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