Every day, more than four million viewers nationwide watch weather forecaster Tony Perkins' reports on ABC TV's Good Morning America. What most of those viewers don't know is that wireless technology is essential to much of the work that Perkins does, from onsite reporting in the aftermath of a tropical storm to interviews in the crowd during Good Morning America's summer concert series.

Depending on the situation, Perkins' wireless equipment can include a wireless lavalier microphone clipped to his shirt, a wireless IFB earpiece, and a wireless handheld microphone. "For most of the things that I cover, it's nice to be moving around and showing off different things, talking to different people - so I'm pretty unplugged," Perkins says.

Perkins is best known for reporting out in the field, delivering reports in locations where storms are actually taking place. "Good Morning America has a pretty good history of getting their weatherperson out in the field, not just standing in front of a map every day," he says. "If there's a weather story out there, they don't hesitate to send me out to it."

Talking Up a Storm
Those reports can be very dramatic, both for the audience and for Perkins himself. "The weather remotes tend to be fairly last-minute, breaking-news remotes where I'm headed into an area that's just been ravaged by tornadoes or a tropical storm, or an area where we're expecting a hurricane or a tropical storm to develop, something like that," he says.

Since water can cause interference, wireless is often not an option for the more dramatic events. "There are times in bad weather when I'm completely wired up," Perkins said. "The wireless equipment we have doesn't work in tropical storms, hurricanes, that type of thing. But in a situation like that, I'm kind of happy to be tied down to something!"

Still, once the storm itself has passed through, wireless technology can be a great asset. "In May of 1999, I went out to Oklahoma in the wake of the F5 tornado that went through there," Perkins says. "When we first got there, it was still raining and it was very, very stormy, so I was hardwired that morning. But as a couple of days went by, we were able to use the wireless gear."

The scene in Norman, Oklahoma, where Perkins focused his reporting, was devastating to see. "Homes were just blown off their foundations, trees were stripped of their bark, and cars were demolished," he says. "There was a tractor trailer rig that had been picked up, thrown 50 yards across somebody's yard, and crumpled."

Being wireless, Perkins says, gave him flexibility that he wouldn't otherwise have had in reporting the storm. "It made it very easy for us to move around and show our audience, by me walking from site to site, what was left of this particular community," he says. "Having that technology allowed us to give a 360-degree view of what had gone on there, and allowed us to tell the story in a pretty profound way."

The Benefits of Mobility
And it's not just for weather reporting. "Earlier this year, the entire show was broadcast from the FBI training academy in Quantico, Virginia," Perkins says. "Charlie and Diane [Gibson and Sawyer, the cohosts of Good Morning America] were inside, interviewing the director of the FBI, that type of thing. I was moving around from site to site: literally, I would do one hit, get in the car, go to another location, and do another. This technology allows us to do that with great ease."

In planning a story, Perkins adds, being wireless gives the team at Good Morning America a wide range of options to consider. "It gives us the opportunity to be more mobile, and to be closer to the story," Perkins says. "And when everything's working right, it makes things much easier."

Prior to joining Good Morning America, Perkins was the weather forecaster for WTTG's morning news show in Washington DC. "During the 11 years that I've been working these morning TV hours and reporting from the field, the biggest difference I've seen is in the improvement in the equipment," he says. "Ten years ago, the reception and the ability to transmit could be fairly spotty."

Over the past decade, improvements in the technology have also led to lighter and more portable equipment. "It's continued to get smaller and smaller, and better and better, which is great for us," Perkins says. "Obviously the lighter the equipment load, not just for the engineers but for myself as well, the better - and the better quality we can get for broadcasting, the better as well."

These days, Perkins says, most reception problems actually occur right in front of the show's studios. "Our studios are in Times Square," he says. "We're there, NASDAQ is there, and MTV is across the street. There's a lot going on, and you can get interference on occasion. It's funny, because sometimes that seems to be more of a problem when I'm right outside of our studio than it is if I'm in Oklahoma."

Getting Better All the Time
The newest wireless device being used on the show is a wireless television monitor. "When I'm on remote, wherever I am, I have to have a monitor," Perkins says. "I may be talking about videotape of a storm that moved through a particular region, so I have to be able to see that. I always have to have a monitor, and the monitor has always been hardwired."

At this summer's concert series, Perkins has begun working with a new flat screen wireless monitor, which gives him greater flexibility than he's ever had before. "I've only used it in the park for the concerts," he says. "I haven't used it on the road yet, but it'll be wonderful. Literally, if I start walking around, someone can pick it up with one hand and just start walking with me."

At this point, wireless technology has become such an integral part of reporting on Good Morning America that Perkins says it's almost taken for granted. "The technology gives us a great degree of flexibility," he says. "We're able to say, 'Hey, let's do this,' and we know that the technology isn't going to hinder us from being able to do it."

Ultimately, the technology is there to free Perkins to be as mobile and as spontaneous as possible, and Good Morning America's current concert series is a case in point. "The summer concert series is all wireless," Perkins says. "I'm walking around the crowd, I'm up on the stage, and everything is wireless."

SIDEBAR

Wireless Behind the Scenes
Written by Bill Ray, editor-in-chief of Wireless Business & Technology

While the face in front of the camera is the one getting all the attention, it's the people the audience can't see who are making it all happen. Bob Schles, technical manager for Good Morning America, has to deal with the wide range of engineering issues raised by Tony's wandering broadcasting.

Making sure that words spoken in one city in the U.S. are audible across the country requires more than just a good microphone. The Good Morning America team makes use of a whole range of technologies to make sure the result is picture perfect.

A wireless microphone first picks up the words Tony speaks, while his instructions are relayed over a wireless headset, weather allowing. These are pretty standard on both stage and screen as they offer extremely high-quality audio over very short ranges, by virtue of operating on the UHF frequencies (around 600-800MHz). But even the best microphone isn't going to work in a hurricane, so wired equivalents are always kept on hand, just in case.

The signal from the wireless microphone is received at the Outside Broadcast (OB) truck where the signal is forwarded back to the ABC studios for transmission. The OB truck maintains a wireless connection with the studios, both for sending back the audio/video information and to receive instructions. This link is also a wireless one, though there are several technologies available to suit the situation.

ABC has a couple of relay points in New York, one at the top of the Empire State Building and another on the west side of Manhattan. If either of the relays are within line-of-sight, then a direct microwave link is used from the back of the OB truck to the relay point, and from there to receivers mounted on top of the buildings. However, this isn't always possible, and even in New York there are points where the top of the Empire State Building isn't visible. In such cases it's generally necessary to use a satellite connection, though if the engineers are lucky they can bounce the microwave connection off a skyscraper or two.

It's not a common thing, but sometimes a microwave link will work absolutely fine if bounced off an appropriately placed building (oblique angles working best), and the connection can be maintained for a live transmission courtesy of some unknowing architect.

Of course, you can't rely on well-placed buildings to direct your signals, and as soon as you're over the horizon they aren't going to work anyway. When microwave becomes impractical, the OB truck is set up to use Ku-band satellite connectivity, and signals are bounced off satellites rather than buildings. While this has the advantage of working from anywhere, it also carries the problems of "lag"; getting a signal up to a geostationary satellite and back takes time, around three seconds, and this can cause real problems.

"The worst is when Tony is talking to the studio by phone," says Bob. "The phone call is instantaneous, so if you're not careful, the viewers will hear Tony respond to the question while his picture is still waiting to hear it. There are advanced systems to deal with that now, but you always have to be on guard," he says.

The most recent addition to the wireless technology being deployed at ABC is the new monitor that Tony can use to see what's being broadcast. This is so new it's not used much yet, but when it is, it allows Tony to interact with what's being broadcast. The picture is actually picked up, by the OB truck, from local TV broadcasts (of either ABC or the local ABC affiliate) and transmitted to the mobile flat-screen over another microwave link. Originally developed for wireless CCTV in the home, it didn't take long for the technicians at ABC to convert it for commercial use.

Being able to see what's being broadcast enables Tony to respond to what's going on in the studio, and interact with the rest of the presenters in a much more natural way. As part of the Good Morning America team, Tony can report in the heaviest of weather with the confidence that not a word will be missed.