why does it take a few seconds for street reporters to hear what anchors ask?

Question

We have instantaneous video communication (FaceTime, Zoom, etc.) so why can’t news channels use different, existing technology to communicate instantaneously?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The street reporter is on a fixed delay. This started with the use of satellite trucks, but in 2015 there were several high profile incidents where street reporters, and sometimes there cameramen, were shot live on TV. That’s super-bad, so the work to minimize the delay ended. It’s mostly 3 seconds now, to give the control room time to push “the button”.