ryangassxx said:
I've also come across something really cool... It resides around the UHF band, and it's TV audio. The cool part about it is that there's communications taking place over it. It sounds like a director instructing the production staff, and you can listen to this while watching the TV and he's verbally commanding the cameras to change off to different views and stuff, and it mirrors exactly with the TV broadcast. It's REALLY interesting to listen to, because they speak of a lot of behind the scenes things. It's usually on when there is a news broadcast or a home game (some sporting event).. Just for the record, i live nowhere near the television studios of these broadcasts, and I hear them loud and clear. Which seems pretty anomalous since they're probably using relatively low power UHF radios..
What you're talking about is called IFB (interruptible fold back) in the business. it's actually transmitted with pretty high power- it needs range. This IFB feed is the exact same thing that the talent (anchors, reporters, etc) hear in their earpiece... in fact this IS what they are hearing in their earpiece.
The reason you can recieve this from far away is because they need it to be able to reach. it doesn't matter if you can see yourself on tv or not, it matters if you can hear your cue to go on, AND hear the director warn you when they're about to toss (or hand off the broadcast) to you. (it's also fun for messing with people or making them look like geniuses by feeding them information, or giving them surprise questions during interviews.
Without a doubt, the IFB feed is one of the most interesting things you can hear while scanning. it's best to watch and listen at the same time. you get a great perspective that way... it's too bad you don't get to hear what the talent says off the air... (lots of really funny (and often irreverent stuff) but you do get to hear the control room end of the jokes.
if you're nearby a scene (especially in a big market) sometimes you can hear IFB feeds if you switch on the close call. A lot of stations put their IFB feed on the microwave/satellite feeds, or they carry it over cell phone and put that on a wireless monitoring system. those are REAL Golden because the staff knows their IFB isn't widely monitored and the content of conversations is often more irreverent than those with normal UHF IFB feeds. if you have the wireless mic freq. programmed you can switch between the two and see if you can't catch a conversation between the control room and the reporter. :b
it's a good idea to save a the wireless mic/frequencies of your local news media in a bank somewhere- when you come up on traffic, even if your a mile away from the cause of the accident- often times you can hear things because most newsvans have external antennae for monitoring, and wireless mics. hell, it's a great idea to have newsmedia frequencies in you scanner at all times. often if you miss important details on the public safety side, moments later you'll hear them repeated on the media side.
wow. my posts are long today...
