"This election is the first where everyone who's involved in outside broadcast is involved in mobile broadcasting," said Garnett ahead of the event.
"We're using modern forms of broadcasting in a way that we've never used them before. It's hugely exciting.
"We're using Periscope and Meerkat to provide behind-the-scenes coverage from outside broadcasts."
Behind-the-scenes glimpses like these are what sets social media content apart from formal news bulletins, often appealing to a younger, less politically-engaged audience.
"We're filing huge amounts, the largest we've ever done in terms of video going onto our website, bespoke audio as well. We're getting over a million-and-a-half hits per month," adds Garnett.
Up Periscope
The Birmingham Mail, one of Trinity Mirror's titles, recently began upping its Periscope too. Joining forces with Twitter it conducted what is regarded to be a landmark for UK social media: the first Periscope hustings (a local debate) with a constituency's parliamentary candidates.
Some may dismiss this as a gimmick, but according to research by Twitter 34% of the social network's users aged 18-34 "have changed their vote from one party to another based on something they have seen on Twitter".
Livestreaming and social media are potent tools, it seems, by which to engage voters.
Going LiveU
Of the 650 declarations on the night of Thursday May 7th, Sky News was live from over 270 to provide what it claimed, ahead of the event, would be the most ambitious and wide-ranging results service available. Such an undertaking requires either a lot of satellite vans or a tonne of mobile smarts - Sky chose the latter.
Key to Sky's plan was a partnership with LiveU which provides 3G/4G bonded uplink bolt-ons for broadcast cameras to stream live footage back to base over cellular networks. While the pictures themselves were captured by a professional camera, it's the mobile network that did the heavy lifting.
Sky News has form with this, most recently broadcasting 32 concurrent livestreams from iPads for its coverage of the Scottish Referendum:
As the world increasingly relies on real time information from social networks to feel like they're getting the 'real' news, traditional newsrooms are having to find ways of bringing that immediacy into their coverage - and mobile is the way to do it simply.
