How TV News operates on a technical level. Part 1:POOL FEEDS

[Flory]

This is mostly just a personal journal where I will ramble about live news content distribution technical stuff and what not. Think of it like a personal journal. Better here then in my head lol. Most if this I also posted on cohost. Just thought perhaps some would be interested in this here as well.

2024 STATE OF THE UNION SPECIAL

Have you ever wondered why when watching tv news that is covering a major live event that if you change the channel the shot is the exact same as any other, well there is a reason for that. When it comes to the live coverage of any major event of notoriety that is not network exclusive and requires more then two cameras for the production (such as the multi camera production for a sate of the union address tv broadcast) it is often economically more viable to instead have one network provide all of the production and camera work done themselves instead of having a dozen of separate networks all produce their own feed for their own channel's broadcast.

The name of a feed that is produced by one network or organization that is then shared among dozens of other networks for their own broadcast is called a Pool Feed.

This practice was utilized this last week during the SOTU address. Here are some examples of such.

CBS (KHOU)



Fox News Channel



NewsNation



ABC (KTRK)



Scripps News




POOL FEED

For the 2024 US State of the Union the network that gained the rights to produce the main pool feed for the SOTU address was CNN. In previous years networks such as FOX News Channel and CBS have produced said pool feed before. With FOX News Channel having the rights for the pool feed for the republican response.

MEDIA SPECS

All pool feeds this year were most likely produced at 1080i59.94 using the h264 codec. 1080i is just 1080p but every frame has every other horizontal line of pixels cut out every other frame with said in between frames having the line of pixels cut present where they are not in the previous field. It's confusing, all you need to know is that it is used to save bandwidth (sending half the video with all of the refresh rate).

WAIT, THERE IS MORE THEN ONE FEED!?

In certain cases more then one feed might be sent out by the network providing the pool feed.
In the case of the SOTU pool feed two were provided. One being labled "Switched" and the other being labeled "Head-On-ISO". Switched is just a broadcast term to specify that the feed switches from camera to camera with live mixing. Like for example where you will see a wide shot of the House Chamber then switch a shot of some upset person then back to POTUS.
While the "ISO" in "Head-On-ISO" is short for "isolated" and refers to the feed being of just one shot from one camera, separate from the final mixed feed which is called "Switched". "Head-On" referring to the camera that is just a static shot of POTUS from a "head on" angle, thus the term head on.

Ident cards for CNN Head ISO and Switched pool feeds





Ident card for FOX Network pool ISO feed for RP response.



EXTRA FOOTNOTE

Although all TV News networks do use pool feeds for major events smaller more fringe streaming news channels will often have the skill issue of not having enough money or the right credentials to have authorized access to broadcast the pool feed. Like in the case of Real Americas Voice (please for the love of god do not watch this dumpster fire of a "news channel") in which they seem to use a separate pool feed, seemingly from the same cameras that are used for general C SPAN broadcasts of regular legislative broadcasts so I can only assume they only had access to use the C SPAN feed instead? I don't know I am just speculating. Just some odd thing I noticed while recording all the channels this year.

What RAV looked like on its stream.



RECORDING INFO

This year I recorded the following channels regarding this event.

VIA RF PUBLIC BROADCAST:
KPRC (NBC) (1080i59.94)
KHOU (CBS) (1080i59.94)
KTRK (ABC) (720p59.94)

VIA INTERNET STREAM:
Newsmax (720p29.97)
FOX News Channel (720p59.94)
ABC News Live (720p59.94)
NBC News Now (1080p29.97
Scripps News (720p29.97
NewsNation (1080p29.97)
CBSN (720p29.97)
Real Americas Voice (720p29.97)

VIA INTERNAL NEWS GATHERING LIVE FEED SERVICE RF BROADCAST (CNN Newsource):

Newsource Channel 2 (1080i59.94) SWITCHED
Newsource Channel 3 (1080i59.94) HEAD-ON-ISO
Newsource Channel 4 (1080i59.94) SPANISH

This all took 320gb. And yes, I am indeed very autistic. :333333333333

[steeldancer-x]

Have you ever seen a movie called 'Network' (1976)? It would be right up your alley

Very cool rundown btw. I am learning a thing or two

[arvy]

Cool . Almost like a hive mind sending commands to other parts of body.
Heard from the elders, that this is how state television was during Soviet Union

[Flory]

Have you ever seen a movie called 'Network' (1976)? It would be right up your alley

Very cool rundown btw. I am learning a thing or two

Ooo nice recommendation. Just saw the trailer and although heavily dramatized still very much interested in seeing it. Seems to be about a newscaster's decent into madness and a critique of 1970s news reporting culture and it's effect on American society?

[Flory]

Cool . Almost like a hive mind sending commands to other parts of body.
Heard from the elders, that this is how state television was during Soviet Union

Less of a hive mind and more of a bunch of heads all fighting with each other with their own self determined interests. The amount of autonomy in US TV News would surprise you lol.

Russia on the other hand is a joke. As you described in the Soviet era except with extra steps with government controlled state tv channels.

Rossia 1

[2020k]

Hitting this from a slightly different perspective... I'm taking a few marketing classes lately, so things pop out at me in different ways now.

The gym I go to has TVs and will usually have all three major national news networks on. Last night was the first time I noticed that a news network's headline, tagline, logo, and ticker are all written in bold, capital letters, while more trivial information (footage location or something like "you're watching" in one of your screencaps) is written in normal script.

No wonder I hyperventilate when I watch the news. It's always screaming at the viewer!

[arvy]

Cool . Almost like a hive mind sending commands to other parts of body.
Heard from the elders, that this is how state television was during Soviet Union

Less of a hive mind and more of a bunch of heads all fighting with each other with their own self determined interests. The amount of autonomy in US TV News would surprise you lol.

Russia on the other hand is a joke. As you described in the Soviet era except with extra steps with government controlled state tv channels.

Rossia 1

Exposing western propaganda is a joke to you?

[Glen_Glog]

Network is OK not really about TV news job but other films Broadcast News and Christine give a very accurate picture of the industry and the personalities at least for affiliate stations even today.

I hyperventilate when I watch the news.

I recorded 12 hours of live Fox News during the Iraq Shock and Awe campaign and they kept increasing the red saturation on the Chyrons and graphics over time noticeable by fast forwarding the tape lol

[mechanismj]

BREAKING. Man on internet lashes out at western propaganda while seemingly unaware he is swallowing gallons of his own country's bullshit propaganda. More at 11.

[Orbited insanitarium]

BREAKING. Man on internet lashes out at western propaganda while seemingly unaware he is swallowing gallons of his own country's bullshit propaganda. More at 11.

Thank you mechj for providing the Onion-esque headline! Irony is a dish best served satirically (I am up to my neck in pomposity in regards to arvy, though I find it more saddening than anything funny ngl)

[mechanismj]

I don't mean to be a dick. But have some scruples for cryin' out loud.

[NTFMTS]

Yes well put mechanismj, thanks for saying so lol

[Flory]

Network is OK not really about TV news job but other films Broadcast News and Christine give a very accurate picture of the industry and the personalities at least for affiliate stations even today.

I hyperventilate when I watch the news.

I recorded 12 hours of live Fox News during the Iraq Shock and Awe campaign and they kept increasing the red saturation on the Chyrons and graphics over time noticeable by fast forwarding the tape lol

I'm not surprised lol. Glad to see someone else intro recording live news broadcasts. Did you ever upload your tapes by chance? Either way the slow increase for sure was a physiological attention grabbing thing more then anything. Purely an interest in viewership if anything and that is understandable being a for profit news org.

[Flory]

Cool . Almost like a hive mind sending commands to other parts of body.
Heard from the elders, that this is how state television was during Soviet Union

Less of a hive mind and more of a bunch of heads all fighting with each other with their own self determined interests. The amount of autonomy in US TV News would surprise you lol.

Russia on the other hand is a joke. As you described in the Soviet era except with extra steps with government controlled state tv channels.

Rossia 1

Exposing western propaganda is a joke to you?

Everything is propaganda if you think so. Nothing is completely objective and any attempt will inevitably fall under a subjective world view, thus fitting the criteria of propaganda by it's definition. Also it must be emphasized that most large orgs have interests of the self rather to control the people outside of what is needed if at all, and def not to the extent you are insinuating. The interests is usually money, more so to gain profits as well as to literally keep such orgs and power structures stable and living. The interest is autonomous for the most part as all other large parties are fighting against each other for their own self interests instead of some supposed cartel like cooperation at some extreme level. I supposes this does occur at a certain level, but once more not at the one you are insinuating.

If you talk to people who work or interact with such orgs instead of taking the word of some person on the internet or some person who has no credentials or experience in what ever field of interest you wish to understand you will at the very least relise much of what you are talking about is more of a fantasy of a paranoid variety (a world of minions and ignorant sheeple).

Ask anyone about what there role in an institution is and they will all give conflicting answers to each other. There is no grand controlling narrative other then loosely based social and financial contracts for the benefit of all involved, even if it does involve large chunks of the working population. No two or more orgs or institutions have a concrete plan to pull of some wild horrid plan. There is no puppet master. The true puppet master is the mind. It's flaws and how it rules us and our actions, selfish. And the systems we have, even if far from functional, are the best we can with the ancient brain chemistry that could not evolve in time for our own technological and social developments along side the cold relative truth that we are as of now faced with limited amount of resources and infinite demand.

The puppet master at hand is your mind. It has trapped you. And the only one who can free yourself from your own hands is you.

God Speed.

-Flory

[arvy]

Due to geographical location and history I got the opportunity to experience both sides. This is the crossroads of east and west. Collapse of USSR, 9/11, Maidan, War in Ukraine.

Funny, I still to this day remember what I was doing on 9/11..and how we little kids were discussing how America will destroy Taliban. Despite being oceans away America first was already indoctrinated in our conscious.

Still the flow of information was pretty slow compared to now. Not going to dwell on politics but what is shown on national tv or other social media is coming down from you may call West. And what the West actually means I let you to decide.

On the side note I consider Tomorrow’s Harvest anti-west album. It’s really interesting what BOC will do next.

[steeldancer-x]

Tomorrow's Harvest is definitely an anti-west album

[SonicDimension]

Without the 'West,' none of the technology that Boards of Canada uses to make music would exist. Also, growing up in a prosperous western country enabled the brothers to make a living as musicians, rather than doing drudge work in a factory. Also, none of the music, TV shows, or films that inspired Boards of Canada to make art would exist without the 'West.' In summary, it would be more than a little absurd for Boards of Canada to be 'anti-west.'

[Orbited insanitarium]

Without the 'West,' none of the technology that Boards of Canada uses to make music would exist. Also, growing up in a prosperous western country enabled the brothers to make a living as musicians, rather than doing drudge work in a factory. Also, none of the music, TV shows, or films that inspired Boards of Canada to make art would exist without the 'West.' In summary, it would be more than a little absurd for Boards of Canada to be 'anti-west.'

This topic is certainly going places :/
No-one is calling the band ultimately "anti-west" or anything on a larger scale than the album we are lightly discussing of Tomorrow's Harvest. There's no inherancy being implied.
Might be getting your knickers in a twist Sonic!

To me, the record paints Russian landscapes in my mind, it's a perspective record in the "anti-west" sense I'm thinking about. Semena Mertvykh is in Russian, and the album centralises these countries thematically, referentially, and geographically in it's imagery over the West.

I absolutey understand the Western history you refer to, but I don't think it really needed to be listed out.

[SonicDimension]

Yes, and the one track title that’s in Russian translates to ‘Seeds of the Dead.” It’s obviously a reference to the fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War era. What does this have to do with an ‘anti-west’ perspective? The album was influenced by American films of the 1970’s from what I’ve read. I think that the album is more connected to the dread and paranoia of the modern US culture than to anything about the USSR or Russia.

[Flory]

Yes, and the one track title that’s in Russian translates to ‘Seeds of the Dead.” It’s obviously a reference to the fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War era. What does this have to do with an ‘anti-west’ perspective? The album was influenced by American films of the 1970’s from what I’ve read. I think that the album is more connected to the dread and paranoia of the modern US culture than to anything about the USSR or Russia.

Gonna be honest other then the names of the songs I never thought how TH would have something to do with anything more in depth then some vague meanings of an impending doom followed by some sort of rebirth of a new. Perhaps I just never gave TH a serious thought into what it actually means, if it does at all in any specific way.