So Much Snow... and Nonstop UN Briefings

We're well into February and dug deep into many feet of snow (over the past month), the United Nations rarely closes and meetings continue all day, even with nonstop snow and freezing rain! Thankfully, with our well-deserved time off and I took a day off for an extra long weekend 

At the UN, there have been lots of week-long summits/forums/conferences and many of them have actually been quite interesting. Most recently there were sessions on social development, global anti-Semitism, the 2015 Youth Assembly, and many others — all of which, we in the broadcast facilities are monitoring and/or operating the robotic cameras, audio, graphics, etc. Many of these high-level meetings, Security Council or sessions I mentioned earlier, with various important political figures in attendance, we often experience first-hand knowledge of breaking news and historical votes on global geopolitical situations.

Many of the conferences and "emergency" SC meetings are called because of the numerous parts of the worlds' violence flaring up at once. The "Rise of Global Anti-Semitism Violence" sessions were following the Kosher supermarket attacks in Paris in January; since March 2014, Missions of Ukraine or Russian Federation have both constantly requested Security Council meetings to discuss the escalating situation on the borders.

The highlight of my winter so far has been the vacation (obviously!). Over the long Presidents' Day weekend, I flew to Italy and enjoy nonstop pizza, pasta, and vino—flights were only $400 roundtrip, so how can that be passed up!! Everything about the trip was so incredible - seeing all the cultural and historical landmarks of Milan and Venice while eating the delectable Italian foods!!

Onto 2015 and Continued Success

While most of the world was celebrating Christmas and New Year's Eve, the UNTV crew was still hard at work broadcasting last-minute Security Council meetings on important votes on world issues. Besides these few briefings and vote on the "Question of Palestine" (as the United Nation labels it), there has been very little international political work getting done.

As previously noted here, my supervisors and producers want me to partake in other production positions at UNTV. While there are fewer meetings happening and more time to practice on the UN broadcast equipment, I have slowly but surely started actively taken initiative to take a camera out and enhance my field camera skills. Additionally, they have began to schedule me more and more as the cameraman for high-level Security Council press stakeouts and hopefully soon on the art exhibits around the building or in one of the auditoriums (with non-robotic cameras).

One of my new year resolutions (at least for my career), is to grasp a more comprehensive understanding of broadcasting systems and processes at the UN, so I can use this knowledge to further propel myself for sustained success in the media industry.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful...

... but not so much - even though it is getting bitterly cold in New York City. I just realised I have not posted any updates in a few months so here we go.

The UN General Debate happened, we worked crazy long hours and celebrated accordingly with all of our colleagues, supervisors, and peers. Some days we arrived early at 7am and other days we didn't leave til past midnight. The first days of that week started with the unprecedented Climate Change Summit with powerful speeches from Leonardo DiCaprio, US President Barack Obama, philanthropist Al Gore, international politicians, business leaders, and many others. Following that long day of climate change action and ambition announcements, the General Debate began and didn't stop - Heads of State of all 193 countries made their national statement for nine straight days, recording, editing, and distributing all of statements.

As the broadcast department has not been overwhelmed with nonstop Debate or Assembly meetings, my supervisors have give me few more opportunities to operate robotic cameras, studio graphics, field microphones, and more. They also are beginning to have MOC technicians (myself included) train fellow technicians in the MOC Room systems; which is amazing as much senior technicians shadow and learn from my hands-on experience in the room.

Since that early October week though, committee meetings have continued, panel discussions convened, special events have happened and we have all been stepping up our game to make sure all meetings are effectively broadcasted.