I’ve seen a lot of these articles and, looking around the hordes of press people today it all seems to be a pretty similar setup. Usually it involves a MacBook Air, some camera equipment, a phone, another phone, possibly a tablet.
So after heading to my makeshift office this evening (above, the infamous Cafe Del Sol in central Barcelona), I got everything out of my bag.
I got as lightweight as possible. Carrying additional weight around is definitely not something you want to be doing whilst walking around these big events.
First up, a rather ancient T-Mobile MyTouch 4G. This is from the US (an eBay special) and has one of those “old fashioned” slide-out keyboards. Ahh.. remember them? Those were the days. I use this because, during interviews with CEO’s and other rather important people, I prefer to maintain eye-contact with the person I’m speaking to, so the physical keyboard lets me tap away while they’re talking.
Next up, a rather massive 6″ the Acer Liquid S2. It’s a bit of a monster, sure, but this thing balances out bright and dark spots in photos perfectly and it does a great job in letting me know whether an image is good enough to upload immediately. No real need to send it over to a laptop to double-check.
Chewing gum. Essential.
A Samsung Chromebook. This one is the Samsung 550 which initially cost a little too much for most Chromebook buyers due to the enhanced spec (dual-core CPU and 4GB RAM). It weighs in at less than 1.5KG and boots in around 2 seconds. Add the several hours of battery life and it does everything I need. Here in Barcelona there’s WiFi or ethernet connectivity almost everywhere and I can move files into Google Drive from the Acer (videos and photos etc), then either inject it into the site directly from the phone or use the Chromebook to access the cloud storage, just as if it was a local drive.
I’ll also confess to carrying a battery to charge the phones as they run out all-too-quickly when filming and shooting all day. The Acer has held up rather well though.
Finally, that essential item of all big events, the end-of-day beer. OK, that’s not strictly in my bag, but I really wish it could be 🙂