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April 2004 Arkansas Mensa AETN tour in Conway

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First studio

This is the first studio we saw and was surprisingly small. Mike pointed out how the backdrops were blurry, which can give the impression there are actual scenes in the background when they record segments.

Everything was on tracks, pulleys and other movable equipment so it could be changed to whatever lighting and/or backdrops they needed to create the illusions appropriate to what they were presenting. It was incredibly versatile.



Master control room
Master Control Room

This room controls what goes out over the air. There are a bunch of monitors (behind Mike in the pink shirt) so the Master control engineer can watch to see what everyone is seeing on their TVs to make sure everything is working properly.

There is more than one stream going on at all times, in case one drops out for some reason. That way the engineer can switch immediately to the backup.

The empty slots will eventually be filled with new equipment for the coming digital broadcasts.


Master Control Engineer, Jim Bird
The Master Control Engineer

Jim Bird (the Master Control Engineer) was kind enough to let us crowd into his control room and threaten to push buttons willy-nilly. Just kidding, we know better than to do that! We're Mensans!

He did look a bit nervous, with good reason. If anyone had accidentally pushed the wrong button, who knows what would have happened!

I found it interesting that only one person runs all these AETN broadcasts at that time of night (after 8 P.M.) when everyone else has gone home. We were told they broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so someone has to be there all night running the equipment in this room. So much for early to bed, early to rise being the best way to live. Technology is great for the natural night owls among us.

It seems like a high pressure job to me, but he really has control, at least when everything works right, as he remarked. As we all know, equipment failure is always a pain.

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