News agency, Reuters has teamed up with Sprint Nextel to enable Canon cameras to transmit digital photos over Sprint's CDMA network to a central station. The collaboration has been specifically designed to speed up the delivery of photos of shuttle launch images.

By using Canon's digital cameras and short telephoto lenses, images were captured from within a few hundred yards of the actual launch pad. During the past two launches of Atlantis and Endeavour on Feb. 7 and March 11, 2008, the system developed by Reuters, Canon and Sprint successfully retrieved shuttle launch images from multiple cameras around the launch pad almost instantaneously, and placed the images on the Reuters wire in record-breaking time, giving Reuters photo clients a competitive edge.

Historically, photographers were forced to wait for hours after lift-off before retrieving their cameras from the launch pad area. The introduction of digital cameras in 2005 reduced the processing time for photos after launch, but not the delay in retrieving equipment.

Wireless internet access allows the cameras to be placed in any location near the launch pad and still be connected to a high-speed internet network. Using a special, provided antenna to connect to the closet cell tower, the digital images were sent from all four Canon EOS cameras at over 500 mps.

"Reuters picture-clients now have near-instantaneous access to images that for 55 years have taken hours to receive and transmit," said Gary Hershorn, News Pictures Editor, North America, Reuters. "We have been delighted to work with both Canon and Sprint, who have brought to the project much time, effort and expertise."

Plans are on the horizon to use remote imaging capture technology more extensively for coverage at the Kennedy Space Center and in various other areas where using a "live" remote cameras are more practical than manned units.

Posted to the site on 18th March 2008

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