The growing use of the at home studio

The Washington Post has an article talking about the newest trend in cable news punditry, studios at home.

While these studios may not have multiple cameras, a jib, an interactive touch screen, etc., they provide quick and affordable access to pundits. Many of these studios are powered by Cisco, using its TelePresence technology.

“In the Carville-Matalin house, CNN’s team of techies mounted a smallish camera — called a Cisco link — that gets steered and focused by engineers in D.C. or Atlanta or Hong Kong or whichever CNN nerve center has booked either half of the power couple.”

“Cisco newcomer Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary, recently welcomed a CNN-paid crew to his house in Westchester County, N.Y. ‘Considering they invaded my property to build a studio, it was a smallish invasion with smallish equipment,’ he said. In their wake, they left a little camera that ‘hibernates into one position,’ some glaring lights, and a white X made of tape on the floor — his mark to stay in frame.”

MSNBC also uses the technology to interview guests in Washington, D.C.