Broadcasting & Cable’s Glen Dickson writes about the smart phone technology FNC used for the first time during the crash into a Manhattan apartment building story…

Fox’s use of the Treo smartphones was triggered when a Fox engineer saw the Comet Video technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January. Sharri Berg, Fox senior VP for news operations at the Fox News Channel and for Fox stations, was intrigued. (See Q&A, p. 34.)

Ben Ramos, director of field operations, Fox News Channel, says Fox quickly started to work with Comet to develop capabilities for broadcast use, which required modifying the specifications of the transmitters and receivers.

Fox News Channel first used the Treo to deliver live pictures on-air as its news crew sped to the scene of the Amish-school shooting in Pennsylvania on Oct. 2. It also used the device to show viewers the action in the Atlanta trial of accused murderer and kidnapper Brian Nichols as a reporter captured video of a hearing that was being shown to reporters on an internal courthouse feed in the court press room.