WEBVTT - So Now What? Technical Difficulties - Part 1 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.440 College football is a game of sights and sounds, west 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:25.159 touchdown credible, from screaming fans to marching bands. It's the 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:30.560 raucous atmosphere that sets college football apart from everything else. 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:40.520 Except during a pandemic last fall, media partners and broadcasters 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:45.160 were forced to adapt on the fly to unprecedented circumstances. 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:50.800 This is how they made it work from the solid verbal. 0:00:51.000 --> 0:01:02.280 This is a special production. So now what welcome back? 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.720 My name is Ty Hildenbrandt, joining me as always over 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.760 there in Chicago, the one and only Dan Ruvenstein, Sir, 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:10.319 how you doing. I'm good. 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.000 I'm licking my proverbial chops. I don't know if that's 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.600 too evocative over this episode, because we have done already 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.360 a couple episodes looking at the twenty twenty season in 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.640 the twenty twenty year from a college football perspective as 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:28.679 a whole, and this episode is all about how you 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.640 and I and I think a majority of people consume 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.640 the twenty twenty season. Obviously a lot of people went 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.800 to games, but not nearly as many as normally do, 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.080 and not nearly as many people socialized in the way 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.400 that they normally do around college football. So This is 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:47.120 an episode that I think we are going to dedicate 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:52.400 to the broadcast and fan, the home fan experience and 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.640 how different it was in twenty twenty, and hopefully how 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.920 it will never happen again, but just sort of debrief 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:05.520 on what it was like consuming college football only as 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.040 a TV product, which I know you and I did. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:10.639 I know a lot of people also went to games 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.760 once again, but it was more than it ever was 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:18.440 a TV product, So debriefing essentially that product itself. 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.000 What amazed me the most in watching from home last 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.600 year was how much, for the most part it felt 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.040 the same. There were a lot of elements, as we'll 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:32.000 find out here shortly, that needed to be made up 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.280 on the fly. They were very much shooting from the 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.640 hip b DSPN or CBS or anybody broadcasting a game. 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.800 But I think for the home viewer, by and large, 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.160 the product mostly felt the same. 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.360 Yeah, yes and no for me, just because I didn't 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.920 watch it with anybody. My wife feigned interest at times 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.640 during Michigan games that we watched a little bit of 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.520 because that's where she went. But even it was not 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.440 a fun year to watch Michigan football for Michigan fans 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.480 and there was just, you know, the lack of electricity 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.280 watching the TV product. Even when stadiums were empty and 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:06.880 they piped in sound, it didn't feel the same. There 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.560 would be those big wide shots after a touchdown and 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.320 you wouldn't see anybody or nearly anybody, depending on the 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:15.919 conference you were watching in the stands. I think there 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.400 was a certain amount of energy that was extremely hard 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.320 to replicate that. I'm sure broadcasters and broadcast teams and 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.280 networks tried to do their very best, but it was 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:30.880 it was very different from me. But also my personal 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:33.280 life was very different and moving around the country and such, 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:35.640 So maybe my experience was unique. 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.280 But it was different to me. It definitely was different. 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:40.440 It was still good to have the product on TV 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.720 and to help us unpack a little bit more about 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.200 what that was like, we brought on a Niche Shroff 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.040 from espno broadcaster has called college football games for a 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.080 good long time now, A niche longtime friend of the show. 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.480 We asked him, what were your thoughts when all hell 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:01.240 was breaking loose in March, taking a longer view on 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:03.880 what it could mean for a college football season. 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.320 I had as busy of a month as I can 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.120 remember in March of twenty twenty, and I remember when 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.400 I got done, I had done three games in three 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:18.320 cities on three consecutive nights, and I thought, wow, March 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:23.120 is just getting started. And then the next week everything 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:28.320 goes away, everything shuts down. Realistically, at the time, I 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.800 felt kind of how I think a lot of people felt, Okay, 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.839 there's no way this is going to stretch into the fall, right. 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.240 I thought we would be okay or close to okay. 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.440 And then as the news kept on trickling in and 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:46.200 every week would copine, things got worse and worse. You're like, oh, man, 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:47.200 are we. 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.240 Going to have a season that rings so true? I 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.440 remember doing our live streams, we were yeah, in the 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:57.200 very beginning, alarmed, as we all were alarmed that this 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.520 could have some impact not just on society but on 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:02.760 the sport we know and love. And then yeah, as 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.400 the summer wore on, as we got closer to the season, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:09.039 as we detailed in our first episode of So Now, 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:11.840 when we talked through the big ten decision making, it 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.280 became very apparent that this was going to be a 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.240 different kind of year. I'd imagine if you're a broadcaster, 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:24.600 this being your livelihood and all, it's rather concerning. We 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:28.960 asked a niche, what were your thoughts as we got 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:32.200 a little bit deeper into this thing, and it became 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:34.800 a parent that, yeah, you might not be able to 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.839 go to games. You actually might have to call them from, 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.440 say a remote studio somewhere in Charlotte. 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:46.960 And I'd done some games remotely from studio, but football 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.080 is a different animal altogether. There's so many moving parts, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.040 so many things to see, and all of a sudden 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.400 it was, oh, Okay, this will be challenging. This is 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:00.280 going to be a piece of the puzzle. And then 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.159 you're sort of formulating a game plan. What do you 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.640 need to see? Where are your eyes going? Well, we 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.280 have cameras for this, who's going to be or liaison 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:14.120 on site? And it really became this collaborative process on 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.400 essentially trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle. 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:22.080 I did not know until just this past year that 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.040 they could pull this off in terms of. 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:28.800 Remote broadcasts, having the play by play and analyst in 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.920 a studio in Charlotte or Connecticut or Los Angeles or something. 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:37.680 Not to this extent, I had visited the Big ten studios, 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.599 Big ten Network studios at some point, and I saw 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.360 the closet where they, I guess, would do remote broadcasts 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.840 of other events, but sure in none of those cases 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:53.080 was it ever something as robust as a football broadcast, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.320 where you've got so many different moving pieces, so much 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:59.200 to account for different camera angles, what have you. When 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:01.479 it became a pair that this is a direction they 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.560 were headed, my ears perked up. I'm not in the 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:08.839 broadcasting business to the same extent and niches, but I 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.880 was wondering at that point, how the hell are they 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:12.800 going to pull this off? 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.440 Same and I knew that football had been called remotely, 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.960 but those generally, those remote broadcasts, from what I know, 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.280 are the quote unquote smaller games, fewer cameras, fewer graphics, 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.240 fewer replays, stuff like that. So there was not a 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:33.760 huge need to have a big, robust remote situation. But 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.320 the thing is with the networks, they had the lead 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.320 up time. This wasn't something that snuck up on them, 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:40.160 so they were able to get their ducks in a 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.000 row for weeks, months whatever to say, Okay, this is 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:44.960 how we're going to operate with this, This is how 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:46.440 we're gonna operate with that, this is how we're going 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.920 to do this remotely, so they were at least able 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.800 to plan for a different kind of broadcast year, so 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.360 it would feel normal too idiots like you and me, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:01.000 and so I I think I noticed certain elements. Obviously, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:06.280 it's hard not to notice the announcers not reacting to 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:10.080 things happening with crowd energy in the same way. That's 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:11.920 easy to see that, like, okay, this is a little 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.040 bit different when you're calling a Boston college game and 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:16.240 it's just a bunch of cardboard cutouts, it's hard to 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:20.640 sort of match the energy of the moment. But largely technologically, 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.160 you know, graphics would come in, replays would come in, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.040 there were different camera angles, and I maybe there were 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.640 fewer games where you had the zipline cam whatever that's called. 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:33.960 But I don't know if I fully noticed it. So 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.480 I by and large thought, you know, ESPN, CBS, Fox, 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:42.280 the regional networks, the conference networks did as good a 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.800 job as expected. So I came away very impressed because essentially, ty, 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:51.520 they're you and me, right, they're better versions, but they're 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:56.600 at home or they're in a studio just podcasting games live. 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.040 That's what it kind of is. 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:05.760 I didn't really notice the small details right, that might 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.160 have been off with a broadcast. Obviously, you look out 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.280 in the stands, there are no people there, yet you 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.480 hear crowd noise, which we will talk about momentarily, right. 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.439 You know that that's fabricated, and you can sense that 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.120 maybe announcers are a bit disconnected from the moment. But 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.240 a lot of the little stuff I thought they did 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.160 a pretty good job of papering over. And that's a 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.200 credit to everybody involved in these productions. You know, you 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.280 talk to somebody like a niche again, whose livelihood is 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:37.160 broadcasting games, and you don't necessarily have a level of 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.760 understanding of the nuance that goes into it. These guys 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.600 take it very seriously. Every little inch of the football field. 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.080 They're trying to get a description of what's going on 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.440 out there. Little things like context that you might be 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:50.800 able to pick up before a game. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.839 It's just different. You know, there's something about game day 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.679 at a stadium. There's something about that game day environment. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.439 One of the things that I usually like to do 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:03.480 when I get there just survey my surroundings. What do 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.959 you pick up using your eyes and ears to ask questions? 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.720 You don't get that anymore. You're at the mercity in 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.160 a lot of ways of the school providing you with information, 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.800 and as we all know, schools will provide information to 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.840 make them look as good as possible. 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:26.240 And even little things like building rapport with the broadcasting team. 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.400 Just being on the road with your colleagues and going 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.760 out the night before the game and grabbing dinner, having 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:38.680 a glass of wine, just building chemistry and camaraderie. You 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.760 just don't have that. Everybody's masked up. We are all 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.760 socially distant. They're very careful about where you can sit 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.040 and how far you can stand. 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.920 Now, in a Niche's case, he broadcasted games remotely from 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:55.480 a studio in Charlotte, and thankfully Tom lougan Bill was 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.240 in the same studio as him, so at least he 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:03.160 had some report or being so he had his announcing 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.240 partner physically there with him. You and I can speak 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.360 a lot to what it's like when your co host 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.240 is not with you. Correct. It has taken us the 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:14.920 better part of a decade to build up this rapport, 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:19.440 So you can imagine, especially going into a new football season, 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.280 sometimes teams are mixed and matched on the broadcasting front 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.080 to try and build up that level of understanding with 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.080 your co hosts so quickly. In a new setting, everything 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.360 is completely new. There are new inputs, new outputs. I 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.600 again am really surprised and quite impressed that it all 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:38.600 went as well as it did. 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.079 Yeah, and it's not just the on air people, right, 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:44.760 it's the people that are spotting who's tackling who, or 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:49.440 who's substituting in for whom. There's the producer in the 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:52.800 broadcaster's ear. And you know, certain broadcasters work better with 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.720 certain producers. They understand what they like. They understand like, okay, 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:57.800 this is when I like the replays coming in. This 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.640 is how quickly I want to see the replays in 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:01.320 a step display or whatever. 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:02.560 I think. 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.080 There's a lot of nuance behind the scenes that and 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.880 even in times when things are quote unquote normal. We 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.280 all remember those games where all of a sudden, there 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:16.200 is no wide cam available because it's foggy, and we 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:18.320 need only the cameras on the field, or all the 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:20.439 other cameras go out except for one main one, and 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:22.439 the one main one's trying to track all the action. 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.080 And that's normal times. And so in terms of communication 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.200 behind the scenes, it is that element of you know, 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.079 the duck looks common, serene above the surface, but underneath 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.040 it's paddling like all hell. And so I think there 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.520 was more of an element this fall than ever before, 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.720 and the better broadcast just masked everything a lot better. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:47.200 But no, it was fascinating to hear him talk about 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.120 the different elements that needed to come together. 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:55.320 Just so, how do you overcompensate for the situation not 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.640 having the crowd noise, not being there on site? 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.679 You're trained depending on where you're calling the game, if 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.000 you're at a Clemson or an LSU or Virginia Tech 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.120 one of these raucous environments. A lot of times, the 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.120 best thing you can do on third and one is 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.760 shut the hell up and just let that crowd roar, 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.000 especially if it's the defense looking for a stand or whatever. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.119 You just let the crowd go, and the crowd becomes 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.040 that extra person in the broadcast, and that amplifies the 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.200 moment more than anything that you can say, Well, that's 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:33.920 not there now, And you always worry about over talking 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.880 and saying too much, And in some of these cases, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.839 when you scale it back a little bit, all of 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:45.120 a sudden, it's sound of silence. Right where is everybody? 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:47.360 And you almost feel, all right, do I need to 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.600 jump in a little bit? So you almost have to 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:51.480 recalibrate your process a little bit. 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:53.520 Recalibrate the process. 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:53.800 Dan. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.240 One of the questions that you had for a niche 0:13:56.840 --> 0:13:59.960 that I get the sense you were very excited to ask, 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.679 was about the crowd noise, right, yeah, the fake crowd noise, 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.120 the fake crowd noise. What were your thoughts on fake 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:08.960 crowd noise this year? 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:09.199 Dan? 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.440 It was very strange, And it was strange because I 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:17.000 found myself getting comfortable with how normal the broadcast would 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:18.839 feel in those games in which maybe it was only 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.640 friends and family, maybe it was a few, a few hundred, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.440 or no fans at all. The one game that specifically 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.960 stood out to me that I really was able to 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.320 connect to the fact that there were no humans watching 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.200 the game. I'm almost positive this is true. Michigan, Michigan 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:37.600 State in the Big House, which is of course already 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.360 in a cavernous place defined by how large and overwhelming 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:46.600 it can be. Michigan State has the upset, and there 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.400 would be a number of wide shots that were supposed to, 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:56.240 I don't know, add environmental character to the situation, and 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:01.600 there was a feeling of these players snuck onto the 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.840 field on a Wednesday morning to play a game, almost 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:09.760 like I'm almost positive there's a tradition like the student newspapers, 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.200 the Michigan and Michigan State student newspapers, they played the 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:16.200 night before, and it had that feel to it where 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.840 it was, why don't we just all throw it like 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:19.600 a pop up? 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:20.760 It's a pop up game. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:22.200 Why don't we just I don't know, why don't we 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:24.000 mess around on a Saturday morning and play some college 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.240 football and just let's just do it. Let's go crazy 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.800 and do it. So that stood out to me. When 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.840 I would hear the crowd noise followed up by shots 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.760 of no humans, I was my brain almost felt like 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.640 it was it was getting tricks played on it. 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:41.800 It was. 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:42.840 It was very strange. 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.120 I get the sense that a niche was in a 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.320 very similar spot. First and foremost, we asked him where'd 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:49.400 the crowd noise come from? 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:51.400 Well, as far as I know, for the games that 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.840 I did, most of the fake crowd noise was being 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.280 pumped in by the schools themselves. So it was the 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:00.840 PA at the school that would be in charge of that. 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.760 So the schools are pumping it in, which is an 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.480 important bit of context. We also asked him like, was 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.280 it helpful to you to hear this noise at all? 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:13.440 Or what was your take on it? 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:17.720 From my standpoint, it was helpful not being there, because 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:21.360 if you are there and it's okay, we're looking around 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.840 and I see two hundred people in the seats or nobody, 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.080 and you're rocking all this crowd noise, come on, who 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.880 are you fooling? But not physically being there, it actually 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.320 gives you this fake sense of hey, something is happening 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.640 and something is important, and it props up your energy 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:40.320 by proxy. 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.840 So the crowd noise helped him more being off site 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:47.160 than it would have if he were there. 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.720 Can I tell you something, I have no reason to 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.240 doubt a niche Okay, he would know better than you 0:16:55.320 --> 0:17:00.480 or I would. But I have been in the Fox truck, 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:05.000 like the a team Fox truck, NFL Fox, not college Fox. 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:07.520 So this is like the team that would do a 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.520 Super Bowl or a you know, NFC championship game. The huge, 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.240 the biggest of the big crew, the Aikman Joe Buck crew. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.080 And this was for a documentary thing I worked on 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:20.040 a few years ago, and I got to watch the 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.120 audio mixer do his thing mid game a huge game. 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.840 It was Patriots Saints, I believe, in Foxborough and he 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.520 had a mixer with like, I don't know, sixty four channels, 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:36.679 thirty two channels, some crazy number of audio channels, and 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.920 I got to watch him as a player was carded off, 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.680 move the button up, the lever up for the sad 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.240 Fox theme the butta dunt dut du dun dut du 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.960 dun dunt into commercial. So I know the pure raw 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.080 power that television has from an audio perspective, and it 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.199 is still hard for me to believe that that a 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.399 version of that guy didn't exist in Bristol or in 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.280 LA to sort of level out the environment as the 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.440 game was going on, because I do know the raw 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:13.199 audio power available to these networks, so no reason not 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.920 to believe a niche. But at the same time, it 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:22.000 would it wouldn't. It doesn't fully make sense the networks 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.399 would give that much control over the TV broadcast audio 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.679 to the random stadium audio engineer. I don't know, and 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.479 I think it was different depending on the sport. I 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.240 know back in the fall, if you watched any like 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:38.720 Premier League soccer, you could watch one channel that had 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:42.000 the crowd noise and another that really yeah, they would 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.840 allow you to watch a different station that didn't have it, 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.160 maybe online or through one of the pay services. So 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:53.919 just a really weird again layer of context that some 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.720 of the networks tried to add in to make the 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:01.320 product feel a little bit more authentic. The audio junkie 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.359 between us, you are the person who pays attention to 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.040 things like that, whether it's an audio form or the 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.000 audio during a TV show or whatever. Where were your 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.600 ears and brain connected watching these games? Were you just 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.280 accepting this fake noise as like, yep, okay, this is 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:20.600 I've accepted it and I'm not. 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:21.560 Paying attention to it. 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:24.800 Or were you paying closer attention as you were watching 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:27.160 a game in a bigger moment, knowing like, I don't 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:28.520 know which game it was. I think Notre Dame was 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:30.400 at Boston College, right, so you at least had one 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.439 Notre Dame game where there were zero people in the crowd. 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.240 Did that take you out of anything? Were you paying 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.560 extra close attention to how the audio engineer was riding 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:42.640 the levels? Was that something you paid attention to. 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.679 Riding the level? Sure? I tend to pay attention to 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.359 the volumes of the two commentators. It's really easy for 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.240 those volumes to get a little bit out of sync 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.480 and to feel a bit disconnected from the game, especially 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.159 when someone's doing a broadcast remotely like that. And there 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.239 were a few instances is where you heard it, But 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:02.920 by the end of the year they got really good 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.080 at it. They got really good at mixing everything down. 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:07.320 You're talking about with the with the fake crowd noise, 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:08.440 you're talking about it with the. 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.439 Crowd noise, with the other microphones that maybe they had 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.560 on site, the whistle, the sound of the players hitting 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.480 each other, things like that. It was really easy, I 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.080 think in the beginning for some of the voices of 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.720 the commentators to be a little bit too loud, or 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:25.919 one to be too loud, in the other to be 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:27.959 a little bit too soft. And by the end they 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:28.959 got really good at doing it. 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.560 I noticed I was able to hear whistles and yelling 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:36.760 from the sideline onto the field early on in the season. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:39.240 I couldn't tell you a specific game, but like when 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:41.760 an offensive coordinator was trying to get the attention of 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.439 his quarterback, or when there were substitutions being made and 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.200 somebody was yelling for a linebacker to run off the field. 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.439 I did notice that I was hearing those more than 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:53.280 I normally would, which makes sense. Obviously there's there's less 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.880 sound to interrupt everything. But yeah, I think you're right 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.800 that in the beginning of the season there were there 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.280 were audio instances that felt different. 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:07.920 We asked a Niche, what was the remote studio set up? Blake, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:12.080 If you sat down at your desk, what was in 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:12.960 your field of view? 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.040 The peripherals would be. I'd be sitting on the right 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:20.800 side of this extended broom closet if you will. Logan 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:23.800 Bill is to the far left in front of me. 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.600 I have a desktop computer, and on that desktop monitor, 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:30.479 my stats guy Paul Newman, would type in there and 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.119 I would see what's going on. To the left of that, 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.639 I had my monitor a little bit elevated. That was 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.800 our program feed. That's the game itself, it's what the 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.640 viewers are seeing on television right above that. They could 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.720 give me one extra monitor, one extra camera, so I 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.000 had the all twenty two, and then in that same 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:54.880 monitor I had the stats feed. Then I had a 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:59.880 second monitor or a second laptop which had net return, 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:04.159 which is the feed on a delay, so sometimes it 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.159 allows you to see a play twice if your replay. 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.000 It allows you to see the highlights when they do 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:13.560 a cut in, so you're able to kind of watch that. Okay, 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:16.600 you're showing Kyle Pitts here from Florida. We can react 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.760 off of that. And then there was an ISO monitor, 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.399 which is where our producer can show us things before 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:26.080 they come on air, whether it's a graphic or an 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:28.960