My background is in TV and Radio Journalism. After several years working for first DevonAir Radio, then BBC Radio Bristol, I moved into TV, with the Spotlight, Points West and South Today newsrooms and - through Reuters tv in Bristol - with Sky News.

 

In 1992, along with cameraman Rob Llewellyn, I set up a new venture to provide footage for regional tv newsrooms from events they might not otherwise be able to access.

 

First, in anticipation of the Barcelona Games,  we went to the British Olympic Sailing Trials in Hyeres and supplied footage of local hopefuls to most of the BBC nations and regions newsrooms.

 

Then, based on the sucess of that first venture, we set off in pursuit of Chay Blyth's inaugural british Steel Challenge Round the World yacht race.

 

the original plan was to cover the pre-start and start, again by providing regions and nations with tailored interviews and footage to run alongside the BBC's generic coverage of the race, and then to pick it up again in Cape Town - the final stop-over.

 

But demand was such that Rob hopped on to a plane to Rio for the first stopver, and we were able to sell that footage sucessfully enough to feel confident about comitting to the whole race.

 

Our coverage of the finish in Southampton was on an epic scale - with more than half the fleet finishing in daylight hours on a single day, Rob filmed each boat from a helicopter as it the Needles and entered Southampton water, then followed it to the finish in a RIB before darting back to Calshot Spit to get airborne for the next arrival.

 

Martin and a second reporter caught the crews as they crossed the line and came alongside, and (in the pre-digital era) maintained a stock of tapes to which all news outlets in the country (including BBC, ITV and Sky network news) had access.