App of the week: Givit

Devices: iPhone, iPad, Android

Cost: Free

What is it? An app for privately sharing video, including large files that cannot be sent by email

How is it of use to journalists? Givit allows you to record or upload a video and send an email to a contact who can then follow the link, watch and download it and comment on it.

You could use the app to record footage showing a news story and send it privately to the newsdesk.

Videos are stored to your Givit account so you can login and retrieve later.

You can also add footage from other cameras and devices by using the Givit desktop app.

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Here is an idea for all journalists: use Bambuser to broadcast a livestream video from your phone.

The app and mobile site allows you to stream video from no less than 360 mobile phone models.

Sky News North of England correspondent Nick Martin yesterday used his iPhone to livestream a report on queues at fuel stations.

It wasn’t broadcast live or aired later on Sky news on this occasion but enabled Martin to share live footage with his Twitter followers. A total of 45 watched it live, with current viewer stats standing at 443.

He told Journalism.co.uk:

We’ve been covering the fuel problems at forecourts across the country.

It was just a case of going past a forecourt and seeing pretty lengthy queues of 50 or 60 cars and not having a cameraman with me.

It’s a way of getting pictures in real time to Twitter followers or to a news desk.

The quality sometimes isn’t great but a way of people being able to plug into what you’re doing as a reporter.

Martin said he saw real value in the possibilities during a breaking news story, such as the riots, of the channel broadcasting the phone footage live.

Martin explained that Sky News has its own technology to allow reporters to sent high quality phone video footage to the newsdesk.

Hans Eriksson from Bambuser told Journalism.co.uk:

Bambuser has been used by several smaller local media outlets in the UK over the last year but this is the first time it’s been used this way by a nationwide media.

Bambuser is a previous app of the week for journalists.

Nick Martin spoke about his innovative uses of apps at last month’s news:rewired conference for journalists.

Here are Martin’s three pieces of advice for journalists considering using mobile phones for reporting. The liveblog of the session is at this link.

• App of the week for journalists – Bambuser
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• Innovations in Journalism – live streaming video from mobiles developed by Qik
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• Five tips from a radio journalist who reports solely from an iPhone and iPad

App of the week: Viddy

Phones: iPhone

Cost: Free

What is it? Viddy is like Instagram but for video instead of photos. It allows you to share 15 second clips instantly via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, email or SMS.

How is it of use to journalists? Journalists frequently share pictures and videos via Twitter and other social media. Viddy offers one way of doing this from an iPhone.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

• App of the week for journalists – Flipboard
• App of the week for journalists – Teleportd, location-based Twitter and Facebook image search
• App of the week for journalists – TinyVox, for recording and sharing audio notes
• App of the week for journalists: Zite
• App of the week for journalists – Pro HDR, for better photos (without an iPhone 4S)

On Cyberjournalist.net there is a list of six tips for those interested in increasing the volume of traffic to their site from YouTube. Tips include using annotations and not forgetting a “call to action” for the audience to follow.

See the full list here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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Sky News correspondent Nick Martin has some advice for journalists using a mobile phone to record video.

He shared his tips at last week’s news:rewired journalism conference.

According to this post on three pieces of advice for journalists reporting using a mobile phone, Martin advises:

1. Practise

2. Don’t panic!

3. Use mobile reporting only when it was appropriate, explaining “that it is not worth setting up a tripod and XLR cables for an iPhone when the cameraman is just five minutes away”.

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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• #Tip: Follow Sky News reporter in using Bambuser to livestream video
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• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk
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Tool of the week: Spool

What is it? Spool is like Instapaper or Read it Later for video. It allows you to to save videos to watch later.

How is it of use to journalists? How many times have you come across a video on a news site or YouTube when you don’t have the time to watch it?

Spool allows you to save videos you’ve found during the day for viewing later. And what is great about it is that it records the video, allowing you to watch it offline, perhaps on the train home from work.

It saves it in HTML5 so videos or documents that started as Flash can be viewed on an Apple device.

Spool is not just for video – it allows you to save any webpage – but it is video that sets it apart from similar platforms for saving news articles.

You can also add the option of saving the videos, articles and documents to Dropbox or Evernote.

Spool has iPhone/iPad and Android apps to access your saved videos and to allow you to save more.

It is still in private beta and requires you to apply for an invitation. These appear to be sent out almost immediately.

• App of the week for Journalists: DropSync for Android – syncs with DropBox
• ‘If this then that’: ten recipes for journalists
• App of the week for journalists – DropVox, for saving audio to Dropbox
• App of the week for journalists: Byword, a great text editor for iPhone/iPad
• Tool of the week for (photo)journalists: ZangZing

App of the week: Voddio

Operating systems: Apple (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad)

Cost: Free (you will need to pay £2.49 to unlock the sending and sharing functions)

What is it and how is it of use to journalists?

Voddio allows you to record and edit audio and video in multitrack and produce audio slideshows.

It is the latest app from Vericorder, which makes apps for journalists, and combines the functionality from its other paid-for apps – 1st Video, VC Audio Pro and Showcase – in a single app, which is free to download.

Voddio has has the ability to produce richer slideshows than earlier app Showcase, introducing titles and transitions for images.

After testing and creating audio, video and slideshows users can then opt to pay to unlock the sending and sharing functions.

Reviews

There are not enough ratings to display an average star rating.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

• App of the week for journalists – Showcase, for creating audio slideshows
• John D. McHugh ‘War in multimedia’ – livestreamed from the Frontline Club @ 7pm
• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – audio and photo slideshow inspiration
• App of the week for Journalists: DropSync for Android – syncs with DropBox
• App of the week for journalists – 1st Video, to record and edit video on your iPhone or iPad

Video journalist Adam Westbrook has shared a presentation online with 10 tips for recording a better interview.

Written for students at Kingston University, the tips are aimed at broadcast journalists.

Tips include:

• Know your character before starting your story
• Ask warm up questions to make interviewees feel comfortable
• Be enthusiastic – but silent
• Ask double-barrelled questions

Westbrook’s 10 tips for recording a better video (or audio) interview are at this link.

Adam Westbrook will be presenting in a session on online video at news:rewired – media in motion on 3 February. The news:rewired agenda is here.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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After the second day of sessions focused on business at the Global Editors Network news summit, including paywalls and paid-for app, it was fitting that during the third and final day of presentations we heard about projects offering content and platforms for free.

One such project came from Russia Today which outlined its FreeVideo platform, described as an “English language video agency”. The website, which should be of interest to journalists worldwide, provides free video footage that journalists can download, edit and reuse for their own projects and output.

Answering a question from the floor about the business model, Alexei Nikolov, managing director of Russia Today, said it was to “promote the channel” on a global scale.

The site includes “stock footage” as well as video covering specific news events. Xenia Fedorova, head of the department of promotion and development of media projects for the broadcaster, explained that all the footage comes with multilingual scripts and shotlists.

She added that the website has more than 9,000 news channels already registered and using footage “on a daily basis”.

I spoke to her more at the end of the session about the decision to go down the free distribution route, their attribution methods and to find out whether there are plans in the pipeline to monetise the platform.

There are of course other platforms out there offering video content to journalists, such as the UK-based Video News Agency and also in 2009 Al Jazeera opened up its footage under creative commons licensing.

• Online video: Reuters wants to offer more raw video to clients
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• Asian News International signs deal with ITN Source
• Video from Beet.tv: How Reuters used social media in Iran to source video
• YouTube creates channel for reporters

App of the week: 1st Video

Operating systems: Apple (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad)

Cost: £6.99

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? Shell out for this app and you will have a video editing suite in your pocket.

1st Video allows you to record or import video and edit in multitrack and upload the video to YouTube or transfer it to another device on the same wireless network.

It is used by the BBC 5 Live reporter Nick Garnett, according to a post by him on the BBC College of Journalism site, for broadcasting audio and editing packages. Another app, VC Audio Pro which is made by the same developer, Vericorder, and has also featured as a Journalism.co.uk app of the week will suffice if you want to create an audio only edited report.

Journalism.co.uk has a guide on how to shoot and edit video on an iPhone using 1st Video.

Reviews: It gets 3.5 stars in iTunes App Store

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

• App of the week for journalists – VC Audio Pro, a must-have for radio journalists
• App of the week for journalists – Showcase, for creating audio slideshows
• App of the week for journalists – Voddio, for slideshows and video
• Five tips from a radio journalist who reports solely from an iPhone and iPad
• Five nifty ideas for journalists using SoundCloud

Multimedia journalist and video journalism lecturer Adam Westbrook has pulled together a list of what he views as common mistakes made in video production, and also offers his tips for how to avoid them. Mistakes include not prioritising audio and producing video based on television for the internet, rather than exploiting the opportunities online.

Read his post in full here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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App of the week: Capture [iTunes link]

Operating systems: Apple (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad). The app only works with a device with a video camera and running iOS 4 / iOS 5.

Cost: £0.69

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? Capture is a single-click video recording app that is worth having on your home screen.

Tap the app and it automatically starts recording, making it ideal for capturing breaking news.

Videos save to your photo album, where you can trim and email, MMS or send to YouTube.

Reviews: It gets five stars in Apple’s App Store

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

• App of the week for journalists – TCoder
• App of the week for Journalists – Klip, a great new iPhone app for video sharing
• App of the week for journalists – iRig Recorder, for recording, trimming and sharing audio
• App of the week for journalists – iSaidWhat?
• App of the week for journalists: Viddy, like Instagram for video

App of the week: Klip

Operating systems: Apple – Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Cost: Free

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? Klip launched last week (20 September) as a video sharing app for iPhone. There are plenty of video apps out there but this stands out for several reasons. Not only does it offer a great user experience, with fast video streaming, pleasing swipes and a phone shake action that fast-forwards through videos, it has features that are really handy for any journalist who shoots footage from an iPhone.

You can record footage directly from Klip or add a video that you have recorded using another app, then trim the video and share to Twitter, Facebook, by email or upload to YouTube. For journalists who want a quick way of trimming and uploading to YouTube, which can be embedded in a blog or news story, this is really valuable.

You have the option to geolocate the video, add hashtags and self-shoot as you can flip the camera without moving the phone and record footage of yourself.

Another useful feature is the fact that an emailed clip appears within a player in the recipient’s email. This could be a useful way of alerting the newsdesk and giving them a preview of your footage.

Reviews: iTunes has not yet received enough ratings to provide the average.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

• App of the week for journalists – 1st Video, to record and edit video on your iPhone or iPad
• App of the week for journalists: Givit, for private video sharing
• Flip video cameras to be discontinued
• iPhone 4 a ‘serviceable web video camera in breaking news situations’
• App of the week for journalists: SkyRecorder, for recording Skype calls on iPhone/iPad

If you’re looking for more information on how to break into a certain area of the industry, check out Journalism.co.uk’s new series of Industry Insight videos. The clips feature interviews with journalists working in different areas of the field – the first four in the series will look at the careers of a news reader, wire reporter, foreign correspondent and radio producer.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk, email us using this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – starting out as a freelance foreign correspondent
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App of the week: Bambuser

Operating systems: Apple (iPhone and iPad), Android, Nokia

Cost: Free

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? An app for live streaming video to your Facebook page, Twitter account or to an embedded player on your news site or blog.

It is similar to Qik, another app for live streaming video.

Reviews: It gets three stars in Apple’s iTunes store

What else should I know?

Bambuser has been around for a couple of years. It attracted media attention at the start of the year due to its wide spread use by protestors during the Arab spring demonstrations.

Over the last six months Bambuser has introduced a new hardware video encoding system. In short, it means Bambuser now has a higher frame rate, sharper video and better audio – while at the same time needing less bandwidth. The improvements are more apparent when using the most up to date smartphones (iPhones as well as numerous Android models) as well as the iPod Touch 4th Gen. The full list of 260 suitable phones is here.

Another advancement is Bambuser now automatically assesses the quality of your connection and then varies the quality of the broadcast accordingly so viewers don’t suffer increased latency.

Ultimately, users are held victim to the quality of the 3G / WiFi signal they receive. If they’re competing with 100,000 others at somewhere like Glastonbury, the end result isn’t ideal. However this is set to change in the near future with the 4G trials in Cornwall that will ultimately give smartphones the same download speed as fixed-line broadband connections.

Examples:

Given that Bambuser comes out of Sweden, many of these examples are from Scandanavia.

• One of Sweden’s best know sports journalists doing a live broadcast on board a yacht;
• NRK doing a Eurovision contest doorstop;
• Nokia and Microsoft announcing their partnership – with live coverage of Steve Ballmer’s speech via a laptop;
• This example from Tahrir square, Egypt and this example from inured protestors in Egypt

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

• #Tip: Follow Sky News reporter in using Bambuser to livestream video
• Innovations in Journalism – live streaming video from mobiles developed by Qik
• Nokia mobile journalism experiment spreads to Bizcommunity
• App of the week for journalists – Pro HDR, for better photos (without an iPhone 4S)
• #socialweb: Web 3.0 – the social web (video)