Special F/X: (Sort of) Via Satellite

The secret to staging remote interviews is not a network television budget.

You see it all the time. A network news anchor turns to a nearby monitor and interviews a special guest live via satellite from a city on the other side of the world. It's a feat that requires billions of dollars of sophisticated equipment. For this conversation to take place, the interviewee's image and voice must be converted into digital information, shot into space, bounced off an orbiting satellite, then received and decoded by the network. At the same instant, the network shoots back the voice of the anchor so the two people can communicate. Meanwhile, the production crew broadcasts glitch-free video and crystal clear audio live to your living room in real-time as the interview takes place. Pretty impressive, huh? Well, maybe.

The truth is that those satellite interviews aren't always what they appear to be. Oh, some are real, most certainly. But every now and then you'll catch a Dick Clark Bloopers special or a local news reporter using a trick similar to the one I'm about to sha…

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