WHAT? That was it? Fifteen minutes of TVS Utama seemed to whiz by me last night. I was actually beginning to enjoy watching Utama being aired from homes of my colleagues that I wished there was more.
Habitually, I tuned in again at 8pm, expecting some technical glitches like its “debut” two nights ago as the news was being read from the homes of newsreaders sans proper equipment and technology.
To my surprise, the delivery was smooth without any hiccups and it was just the second day of it being read from the homes of TVS newsreaders.
Steward Dawi, Akma Salleh, Salasiah Safian, Handy Gui and Cheryl Toh read the prime time news from makeshift studios of their homes. Two nights ago, I cringed a little watching the news. As much as I was proud that something like that could be pulled off in the spur of the moment, there were some inevitable technical glitches such as cracking audio and freezing visuals as it was something never done before.
I was intrigued listening to both Cheryl and Handy deliver the news in Bahasa Malaysia as they normally read the English news. However they went at it very naturally as if they have always been reading news in Bahasa Malaysia.
Had I listened to the news with my eyes closed last night, I didn’t think I would be able to tell that they were not reading from the studio. The audio was almost crystal clear with no frozen visuals unlike the first time around. I could make out clearly how Steward started out by saying that the news would still be delivered from home, followed by Akma giving the lowdown on how schools in the red zone would be closed starting April 20 complete with a sound-on-tape (SOT) of Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg speaking at a press conference on the matter before handing over the news to the rest, also done well in terms of audio and visual.
Again, a sense of pride washed over me as how things quickly improved in just a matter of a day! Wow! This whole home quarantine thing is actually working out well in the favour of TVS as it shows how everyone seems to adapt well in these trying times. Not bad for a seven-month-old TV station, I thought to myself.
The idea of broadcasting from home was actually mooted by Sarawak Media Group Chief Executive Officer Suhaimi Sulaiman as the company has been put under home quarantine order after a few of our colleagues tested positive for Covid-19 on April 15.
TVS also made media headlines for being the first TV station in the county to broadcast news from the homes of its journalists in view of the pandemic.
