By Mr Steve Ahern CEO International Media & Broadcasting Academy (IMBA), Australia

“I now know how to use smartphones in my work,” said a participant from Voice of Vietnam, describing the Shooting Video with Smart Phones workshop in Kuala Lumpur organised by the Tun Abdul Razak Broadcasting and Information Institute (IPPTAR) and AIBD from 19 to 21 September 2016.

Workshop participants from seven Asian countries learnt about the new tools of reporting and gained skills for shooting video with smart phones.

The workshop aimed to impart participants with skills in shooting, editing and filing video using smart phone and tablet technology, plus appropriate native and third party apps.

“This is the proof that we can use smart phones to make live newsroom content,” commented a reporter from RTM Malaysia, after completing the final exercise, where the team shot, edited and filed all their content for a live program via their smart phones.

“This is something great that I have learnt. This technology is replacing the conventional broadcast technology for location reporting… this is the best technology to use,”said an experienced cameraman who participated in the workshop.

“I’m not very friendly with IT, but this is the first time I have been able to edit in smart phones… I want to give this course five stars,”said a  workshop participant from Malaysia.

At the end of the workshop the participants understood the latest developments in new and social media and applied their understanding to gathering and sharing location video using smart mobile devices.

Because of changing audience consumption habits it is more important than ever for reporters to be equipped with tools that allow them to file from any situation quickly and to as many output channels as possible, including social media. The course equipped them with those skills.

Participants were taught a range of mobile smart device video tools, including mobile apps, social media interfaces and social media monitoring tools, learnt the methods of filing their video reports using the latest mobile technology.

Workshop leader Steve Ahern said the participants learnt quickly because, “we use many of these skills in our personal lives for posting pictures and videos of our kids and our cats on Facebook. It is just a matter of teaching participants how to transfer those amateur skills to their professional work.”

“Once you experiment with free apps and find the best ones, you should invest in the ones that are most effective… it was much more difficult than I thought,”said Malaysian participants in the final live report from the workshop

Footage created by participants can be seen on the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Og6mbS_NU