“The announcers are at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, nearly 7,000 miles from Beijing, sitting inside 14-foot-wide booths that are equipped with 24-inch HD monitors and headsets that pipe in the ambient sounds from the game sites in China. Every bit of 13 sports, and some of basketball, is called in this fashion on MSNBC, USA and CNBC.
The announcers never see anything more than what the viewers see. There is no deception afoot here. The announcers make it clear that they are in New York, as do the studio hosts.” — NYTimes.com
Makes me wonder if –in a pinch– one of our guys could “call” a game by watching it on TV? Yes, I know we’d lose all the good ambience from the booth. And much more. I’m just wondering.
This reminds me of the stories of Ronald Reagan calling baseball games by reading the ticker. It takes far more talent to do it that way – or at least a tremendous gift of gab.