On2 Technologies has announced that BBC television journalists are being equipped with new technology which enables them to broadcast "live" reports into news bulletins using laptops.

Armed with just a camera and laptop, correspondents can hook up to any IP connection, such as a Satphone, ISDN, Wi-Fi and go live. The new software w2hich was developed by QuickLink follows on from an earlier version which enabled journalists to transmit edited reports from their laptops. Adding a "live" facility offers journalists a very powerful newsgathering tool.

The new "live" software is scaleable depending on what IP connectivity is available. It can operate at below 64Kb/s and rise to 1Mb/s and beyond. The higher the bandwidth, the better the picture quality. The QuickLink software offers television journalists enormous flexibility. It can be used in an office to send reports back to base very quickly, as well as to go "live" in good visual quality. And when a story breaks out of town, the journalist simply takes the laptop with him and connects to whatever IP connection is available.

The QuickLink software is powered by the VP6 codec developed by On2 Technologies. On2 has stated that it is excited to see the VP6 realtime capacity deployed in an application and environment that challenges both the quality and flexibility of the codec. This opens the door to an entirely new series of uses for the VP6 software.

The company has stated that it revolutionised video encoding with the creation of its advanced full-motion, full-screen, video compression and streaming technology (TrueMotion VP4/VP5/VP6). On2 licenses its high video codecs for use in set-top boxes, consumer electronics devices and wireless applications. In addition On2 offers a suite of products and services, including high-level video encoding, customised technical support,and consulting/integration services.