69 replies to this topic

[Kev00]

Question folks. Is it just me or was there someone on the microphone making VVVEEEEOOOOOOOWWWW sounds at the early part of the race? Couldn’t post at the time.

https://streamable.com/40gkt

[EndlessMotion]

Update on the identity of the bloke making those car noises at one stage of the race is Sky F1 are currently none the wiser as to who it was. Brundle said he heard them but didn't think it was being broadcast. Had me and my old man laughing

[Counterbalance]

Update on the identity of the bloke making those car noises at one stage of the race is Sky F1 are currently none the wiser as to who it was. Brundle said he heard them but didn't think it was being broadcast. Had me and my old man laughing

I recon it was Ross Brawn.

[Atreiu]

Who was the neeeeowww guy?

[Atreiu]

Update on the identity of the bloke making those car noises at one stage of the race is Sky F1 are currently none the wiser as to who it was. Brundle said he heard them but didn't think it was being broadcast. Had me and my old man laughing

Not all heroes wear capes.

[FirstnameLastname]

Who was the neeeeowww guy?

Renault engineers trying to restart Ricciardos engine

[ConsiderAndGo]

Who was the neeeeowww guy?

We need to know this.

 

He was incredible.

[SlipperyDiff]

We need to know this.

 

He was incredible.

It was Alonso..................from the beach.

[OvDrone]

Who was the neeeeowww guy?

 

I don't know but he is one of our collective spirit animals now.

[Afterburner]

We need to know this.

He was incredible.

I worked an IMSA race at Road America one year and my station was right next to one of the trackside mics. It took every fiber of my being to not walk over to the thing and go, “MMMMOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW” Sometimes I lie awake at night wishing that I had.

[jonpollak]

I don't know but he is one of our collective spirit animals now.

Hey.that was hysterical
Was it also in the world feed or just SKY?
Jp

Meeeaaoowww

[loki]

No I definitely heard someone making engine sounds on five live too, I’m sure the commentators mentioned it as well.

We got a name for that over here.

 

It's called Sunday afternoon in Texas...

[Widefoot2]

Who was the neeeeowww guy?

Everyone misheard the sound - it wasn't "neeeeoowww", it was "meeeeoowww".  The guys in the world feed production room left the door open, a stray cat wandered in and found an open mic.

 

Happens all the time.  But at least they keep the rodent population down.

[jonpollak]

What was with that guy going meeoooww..... on the audio.
Someone’s hacked the frequency?
Jp

[Grenville]

What was with that guy going meeoooww..... on the audio.
Someone’s hacked the frequency?
Jp

Nah it was just FOM practising. When all electric racing takes over they will include this sound as each car passes the camera.

[Pete_f1]

I thought it was funny! Just someone near a mic.

[Yoshi]

It was so good   

[jonpollak]

Here ya go..
Most plausible I can figure..
 
 loki with the hypothesis

 

I thought it was Liberty trying to fix the engine sound debacle. You know, Super Bowl and all...
 
 
Being on the world feed that narrows it down quite a bit.  They don't have commentary during the race so it's likely an ambient mic from around the track.  It was a helo shot so they wouldn't have been using a mic from up there.  The comms, talkback and IFB sends route through the console on live TV shoots particularly sports.  That could mean it was someone clowning about on the crew, talent, etc but those things are routed through the desk differently than a program feed.  Plus that would be pretty much game over for your gig if you got caught doing that on purpose and maybe even if it was an honest mistake. 
 
My guess would be it's an ambient mic somewhere that a person could get to it and talk or shout into it pretty easily.   Could have been a corner worker.  My understanding is not all down there are licensed SCCA corner workers.  The region doesn't have enough, they can't get enough to travel down there (they volunteer and pay their own way) and I understand some of the spots have more inexperienced workers.  When we do gigs that require ambient/crowd mics we try to place them so they are close enough to get what we want but positioned so a) nobody steals them b) nobody in particular can be individually heard in any particular mic especially when it's live.

We can ask ...here.

Jp

[RacingGreen]

Sounds better than these hybrid cars - but then again so does my vacuum cleaner.

[Peat]

One of the highlights of the race. May he forever remain anonymous and, if he's reading, accept a doff of my hat. 

[Tenmantaylor]

It was that eagle from the other year. Liberty's secret Austin effects continue. Next year you'll get a funny smell emitting from your tv at the start.

[levi1700]

Do we hear the same guy again in the official race recap?
https://m.youtube.co...h?v=PNwPpqaLE60
Around 6.40

[Supervly]

Hey.that was hysterical
Was it also in the world feed or just SKY?
Jp

Meeeaaoowww

On the world feed  , we heard it on Dutch tv too 

[OO7]

I got the impression that it was an inside joke, that the Sky team knew who it was (it was a dare for instance), but wasn't saying.

[statman]

It was also heard on other channels, worldwide.

 

My guess that it was either some mic being discovered trackside by someone or the (audio) feed got hacked

[w1Y]

Can we replace the 1 lap no commentary thing they do with this.

[noikeee]

Perhaps one of the greatest moments of the season. Glorious.

 

Can confirm it was on the world feed, could be heard in the Portuguese transmission by SportTV.

[Radion]

Well I couldn't stop laughing for a while, amazing 🤣😂

[Pete_f1]

Made me smile when I heard it on Channel 4 in the UK. I bet the director and sound guy in FoM were shutting down mics left right and center!

[JHSingo]

It could've been worse. I remember once watching an ice hockey game where you could hear some...umm...distinctively "adult" noises in the background. 

 

 

It did give me a chuckle though. Props to whoever it was, you got your 30 seconds of fame. 

[7MGTEsup]

It was the new sound effects getting ready for next season to go with the bleep, bleep, bleep as the lights go on at the start. They are also going to have "finish him" played when two cars come together on track and a wah wah wah every time Vettel spins on the first lap.

[jsadie]

It could've been worse. I remember once watching an ice hockey game where you could hear some...umm...distinctively "adult" noises in the background. 

 

 

It did give me a chuckle though. Props to whoever it was, you got your 30 seconds of fame. 

 

LOL - that's an amazing clip .

[Mosrite]

Heard it while watching Channel 4 coverage. Was just about getting annoying when it stopped. Find him!

[OvDrone]

It could've been worse. I remember once watching an ice hockey game where you could hear some...umm...distinctively "adult" noises in the background. 

 

 

It did give me a chuckle though. Props to whoever it was, you got your 30 seconds of fame. 

 

Haha, wow. That was ace, hilarious.

 

You a Predators or Blues fan, JH?

[Risil]

I got the impression that it was an inside joke, that the Sky team knew who it was (it was a dare for instance), but wasn't saying.

 

I'd be really surprised if it was someone on the TV production side, as making silly noises on the world feed (or really interrupting it at all, if you're not one of the talent) is gross misconduct and might well stop you working in broadcasting ever again.

 

I mean it was funny and all but if I were a TV producer I would never in a million years hire someone who had pulled a stunt like that. So I'm on board for the ambient mic theory.

[Ramon69]

This was so much better than the eagle from last year!

[SophieB]

 

I'd be really surprised if it was someone on the TV production side, as making silly noises on the world feed (or really interrupting it at all, if you're not one of the talent) is gross misconduct and might well stop you working in broadcasting ever again.

 

I mean it was funny and all but if I were a TV producer I would never in a million years hire someone who had pulled a stunt like that. So I'm on board for the ambient mic theory.

 

 

This would also be the most pleasing theory to me. I love the idea of someone innocently making race car noises unknowingly broadcasting it to the whole world.

[Jazza]

How could someone near a mic make the noise and have it heard? Sure the mics are on all race and are recorded, but they don’t all play over the world feed simultaneously. The only mic we hear is the one at the camera feed being shown on TV at that moment. If all the mics were all heard at once it would just be a mess.

The fact that this was the USGP and is all over F1’s social media (and had been slightly edited) makes it seem more and more like another bird shadow stunt.

[SophieB]

How could someone near a mic make the noise and have it heard? Sure the mics are on all race and are recorded, but they don’t all play over the world feed simultaneously. The only mic we hear is the one at the camera feed being shown on TV at that moment. If all the mics were all heard at once it would just be a mess.

The fact that this was the USGP and is all over F1’s social media (and had been slightly edited) makes it seem more and more like another bird shadow stunt.

 

This becomes disappointingly more likely the more that F1.com get behind it:

 

Formula 1‏Verified account @F1 4m4 minutes ago

More

Neeow! #USGP #F1

https://twitter.com/...350565759582208

[w1Y]

It could've been worse. I remember once watching an ice hockey game where you could hear some...umm...distinctively "adult" noises in the background.

https://www.youtube....h?v=ikt5Un3WO7s

It did give me a chuckle though. Props to whoever it was, you got your 30 seconds of fame.

Thats hilarious. Any detail on what it was.

Part of me loves the idea that the soind guy was getting lucky and didnt realise he had hit the wrong switch.

How people hack these things though lol

[RECKLESS]

Trololo

[Jon83]

I recon it was Ross Brawn.

 

Or Ross Brown?

[JHSingo]

Haha, wow. That was ace, hilarious.

 

You a Predators or Blues fan, JH?

 

General NHL fan, so I'll watch anyone - but I'm a Red Wings fan. Just don't ask how this season is going... ;_;

 

Thats hilarious. Any detail on what it was.

Part of me loves the idea that the soind guy was getting lucky and didnt realise he had hit the wrong switch.

How people hack these things though lol

 

Like with this incident, I guess it was someone messing around with a microphone, since you'd hope it wasn't someone in the broadcast truck feeling lonely! 

[Afterburner]

Thats hilarious. Any detail on what it was.
Part of me loves the idea that the soind guy was getting lucky and didnt realise he had hit the wrong switch.
How people hack these things though lol

Edited by Afterburner, 22 October 2018 - 14:21.

[BRK]

I heard this a couple of times. IIRC it appears a bit later as well. Thought at the time it was highly unprofessional for the non-live commentator to be making such noises. Did someone lose their job?

[Rinehart]

It could've been worse. I remember once watching an ice hockey game where you could hear some...umm...distinctively "adult" noises in the background. 

 

 

It did give me a chuckle though. Props to whoever it was, you got your 30 seconds of fame. 

Yup, that beats car noises. 

[noikeee]

The fact that this was the USGP and is all over F1’s social media (and had been slightly edited) makes it seem more and more like another bird shadow stunt.

 

Yeah now that you mention it, it really wouldn't shock me if this was all fake and staged to get a viral story for F1...

Edited by noikeee, 22 October 2018 - 14:35.

[THEWALL]

This one is live...

 

https://youtu.be/hNPxIYNY34g

Edited by THEWALL, 22 October 2018 - 22:53.

[SamH123]

I heard it on the app commentary (with Jennie Gow) and I actually though the neeoww noises sounded different to those Sky feed noises

Although not sure as I'm hearing them many hours apart.  But if they were different it must have been a stunt

[loki]

What was with that guy going meeoooww..... on the audio.
Someone’s hacked the frequency?
Jp

 

 

It was also heard on other channels, worldwide.

 

My guess that it was either some mic being discovered trackside by someone or the (audio) feed got hacked

 

The transport mechanisms are digital now.  To insert a sound into that you'd have to decode it and mix it in then encode it again.  For them to use an existing frequency they'd have to have the gear to replace what was there originally and use something that was routed through the console to begin with.  Nothing makes it to air unless it's a feed routed through the console or a switcher.  It's not possible for some rogue element to make it on the program feed unless it goes through the control room.

 

How could someone near a mic make the noise and have it heard? Sure the mics are on all race and are recorded, but they don’t all play over the world feed simultaneously. The only mic we hear is the one at the camera feed being shown on TV at that moment. If all the mics were all heard at once it would just be a mess.

The fact that this was the USGP and is all over F1’s social media (and had been slightly edited) makes it seem more and more like another bird shadow stunt.

 

The ambient mics typically aren't multi tracked at live sporting events though it's possible if they were going to do some post on it at some time.  For the sports I've done we've not tracked the ambient mics.  Music events are different and we track everything even if we aren't going to use it.  For example we record 102 tracks for each show at the "day gig".  

 

On many if not most of those cameras there aren't built in mics or they don't use them.  They do have better mics in those areas with the type of mic depending on what the shot is.   Some spots need a long distance parabolic.  Other will use a traditional shot gun.  The types of mics and pickup characteristics are specific to this kind of application. They aren't the mics you see normally used for singers, talking heads or instruments at a live concert.    The audio is aggregated so that when a particular shot is shown it's switched from the switcher and in other cases mixed on the fly.  It sounds like they also have a bed of an ambient mix to fill it out where other mics are used to layer the crowd and ambient sound to it's bigger or "thicker" that it would be from just a single mic.

 

It could very well be a stunt.  The producers would have to be in on it but it wouldn't surprise me if it was something to gin up some viral comments.  It is something that could be inserted at Biggin Hill before the program hit the sat or streaming data centers but someone there would have had to be in on it just as if it were at the mobile control room at the track someone would have to be in on it.  It also wouldn't surprise me if some knucklehead somewhere was yelling into an open mic.