Anyone else hearing that audio that sounds like a telephone dialing? It usually happens at the end of commercial breaks, just before the studio announcer starts talking. What am I hearing and what is it's purpose?
I may be wrong but I think those Touch tone sounds are used to trigger local ad breaks. I recall hearing those sounds on many cable channels in the 1980's. It wouldn't be surprising if FSC was using outdated technology!
So Max Bretos sounds horrible only because he's using the microphone that Nixon used to announced his resignation? Seriously though, I'll have to pay more attention to when they happen, but i'm pretty sure they mainly happen at the end of breaks, when we see the stripes on either side of the screen, going behind the logo of whatever league we're watching.
I'm getting them also. Kinda makes me sentimental for old days of ESPN when Australian Rules and PKA Kickboxing ruled.
Don't know if it's what you're hearing, but there are cuetones sent by networks so that the cable headends around the country know to automatically fire up a commercial break. Or it may signal coming back from a break, don't know what or when you're hearing it. Usually there are a few quick tones - they're to trigger commercials.
That's what i'm guessing they are. It's weird though, because they're only on FSC and I haven't heard any ringtones before I started watching this summer (I know i'm late to the party), so I'm assuming I shouldn't be hearing them. What's odd about it, is that FSC is a national channel, and 95% of their commercials are national. During the MLS season, there's a few local commercials. I would think that the commercial breaks would also be national and the ringtones would cue the local commercials and not the entire break, but oh well. On ABC, Fox, sure i'd expect to hear the ringtones (they probably silently happen quite frequently), but not so much on FSC. I'm guessing that something is messing up and I shouldn't hear the tones, but i'm not complaining. As I said above, it's odd that it's only on FSC (a national channel) and not on Fox, ABC, whatever. Then again, as posted above, it's possible, although unlikely, that FSC is using outdated technology.
in this day and age of satellite tv "local" comercials is not really the accurate term. you know when you're watching FSC on dish network and you see commercial for dish network PPV this is one of those "local" inserts. the inserts are done by the cable company or satellite provider. every channel has these except for the local channels, and there are several methods of inserting them. the one FSC uses is the same as OLN, they use the tones. major networks like NBC,ABC,CBS,Fox,UPN, and WB don;t use the same method for local ad insertion because the channels are actual local affiliates and the channels themselves put the local advertisements in along with the national ones. that's why you don't see strange ad cuts (like at the end of an ad you see a split second of another ad) or hear the tones.
Plus, a traditional station has a control room, and while it's somewhat automated, it still has just the one station to worry about. A cable headend can have hundreds of channels to be concerned with, all firing a couple of "local" commercial breaks an hour. You can't have one guy sit there and press all those buttons and get it right.