CNN Ooops!! Kyra Phillips Mic left on.

[nmm]

I've seen a lot of mistakes, but how does this one stay on the air so
long, and how will Thanksgiving be at Kyra Phillips' home?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7QhEeQF_o

[Geoff]

nmm wrote:
> I've seen a lot of mistakes, but how does this one stay on the air so
> long, and how will Thanksgiving be at Kyra Phillips' home?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7QhEeQF_o

How dissappointing.

I thought she was going to say something like "Oh god listen to that
****wit churning out those platitudes somebody wrote for him which he
doesn't even understand..."


geoff

[Romeo Rondeau]

"Geoff" > wrote in message
...
> nmm wrote:
>> I've seen a lot of mistakes, but how does this one stay on the air so
>> long, and how will Thanksgiving be at Kyra Phillips' home?
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7QhEeQF_o
>
> How dissappointing.
>
> I thought she was going to say something like "Oh god listen to that
> ****wit churning out those platitudes somebody wrote for him which he
> doesn't even understand..."
>
>
> geoff

Actually, I didn't hear her mention your name at all :-)

[Dr. Dolittle]

Hahaha.

I read about this but hadn't actually heard the feed, thank you. I think
brother's wife is going to be all kinds of fun at parties after this. (**)


(well, at least it is audio related) :)


nmm wrote:

> I've seen a lot of mistakes, but how does this one stay on the air so
> long, and how will Thanksgiving be at Kyra Phillips' home?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp7QhEeQF_o
>

[Mark]

>
> > I've seen a lot of mistakes, but how does this one stay on the air so
> > long, and how will Thanksgiving be at Kyra Phillips' home?
> >
>
> >

so what's the deal with this..

they are reporting it like it was HER fault for leaving the mic on...

isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?

Mark

[Doc Weaver]

Mark wrote:
> >
> > > I've seen a lot of mistakes, but how does this one stay on the air so
> > > long, and how will Thanksgiving be at Kyra Phillips' home?
> > >
> >
> > >
>
> so what's the deal with this..
>
> they are reporting it like it was HER fault for leaving the mic on...
>
> isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?
>
> Mark

Don't you mean the X-sound guy?

Doc Weaver

[WillStG]

Mark wrote:
> they are reporting it like it was HER fault for leaving the mic on...
>
> isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?

I heard reports CNN claimed it was "failure with the technical
equipment." When a channel is problematic a closed fader CAN pass
audio, but not without people hearing it I don't think - and that
includes the whole control room. Maybe the audio guy was busy
checking out something else out - you do only have 2 ears - but I would
*never* interrupt the main program feed for long to check something
out, and if that means you can't check it out well because of crappy
prefade monitoring too bad. And if there is a lot of yelling going on,
it can make it very hard to hear what's going out over air (as opposed
to in their coms panel prefades ), but the TD/AD/Director/Producer
should have noticed too, not just the audio guy. Probably everyone is
going to take the hit on this one.

The cautionary tale here folks, is in a studio or whenever you are
wearing a mic - _always assume_ people are listening. My default setup
is that talent can hear themselves in their IFB's when you open a
fader, so talent always knows when their mic is hot (unless they pull
their earpiece out.) The "tsk" of the tongue you hear anchors do
sometimes before they speak, that's an automatic check too see if their
mic is open yet, so when they jump their cue they know the fader is
open. <g> But iso records paths and prefade listens on the
communications system mean people can be listening in always. Still, a
ribald tale told offset over one's prefaded mic can be an effective way
of getting attention for talent seeking to be a source of endless
fascinating interest... < G >

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

[[email protected]]

On 2006-09-01 om said:
>> isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?
>I heard reports CNN claimed it was "failure with the technical
>equipment." When a channel is problematic a closed fader CAN pass
>audio, but not without people hearing it I don't think - and that
>includes the whole control room. Maybe the audio guy was busy
>checking out something else out - you do only have 2 ears - but I
>would *never* interrupt the main program feed for long to check
>something out, and if that means you can't check it out well
>because of crappy prefade monitoring too bad. And if there is a lot
>of yelling going on, it can make it very hard to hear what's going
>out over air (as opposed to in their coms panel prefades ), but the
>TD/AD/Director/Producer should have noticed too, not just the audio
>guy. Probably everyone is going to take the hit on this one.
I'd agree. THere were enough folks should have been
listening to the program feed.
That brings me to the question about CNN. DOn't they have a
second audio guy that main man working program feed could
have assigned to a troubleshooting task if that's the
excuse?

>The cautionary tale here folks, is in a studio or whenever you are
>wearing a mic - _always assume_ people are listening. My default
>setup is that talent can hear themselves in their IFB's when you
>open a fader, so talent always knows when their mic is hot (unless
>they pull their earpiece out.) The "tsk" of the tongue you hear
>anchors do sometimes before they speak, that's an automatic check
>too see if their mic is open yet, so when they jump their cue they
>know the fader is open. <g> But iso records paths and prefade
>listens on the communications system mean people can be listening
>in always. Still, a ribald tale told offset over one's prefaded
>mic can be an effective way of getting attention for talent seeking
>to be a source of endless fascinating interest... < G >
YEs quite true, and I'm always reminding folks to pay
attention to what they say on mic.

A few years ago I was doing sr for a pentacostal church in
oRegon. Pastor grabbed the wrong radio mic and I was
bringing up the other radio mic channel for a line check,
while pastor was talking with a parishoner outside the
sanctuary. I quickly figured out what was happening and
dropped the fader and muted the channel before any real harm
was done however. NExt fun part was to get the pastor to
trade radio mics quickly before start of service, as another
presenter who needed stage monitoring was supposed to use
that wireless lav that evening.



Richard webb,
Electric Spider Productions
Replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real
email address.



Amazing how much tape is on a 10" reel when it's not.

[Geoff]

WillStG wrote:

> The cautionary tale here folks, is in a studio or whenever you are
> wearing a mic - _always assume_ people are listening.

..... otherwise the truth might get out !

geoff

[Dr. Dolittle]

WillStG wrote:

> But iso records paths and prefade listens on the
> communications system mean people can be listening in always. Still, a
> ribald tale told offset over one's prefaded mic can be an effective way
> of getting attention for talent seeking to be a source of endless
> fascinating interest... < G >

If I have a mic, wired in, or wireless, I would always assume somebody
*could* hear me.

Sounds like me sister talking about my wife. And she would probably be
right... ;)

[Dr. Dolittle]

wrote:


> That brings me to the question about CNN. DOn't they have a
> second audio guy that main man working program feed could
> have assigned to a troubleshooting task if that's the
> excuse?

Well, times being what they are. Budgets and all.

One sound guy in the control booth, one air traffic guy in the control
tower..

[Scott Dorsey]

Geoff > wrote:
>WillStG wrote:
>
>> The cautionary tale here folks, is in a studio or whenever you are
>> wearing a mic - _always assume_ people are listening.
>
>.... otherwise the truth might get out !

We begin bombing in... five minutes....
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Lorin David Schultz]

> wrote:
>
> That brings me to the question about CNN. DOn't they have a
> second audio guy that main man working program feed could
> have assigned to a troubleshooting task if that's the
> excuse?



"Second audio guy?!" HA! No. It's mandated by the company health plan
that the audio guy has to run back and forth between the console and the
patchbay, trying to patch around the problem while jumping back to the
console for each fader move. It means fader moves are almost all late,
but the operator gets some much needed exercise! <g>

--
"It CAN'T be too loud... some of the red lights aren't even on yet!"
- Lorin David Schultz
in the control room
making even bad news sound good

(Remove spamblock to reply)

[[email protected]]

On 2006-09-02 said:
>> That brings me to the question about CNN. DOn't they have a
>> second audio guy that main man working program feed could
>> have assigned to a troubleshooting task if that's the
>> excuse?
>"Second audio guy?!" HA! No. It's mandated by the company health
>plan that the audio guy has to run back and forth between the
>console and the patchbay, trying to patch around the problem while
>jumping back to the console for each fader move. It means fader
>moves are almost all late, but the operator gets some much needed
>exercise! <g>
Yah, and that intern who wants to learn about audio gets to
do real educational stuff like go get coffee for the
director <g>.
tHis is why you should always assume if you're wearing a
wireless lav you're live.

Take for example my story about the preacher. ONe of the
church folks who usually helped out with audio grabbed the
wrong lav and helped the pastor get ready, made sure it was
switched on as he was supposed to. While I'm checking this
and that out I get to the point to bring that mic up, NO
PFL on this board if you can believe it. (See waht they get
for buying Carvin iirc) and there we go.
THe monitor mix position had the better console <g>.



Richard webb,
Electric Spider Productions
Replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real
email address.

[Ben Bradley]

On 1 Sep 2006 21:37:40 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

>Geoff > wrote:
>>WillStG wrote:
>>
>>> The cautionary tale here folks, is in a studio or whenever you are
>>> wearing a mic - _always assume_ people are listening.
>>
>>.... otherwise the truth might get out !
>
>We begin bombing in... five minutes....

Wasn't that Ronald "I OWN this microphone!" Reagan?

>--scott

[[email protected]]

Mark wrote:
>
> isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?

How about Master Control? It's THEIR JOB to monitor the primary feed.
The MCO should have heard this and been on the McCurdy or the phone to
A1 immediately, and if he wasn't at the console, to the Director or
Producer.

I KNOW that when networks "take a feed" in breaking news, everybody
lets their guard down, but SOMEBODY has to be monitoring it. Hell,
there were Chyrons popping in and out on this. Couldn't the person
keying them hear the damn thing?

[PapaNate]

> >
> > isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?
>
> How about Master Control? I

Exactly. Even worse this looks like some jerk has a problem and wanted
to screw Ms. Phillips over...unless some one wants to explain how a live
mic was being broadcasted over a direct line satellite feed?

I think if he/she ( the A1/MC-1) hasn't been fired he should be.

[animix]

..........had her rant been against Bush, the soundman would be a hero and no
one would give a **** that he ****ed up..

"Papanate" > wrote in message
...
>
> > >
> > > isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?
> >
> > How about Master Control? I
>
> Exactly. Even worse this looks like some jerk has a problem and wanted
> to screw Ms. Phillips over...unless some one wants to explain how a live
> mic was being broadcasted over a direct line satellite feed?
>
> I think if he/she ( the A1/MC-1) hasn't been fired he should be.

[Dr. Dolittle]

animix wrote:
> .........had her rant been against Bush, the soundman would be a hero and no
> one would give a **** that he ****ed up..

At this point ranting against Bush is redundent. Pretty much everybody
has joined the choir by now.

[animix]

"Dr. Dolittle" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> animix wrote:
> > .........had her rant been against Bush, the soundman would be a hero
and no
> > one would give a **** that he ****ed up..
>
> At this point ranting against Bush is redundent. Pretty much everybody
> has joined the choir by now.

I can almost guarantee that if this had been a comment about *anyone* in
this administration, the soundman would have gotten a pass, but if the Kyra
had commented that the expression on Nancy Pelosi face at any given photo op
looked like the one on Bob Enzyte's wife, the soundman would have been fired
straight away.

[[email protected]]

On 2006-09-03 said:
>> > isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?
>> How about Master Control? I
>Exactly. Even worse this looks like some jerk has a problem and
>wanted to screw Ms. Phillips over...unless some one wants to
>explain how a live mic was being broadcasted over a direct line
>satellite feed?
>I think if he/she ( the A1/MC-1) hasn't been fired he should be.

WOuld be on my watch, if it were me making decisions like
that. WE'd also have a talk with "talent" reminding them
that when you're wearing a mic you're wired. cOnsider that
anything you say can be herad by anybody so inclined to
listen, that includes the dude with the wideband scanning
radio just doing the hunt and pounce on interesting
frequencies nearby. cOnsider that if you're wired, you are
wired, don't say anything you wouldn't want the world to
hear.

Btw got the same chuckle out of Newtie (Mr. contract on
America" Gingrich and his overheard cell phone conversation.
TOo stupid to know that when you're talking on a radio the
world can hear.
Still the master control folks should have caught this one.

remember years ago listening to a St. Louis Cardinals game
on a local TV station back in Iowa. SOmebody was doing the
"mic check one two" bit in the actual air studio of the TV
station and they were feeding it live, along with Jack BUck
and MIke SHannon. I made a long distance call to tell them
what was going on with that one. tHe "check one two" was
louder than the satellite feed of the game audio.



Richard webb,
Electric Spider Productions
Replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real
email address.



Great audio is never heard by the average person, but bad
audio is heard by everyone.

[[email protected]]

These days, I'm not sure an actual person really IS listening
to what goes out on major networks (except the audience, that is).
On the various Clear Channel stations around here, it isn't uncommon
for something to get screwed up and two audio feeds to be happening
simultaneously, and for that to go on for 20 MINUTES. I suspect that
more and more of this stuff is just automated.

wrote:
: On 2006-09-03 said:
: >> > isn't this the sound guy's fault BIG TIME !!!!..?
: >> How about Master Control? I
: >Exactly. Even worse this looks like some jerk has a problem and
: >wanted to screw Ms. Phillips over...unless some one wants to
: >explain how a live mic was being broadcasted over a direct line
: >satellite feed?
: >I think if he/she ( the A1/MC-1) hasn't been fired he should be.

: WOuld be on my watch, if it were me making decisions like
: that. WE'd also have a talk with "talent" reminding them
: that when you're wearing a mic you're wired. cOnsider that
: anything you say can be herad by anybody so inclined to
: listen, that includes the dude with the wideband scanning
: radio just doing the hunt and pounce on interesting
: frequencies nearby. cOnsider that if you're wired, you are
: wired, don't say anything you wouldn't want the world to
: hear.

: Btw got the same chuckle out of Newtie (Mr. contract on
: America" Gingrich and his overheard cell phone conversation.
: TOo stupid to know that when you're talking on a radio the
: world can hear.
: Still the master control folks should have caught this one.

: remember years ago listening to a St. Louis Cardinals game
: on a local TV station back in Iowa. SOmebody was doing the
: "mic check one two" bit in the actual air studio of the TV
: station and they were feeding it live, along with Jack BUck
: and MIke SHannon. I made a long distance call to tell them
: what was going on with that one. tHe "check one two" was
: louder than the satellite feed of the game audio.



: Richard webb,
: Electric Spider Productions
: Replace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real
: email address.



: Great audio is never heard by the average person, but bad
: audio is heard by everyone.

[Paul Stamler]

> wrote in message
.. .

> remember years ago listening to a St. Louis Cardinals game
> on a local TV station back in Iowa. SOmebody was doing the
> "mic check one two" bit in the actual air studio of the TV
> station and they were feeding it live, along with Jack BUck
> and MIke SHannon. I made a long distance call to tell them
> what was going on with that one. tHe "check one two" was
> louder than the satellite feed of the game audio.

Couple of years ago during the world series somebody, somehow, patched the
control room intercom to national air. We heard the director calling shots
for about a minute.

Peace,
Paul

[Scott Dorsey]

In article >,
Paul Stamler > wrote:
> wrote in message
.. .
>
>> remember years ago listening to a St. Louis Cardinals game
>> on a local TV station back in Iowa. SOmebody was doing the
>> "mic check one two" bit in the actual air studio of the TV
>> station and they were feeding it live, along with Jack BUck
>> and MIke SHannon. I made a long distance call to tell them
>> what was going on with that one. tHe "check one two" was
>> louder than the satellite feed of the game audio.
>
>Couple of years ago during the world series somebody, somehow, patched the
>control room intercom to national air. We heard the director calling shots
>for about a minute.

I'd pay money to watch that.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Paul Stamler]

"Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
...

> >Couple of years ago during the world series somebody, somehow, patched
the
> >control room intercom to national air. We heard the director calling
shots
> >for about a minute.
>
> I'd pay money to watch that.

Go see if you can find the 2004 Series someplace. I forget which game.

Peace,
Paul

[[email protected]]

Here's the way it would be set up at my news network:

At the site of the speech, there would be a news bridge. On top of that
bridge, the photog from my network would be "shooting" the prez (or we
might be taking a pool feed from a DA). The pool audio would feed into
a little Shure mixer, as would any reporter mics (like Kyra's). The
outputs of the Shure and the camera would feed into a sat truck or
fiber link.

Back at the station, it comes in to a sat receiver. USUALLY, it is
routed through a production studio so that Chyrons can be inserted,
then routed to master. OCCASIONALLY, a live feed of predictable length
will be switched directly to master, but this is rare.

I presume the audio operator at the site kept Kyra's mic up at all
times, and she just switched it on and off as needed.

Who was asleep at the wheel?
1) Kyra
2) The audio operator at the site
3) The producer at the site
4) The director back at the studio, and the producer
5) The studio audio op
6) Master control

Having lived it, I can see it now: OK, the prez is speaking, we'll be
on this for a half hour. Let's order out for steak tips. Meet me in the
lunchroom...

[WillStG]

wrote:
> Here's the way it would be set up at my news network:
>
> At the site of the speech, there would be a news bridge. On top of that
> bridge, the photog from my network would be "shooting" the prez (or we
> might be taking a pool feed from a DA). The pool audio would feed into
> a little Shure mixer, as would any reporter mics (like Kyra's). The
> outputs of the Shure and the camera would feed into a sat truck or
> fiber link.
>
> Back at the station, it comes in to a sat receiver. USUALLY, it is
> routed through a production studio so that Chyrons can be inserted,
> then routed to master. OCCASIONALLY, a live feed of predictable length
> will be switched directly to master, but this is rare.
>
> I presume the audio operator at the site kept Kyra's mic up at all
> times, and she just switched it on and off as needed.

So she was on location when her mic was left open? Well that
explains it! (all the YouTube links were down when I tried to view it.)

It's not atypical to get a juggling mess on these live shots when
a presser and the reporter on location's mic are coming down the same
line. They sometimes cover these things by hiring a local freelance
truck with one or two guys, one dealing with the transmitter and one
with the camera and nobody listening to the audio, which a basic mono
Shure mixer that they set for levels that the studio says is ok or that
the meters say is ok. And I have been directed on more than one
occasion check the talent's IFB down there on a remote when you're
taking the live press feed - just how are they suppposed to answer you
back down the same line that the press feed is on?

The control could have been freaking out the whole time, but didn't
have any production lines with the location and couldn't get the on
site producer on the phone very quick. What they should have done was
go to the pool feed, this kind of event always has a pool feed. You
can be a hero in your own mind if you are aware enough to suggest
somewhere to go when problems arise - just don't expect any recognition
for doing so. Never ever been credited on a review for such things,
probably because other people are are supposed to think of it before
the audio guy does.

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away... Tom Waits