Coming Friday: We're all ears on the USC sideline

By Tom Hoffarth on October 29, 2009 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News Staff Photographer

The science involved in how a parabolic microphone works on the sideline of a sporting event can't be more complicated than trying to explain to a kid why you can hear someone from a reasonable distance by talking into tin cans with a string attached.

Sound about right?

The lessons we learned as a half-day laborer on the sidelines at the USC-Oregon State game last week were enough to make us appreciate all the heavy lifting that goes on from that unsung position on the ABC production crew as well as get us interested in it to try it again sometime.

Until the story lands on your doorstep or news rack tomorrow morning, here are a few photos along the way to help explain how it went:

== Emi Noguchi explains some of the dish tricks hourse before kickoff, while Jeff Winkler, the RF supervisor, looks on:

== A couple of fans who happen to be on the field before the game ask if I work for ESPN. I'm not sure how they'd think that -- except for the fact I'm wearing a blue vest that says "ESPN" on the back for some reason. I point the dish at them and ask: If you were named Miss America, how would you try to change the world? So one of them answered me ... which was great, because then I could figure out how to turn the volumn down when I had no intention of listening:

== A shot for the resume:

== Through the looking glass. Or rather, a tough plastic made of Kevlar, Butyrate and Acrylic specially developed, according to the official website (linked here).