Hosting Barack Obama

As Barack Obama's Democratic National Convention speech trends worldwide, I am reminded of the time when I was the Nodal Officer in-charge of his LIVE TELECAST from Central Hall of Parliament in 2010. Barely a few months into the job I was given the responsibility to ensure that the live telecast wowed people across the world, especially in the US where the live feed was being shown by C-Span and Voice of America. You have to remember, everyone was a fan of Obama's speeches, people wondered how he spoke without referring to his notes. During the dress rehearsals we also got to see Obama's famous transparent teleprompters.

Needless to say there were many nervous moment in the lead-up to the speech, including me having to insist to all American channels that we would not be giving them a live feed without the Lok Sabha TV logo. I felt it was important for everyone to know that Lok Sabha TV had produced that live telecast.

I am proud to say that the Obama live telecast was one of our finest, many newspapers were also quoted as saying how surprised they were by the camera-work and the overall look of the production (it was the first time that we used a jib inside the high-security Parliament complex).