Ever wonder how George always knows whose calling without being on the phone?

The last segment of most shows is a live call-in from viewers. This is trickier than it might seem. Calls arrive in our “communication center” (a room with some phones ). Volunteers answer the calls, get the name of the caller and a general sense of the question. These same volunteers are talking to the asst. director in the control room on another extension. The comm. center folks and the AD decide which order to take the calls. The AD also lets the comm. center folks know when the previous call has been finished.

The first caller to go on the air is transferred by the comm. center to a special extension that is connected to the audio patch panel. When this extension “rings” in the audio booth, audio picks up the call (but can’t talk to the caller). At the same time, the AD let’s George know whose calling by talking into a special microphone that is routed, via the patch panel, to George’s Interrupted FeedBack, or IFB. A picture of one is shown below.

The ear piece sits in his ear, and George is real good at looking interested while actually taking notes on the next caller. He can even talk and listen at the same time! When George says, “Let’s talk to Sam in San Jose …”, audio opens up the audio from the special extension on the sound board, and the caller is on the air.

Normally, callers get their whole question out, and then we disconnect them (they can hear their response on the air). This gives us time to tell the AD the caller is dropped, who let’s the comm center. know the audio extension is free, who sends in the next call. Audio let’s the AD know when the next caller has successfully transferred, and then the AD let’s George know who the caller is. All while Dr. Pete or our guest is answering the previous question.

Occasionally, the audio guys guess wrong and disconnect a caller before Dr. Pete or the guest get a chance to ask a clarifying question. We apologize in advance, but we have very little time to cycle callers thru.

One last detail: you might wonder how Dr. Pete or the guests hear the question, since they don’t wear an IFB? Well, they used to wear one just like George. Recently, though, we figured out that we could place a small speaker behind their chairs without getting any feedback. At least, we usually don’t.

And one last bit about phone calls: when you call in, please turn down your own TV set until we disconnect you, and what ever you do, don’t use a speakerphone. We get feedback that way too, and even if we don’t you probably sound like you’re shouting thru a tunnel.

So much for audio.  On to video.

Back to audio.