I've seen references to different types of talkback on here, 'mix-minus' was one of them.
What types of talkback are there, and what does one hear on them?
Does the recipient get to choose what they hear, can presenters have different preferences?
Who has access to broadcast on talkback? Is it open mic or push to talk?
Mix minus (also known as clean feed) is the programme sound without the contributor (to avoid issues due to delays and feedback). That's arguably foldback rather than TalkBack to hear what is going out, other contributors etc.
IFB is Interruptible FoldBack, which has gallery TalkBack added.
Open talkback is where the presenter hears everything in the gallery, switched talkback more of a push to talk situation.
In a studio situation I believe there is usually a choice, and it's not unheard of for a presenter who normally uses open talkback to go to switched before conducting an interview so they can concentrate on the answers more fully.
Write that down in your copybook now
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Steve in Pudsey post_id=10549 time=1620105628 user_id=942 Wrote:Mix minus (also known as clean feed) is the programme sound without the contributor (to avoid issues due to delays and feedback). That's arguably foldback rather than TalkBack to hear what is going out, other contributors etc.
Yep, I think it's normally called mix-minus within the sound desk/gallery (it is a function of the sound desk) and then when it goes out into the studio comms system it's a 'clean feed'. As you say a mix-minus isn't necessarily a clean feed
Quote: IFB is Interruptible FoldBack, which has gallery TalkBack added.
Not quite, it's not gallery talkback it's a switched talkback - hence the interruptable bit. Though usually the person interrupting to talk to the guest or reporter will be in the gallery.
IFB and Clean Feed are the same thing, just different terminology. The Americans tend to use 'IFB', over here it's always 'clean feed'.
Although a clean feed or IFB is not 'talkback'. The former is only one way, Talkback is two-way. Talkback is sometimes known as a 4-wire although these days its hardly ever actually 4 wires between the two places.
Programme OBs will have talkback, a down the line will have a clean feed. Some news OBs will have both, especially those where someone is presenting a complex or long sequence from location. The talkback is to a producer and the CF to the presenter.
Some programme OBs have multiple talkbacks - one for production, one for engineering teams for example
To muddy it further, isn't CF the BBC term for what everyone else calls mix minus?
Write that down in your copybook now
From my experience Americans tend to (almost exclusively) refer to what we'd call a clean feed as mix-minus, the IFB being something on top of that.
So on an event a few weeks ago the comms engineer said 'the guests will have the same mix minus, but each has an individual IFB', meaning they'd hear the same programme feed, but the studio could talk to each guest individually.
PL (either Private Line, or Private Listen, depending on who you ask) tends to be used for feeds to camera operators or other technical crew. Those can be 'listen only' or two way talkback circuits.
Sometimes a programme feed might get called 'cue' - just don't do that in BBC Radio, where 'cue' is a request to send everything back down the line including that source. Only for use in very particular circumstances, and less common now due to digital delays.
Good thread. So, here's a question on talkback.
Usually on sports programming, increasingly the 'pundits/ex-pros' have a spiral cord earpiece for talkback.
What feed would this be? Open talkback would be to confusing unless well schooled in the art of picking out instructions from the other production chatter.
So, is the earpiece basically for the director to pass on a 'what VT replay' is coming next, for them to pass comment on?
<t>Hatton Cross - Previously known as Hatton Cross on TV Forum</t>
Hatton Cross post_id=10679 time=1620155388 user_id=1471 Wrote:Good thread. So, here's a question on talkback.
Usually on sports programming, increasingly the 'pundits/ex-pros' have a spiral cord earpiece for talkback.
What feed would this be? Open talkback would be to confusing unless well schooled in the art of picking out instructions from the other production chatter.
So, is the earpiece basically for the director to pass on a 'what VT replay' is coming next, for them to pass comment on? Normally they will have switched talkback (though not always - some prefer open talkback) so that producers can talk to them about storylines to discuss, replays which are coming up, things like that. Not typically the director who talks to them.
Hatton Cross post_id=10679 time=1620155388 user_id=1471 Wrote:Good thread. So, here's a question on talkback.
Usually on sports programming, increasingly the 'pundits/ex-pros' have a spiral cord earpiece for talkback.
What feed would this be? Open talkback would be to confusing unless well schooled in the art of picking out instructions from the other production chatter.
So, is the earpiece basically for the director to pass on a 'what VT replay' is coming next, for them to pass comment on?
.. and we haven’t even begun on DIRT and Omni talkback.
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Steve in Pudsey post_id=10560 time=1620109749 user_id=942 Wrote:To muddy it further, isn't CF the BBC term for what everyone else calls mix minus? I've never really heard mix-minus used at the BBC in general use but it's a term within the sound desk or sound gallery. Clean Feed when it's sent to someone's earpiece because foldback can be derived from a mix-minus too (not always though)
In BBC terminology CF is Cardiff! So often you'll see C/F for clean feed and T/B for talkback
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News Engineer post_id=10675 time=1620154457 user_id=729 Wrote:From my experience Americans tend to (almost exclusively) refer to what we'd call a clean feed as mix-minus, the IFB being something on top of that.
So on an event a few weeks ago the comms engineer said 'the guests will have the same mix minus, but each has an individual IFB', meaning they'd hear the same programme feed, but the studio could talk to each guest individually. Why would they give all the guests the same mix-minus? Surely that would mean that they'd either all be able to hear themselves, or they'd not be able to hear themselves or any other guest?
I remember when I was being trained on a mixing desk in a news studio why they did it the difficult way of mix-minus when they could just not send the OS fader group to the OB clean feeds. The answer of course is of you've more than one guest/reporter on an OS and they need to interact - they all need individual seperate CFs/mix minuses
BBC Radio often refer to a clean feed as 'Cue' as well - and that crops up occasionally in TV land, for example when radio sound operators might be freelancing. It's always good practice where possible to generate a Mix-Minus (Clean Feed) for every OS on the desk, so that OSs can talk to other OSs, but that's not always possible on more limited desks and installations, so providing a Mix-Minus of all OSs is a reasonable (but less flexible) solution.
Regarding Production Talkback, there is often also (in larger production studios) separate Camera T/B and Sound T/B, where Camera/Sound Supervisors can talk to all camera/sound staff without everyone else hearing it.
Finally, a lot of studios also have Loudspeaker Talkback, where gallery staff can switch to a public address type speaker or speaker system in the studio. This is usually disabled when the TX lights are on.
Inspector Sands post_id=10742 time=1620198215 user_id=1003 Wrote:Why would they give all the guests the same mix-minus? Surely that would mean that they'd either all be able to hear themselves, or they'd not be able to hear themselves or any other guest? They were close enough that they could hear each other, so they didn't get themselves or their fellow guests, just the rest of the programme. The format meant they were only ever interacting with the host in the US, that was they way the studio wanted to do it, so we provided it!
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News Engineer post_id=10761 time=1620210736 user_id=729 Wrote:They were close enough that they could hear each other, so they didn't get themselves or their fellow guests, just the rest of the programme. The format meant they were only ever interacting with the host in the US, that was they way the studio wanted to do it, so we provided it! Aha, so they were all in the same room rather than each in a seperate location! Makes more sense
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX5L4lhq6OY&t=623s in this video from about 10:15, it appears that the monitoring is coming through a walkie talkie
joshuanesbit post_id=10796 time=1620223532 user_id=1556 Wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX5L4lhq6OY&t=623s in this video from about 10:15, it appears that the monitoring is coming through a walkie talkie Yes, quite common if you are using a satellite truck which has transmitters for radios. Of course, not every camera operator has a truck, many will just have a LiveU/WMT unit and a company car.
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