22 Satellite Newsgathering 1.10.7 High definition (HD) TV and SNG At the time of writing, the use of HDTV in SNG is as yet very limited. NHK of Japan have been rou- tinely operating HD SNG uplinks since 2002, but otherwise major news organizations have shied away from using HD acquisition as yet because of the cost of the equipment, the additional bandwidth requirements, and the different operational techniques required for shooting in HD ­ all of which can prove cumbersome for a slick newsgathering operation. 1.11 Impact of SNG As we mentioned earlier, television coverage of the Vietnam War saw the US developing the use of satel- lites to bring news from the war faster to the viewer. The delivery of graphic pictures that brought the reality of war closer than ever before into the living rooms of millions (with no censorship from the US mil- itary) is said by some to have reversed US public opinion on the war within a few years. Transportation time of news film from Vietnam to New York was about 20 hours, although this decreased dramatically with the availability of satellite connections later in the war. Although the coverage was not live, the impact of the use of satellite technology was emerging, and was to become unstoppable. As the use of SNG grew through the 1980s, the number of SNG uplinks increased as they were used to cover the major international news events. Such events included: the TWA hostage hijack in the Mediterranean in 1985; the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit in Iceland in 1986; the PanAm airliner disaster in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988; the Tianamen Square crisis in Beijing, China, along with the fall of the