light does a great job but I also pull out my bedroom lamp if I’m on when it’s dark.

How am I live?

The TVU App – which still blows my mind. I literally open an app, call the station and then somehow I’m TV. Don’t ask me any more about how that works because it’s above my paygrade.

That app also drains the battery on the very old phone, so I have a splitter plugged into the charging jack so that it can be connected the charger & the ethernet cable (did you know those were still a thing?) at the same time.

Weather Computer/Graphics?

I use a VNC so my little personal laptop can access the weather computers. If you see me looking off to the side it’s usually at the laptop to run the graphics or at my TV to see what’s on air.

My throw pillows!?

Oh I’m so glad you asked! All are fluffed and thoughtfully placed before I go live, everyone makes fun of me for it 🙂 But seriously, I was nervous to literally invite thousands in Denver to see into my living room. Thanks for all your kind notes! Also… I totally have to hide the wine bottles because that cart in the background is my bar cart….