As promised, here are a couple of snaps from the Getty Images operation for the royal wedding. Apologies for the crap photos; they are camera phone specials.
We based our operation in the QE2 Conference Centre behind Westminster Abbey. Our two photographers on the Westminster Abbey were directly cabled in to our QE2 offices, along with another photographer who was on the Crimea Memorial outside the abbey. The run from QE2 to the Crimea was nearly 175m so pushing the limits of Cat5e.
Our photographers on QVM (Queen Victoria Memorial; by Buckingham Palace) sent directly from the camera, over the Internet and in to our QE2 offices via FTP. Running cables to QVM was interesting! We had 2x Internet lines at the broadcast compound in Canada Gate/Green Park and had cables run underneath the Mall across to the QVM and then wired to the two photographers.
Finally, we had a network of runners all over the route who all came back to the QE2 offices. In many places the runs were long enough that we had two people doing them and they would meet in the middle.
In certain positions that were outside of the pool arrangments, we placed editors with the photographers and their content was wired in directly.
And in the midst of all the chaos, I even got a chance to shoot at the Abbey! As some of you will know, I plan and manage major events for Getty Images but I'm a keen photographer in my spare time. Luckily for me, I was in the right place at the right time and managed to get in to the Times.
Rather chuffed to say the least.
As always, any questions you have about how we cover events please ask and if the answers are not commercially sensitive, I'll let you know.
fair play to you both i probably passed you today i noticed all the pro photographers where around the birthday cake and then i seen the next gathering at the bottom of the mall? or you of course could have been in the Abbie/Buck house Etc etc
