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(They are going to wish they were running Hillary again)
You can tell WaldoKitty is utterly desperate for something to attack democrats over when he/she/it is attacking them over an NBC technical glitch. Which of course has absolutely nothing to do with the democratic candidates.
You can tell WaldoKitty is utterly desperate for something to attack democrats over when he/she/it is attacking them over an NBC technical glitch. Which of course has absolutely nothing to do with the democratic candidates.
Meh. Anyone who has ever tried to plug in all the connections to a public address mixing board can tell you how easy it is to make a small mistake. All the wireless rigs now in common use make it even easier to make a mistake than in the past, because there's no wire a person can follow from one point to another.
With 2 moderators, over 12 speakers at different podiums, and 2 separate signals, one to the house and the other to the TV uplink, the control board was a jungle of hand-written tape tags, each explaining in shorthand where a signal came from and where it is supposed to go. That's 16 seperate microphones, and each is sending a one signal to the house and another to the TV control board at the same time.
Why 16? Because the technicians have mics too, and use them to talk to the moderators. And every single person has some kind of monitor so they can hear what's going on. The things the folks onstage hear is different from what the folks at home hear. Each source is connected differently, sounds differently, and is separate. Half of the gear is sitting in big trucks outside the auditorium, where the TV signal is transmitted to a satellite uplink.
Accidentally sticking a piece of tape on the wrong slider control is super easy to do, and all it takes is one last-minute change to screw the entire mix up. Happens every day in every TV studio whenever there is any change in the mic setups from the day before.
Sometimes the error is at the mic, sometimes the sound board, sometimes the TV board, and sometimes there can be a different error on all 3 at the same time. Sometimes the wireless amp's batteries just quit. Sometimes there's a loose wire that calls it quits. Sometimes some spit shorts out a microphone. Or someone accidentally steps on a cord. Sometimes that happens outside, where the uplink trucks are parked. And in those trucks, there are other control board setups that can go blooey too.
And then, there's always operator error. One guys hand moves over 1/2 inch too far and uses the wrong slider. Hard to fix, because everything looks just the same. Since eyes are on the people not the board, once a mistake is made, it takes a second to know what it was.
In a perfect world, the perfect studio exists. But in a typical auditorium stage that was never designed to be a TV studio, it's always far from perfect. Stuff will always happen when things are broadcast live, and we've all seen it happen hundreds of times before on TV.
Take this to the bank: Sooner or later, Trump will have exactly the same dead-mic problem, and it will be handled in exactly the same ways and will take up exactly the same time.
Last edited by banjomike; 06-27-2019 at 11:17 PM..
Meh. Anyone who has ever tried to plug in all the connections to a public address mixing board can tell you how easy it is to make a small mistake. All the wireless rigs now in common use make it even easier to make a mistake than in the past, because there's no wire a person can follow from one point to another.
With 2 moderators, over 12 speakers at different podiums, and 2 separate signals, one to the house and the other to the TV uplink, the control board was a jungle of hand-written tape tags, each explaining in shorthand where a signal came from and where it is supposed to go. That's 16 seperate microphones, and each is sending a one signal to the house and another to the TV control board at the same time.
Why 16? Because the technicians have mics too, and use them to talk to the moderators. And every single person has some kind of monitor so they can hear what's going on. The things the folks onstage hear is different from what the folks at home hear. Each source is connected differently, sounds differently, and is separate. Half of the gear is sitting in big trucks outside the auditorium, where the TV signal is transmitted to a satellite uplink.
Accidentally sticking a piece of tape on the wrong slider control is super easy to do, and all it takes is one last-minute change to screw the entire mix up. Happens every day in every TV studio whenever there is any change in the mic setups from the day before.
Sometimes the error is at the mic, sometimes the sound board, sometimes the TV board, and sometimes there can be a different error on all 3 at the same time. Sometimes the wireless amp's batteries just quit. Sometimes there's a loose wire that calls it quits. Sometimes some spit shorts out a microphone. Or someone accidentally steps on a cord. Sometimes that happens outside, where the uplink trucks are parked. And in those trucks, there are other control board setups that can go blooey too.
And then, there's always operator error. One guys hand moves over 1/2 inch too far and uses the wrong slider. Hard to fix, because everything looks just the same. Since eyes are on the people not the board, once a mistake is made, it takes a second to know what it was.
In a perfect world, the perfect studio exists. But in a typical auditorium stage that was never designed to be a TV studio, it's always far from perfect. Stuff will always happen when things are broadcast live, and we've all seen it happen hundreds of times before on TV.
Take this to the bank: Sooner or later, Trump will have exactly the same dead-mic problem, and it will be handled in exactly the same ways and will take up exactly the same time.
Wow! Thanks for that little window into the wizardry of sound transmission. My awe at the marvels of technology and the people behind the scenes of just plain old television are even greater than before. Astonishing that more doesn't "go wrong" on an hourly basis! I still think a bit of magic has to be involved...that I can see and hear someone thousands of miles away from me, live, frankly remains astounding to me.
Last edited by corpgypsy; 06-28-2019 at 08:04 AM..
You're right. Grown adults actually discussing the issues isn't their cup of tea. No spectacle.
So that's what they were doing! And here I thought I was witnessing histrionics (with Angry Bernie right behind out-of-control Kamala Harris), and a lot of screaming and yelling.
Obviously, we all have our standards.
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