Cheers to the Unsung Heroes of Broadcasting!

I love broadcast engineers. Or, perhaps I should say I love competent broadcast engineers.

I started my broadcast career as an engineer sixty years ago this summer. I quickly transferred to the non-technical side of broadcasting, but have never lost my appreciation for the engineers. We see what we see on TV or hear on radio, because of the engineers. But, the only time they are noticed is in some act of incompetence - or a failure of equipment which they were unable to prevent.

Personally, I frequently notice and appreciate their competence.

Today (April 5) on Fox News Sunday, the panel, as usual, placed Chris Wallace at the head of the table, viewed on the right side of the screen, with the other panel members all seated to his right, on the "far" side of the table (facing the camera) from the viewer's perspective.

The Fox engineers, who do this every Sunday, know that Chris mostly speaks toward the panelists to his right. so they place his lapel mike on his right lapel. The other panel members mostly speak toward Chris, to their left, so the engineers place their mikes on their left lapel. This arrangement gives the best and most consistent audio quality.

Today, Politico's Executive Editor Jim VandeHei, a first-timer on the panel, was seated to Chris Wallace's immediate right. Perhaps more accustomed to working with a round table of equally important participants, instead of one panel moderator as in this case, Jim kept looking from left to right, first at Chris, then back toward Rich, Laura and Bill. Each time he turned his head to his right - away from his microphone - the volume of his speech dropped.

That happened only during the opening segment. When Fox returned to the panel after the first break, Jim's mike had been moved from his left lapel to his tie... an okay location, whether he looked to the left or to the right as he spoke.

I may be the only one who noticed. But every viewer then enjoyed a more consistent and even voice volume level as Jim spoke.

Score one more for competent broadcast engineers!