Television network correspondents gathered in Kuwait in preparation with for the looming war with Iraq are using desktop video in a big way.
NBC correspondent Kerry Sanders is covering the war preparations from Kuwait City and is a big Mac/Apple user. DV camcorders used by the CBS videographers attach by FireWire to an Apple G4 that Sanders uses to edit his pieces for the network. Final Cut Pro is his editing software. After the piece is cut, he runs it through the Discreet cleaner 6 compression program and then FTPs the finished report by satellite to NBC's receive station in New Jersey.
CBS, meanwhile, is using all Windows PCs with three different editing programs -Avid Express for the more experienced editors who will be in regional centers like Kuwait City or more permanent base camps, Adobe Premiere for producers and photojournalists closer to the action, and the basic free MovieMaker 2 program that Microsoft includes with its Windows XP operating system.
"This will be known as the digital war," Frank Governale, the CBS vice president of operations in charge of the network's war coverage technology told me.