The pictures were grainy, the movements jerky. While the technology used by CNN is not new to TV, and most competitors own some variation of it, the Hainan story represents the videophone's coming-out party. A museum that collects journalism artifacts asked CNN to donate its videophone for display, if the network can get it back. CNN's competitors that night had to drive to a satellite facility to transmit pictures. The videophone's competitive edge is muted in the United States, where in most areas stations have easy access to satellite transmitters.
Journalists carry the equipment in a box the size of a briefcase.
They use a video camera to take pictures and a small dish antenna beams the data via satellite to an earth station linked to their home office. The product, called the Talking Head, was developed with CNN and the BBC to provide a live picture of a correspondent reporting on location. CBS and NBC both say they have similar equipment, although NBC's machine was broken for the China story. Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive, said the picture quality, or lack of it, might actually be an advantage. CNN used its videophone last week for pictures from Chile on the rescue of a doctor at the South Pole.