WWTBAM Bored

My apologies if this has already been discussed somewhere, but if so I couldn't find it via search.

My question is for those of you with experience as contestants OR as PAFs...
What is the sound quality like on both ends of the line?

When sitting in the hotseat it certainly looks like the PAF is plenty loud. Right?
And how does the contestant's voice sound to the PAF? Like a speakerphone, I assume? (by that I mean some of the "calling from a barrel" effect)

I'm just wondering if I might need to be especially focused on enunciation, volume, etc.

AtDhVaAnNkCsE!

From the hotseat, the contestant can hear the PAF clearly. The sound guys may turn up the level. From the PAF standpoint, I've found some slight variations in sound level, but I've always been able to hear the question and answer choices. Ask your PAFs to take the call in a quiet environment, though, with a closed door if in the office or without competing audio from television, radio, construction noises, and/or small children, if there's a chance in the world they might do otherwise.

One other consideration has occurred to me, although I don't know if it's ever been a significant problem for any contestant. If you or any of your PAFs have a strong regional accent, chat on the phone long before your tape date to make sure you understand each other clearly.

Another thing:

If the question on which you are calling a PAF includes any word that may often be mispronounced (including foreign words and names, Latin names for diseases, etc.,) spell the word. If your question includes the title of a movie or book, make sure you read that title exactly, because small changes can make a huge difference if the person at the other end of the line is trying to Google.

silvercamaro wrote:Another thing:

If the question on which you are calling a PAF includes any word that may often be mispronounced (including foreign words and names, Latin names for diseases, etc.,) spell the word. If your question includes the title of a movie or book, make sure you read that title exactly, because small changes can make a huge difference if the person at the other end of the line is trying to Google.

Don't even think of calling someone who isn't a good Googler!

doitneatly wrote: What is the sound quality like on both ends of the line?

When sitting in the hotseat it certainly looks like the PAF is plenty loud. Right?

And how does the contestant's voice sound to the PAF? Like a speakerphone, I assume? (by that I mean some of the "calling from a barrel" effect)

From the PAF end, I do not recall any general sound quality issues per se that caused any difficulty. (More on this in a second, though.) I would put the quality above the "speakerphone" level based on my recollections. Of course, I was not consciously thinking about sound quality at the moment...
Also, the PAF hears nothing from the clock, or the buzzer for that matter...there is a brief instant where the sound is muffled on the phone, at which point the PAF is cut off from the contestant. From there, things varied - once, the AP kept me on the line to tell me how the contestant did; once, the AP just thanked me and then cut me off; and the other time I was just cut off the line cold.

I'm just wondering if I might need to be especially focused on enunciation, volume, etc

Althugh I have never been in the HS, I would recommend that you work on instinctively enunciating your questions during practice so that it becomes second nature during the actual call. One note from personal experience: When I was practicing with reeg prior to his appearance, there were times when his "s"'s sounded very close to his "f"'s over the phone - something that I mentioned to him briefly. Sure enough, his question was how SOS was transmitted in Morse code. Fortunately, enunciation was not an issue here; although the "S" was not 100% distinct, the context of the question was such that there was no difficulty whatsoever. And, other than that, I do not recall any issues whatsoever in that regard.

Hopefully, your PAF call will draw comparisons to John Carpenter calling his Dad! Good luck!

silvercamaro wrote:Another thing:

If the question on which you are calling a PAF includes any word that may often be mispronounced (including foreign words and names, Latin names for diseases, etc.,) spell the word. If your question includes the title of a movie or book, make sure you read that title exactly, because small changes can make a huge difference if the person at the other end of the line is trying to Google.

This is so true: Not only must all your PAF's be expert googlers, but you, the contestant, must take care to pronounce things clearly and *spell!* When I called my hero, Leszek, as my PAF, I took great care to spell the key word in the question, "Caffre," but neglected to spell the word "cat," which was also in the question. He thought I had said "tax," and didn't realize I'd said "cat" until time was nearly up. The sound level seemed fine, but you have to allow for things like that. Practice rewording questions so that you don't waste time reading them word-for-word to the PAF (just make sure the key words are there), and spell *anything* that could create confusion if misheard at their end.

thanks for the useful responses, everyone.

As for the google-angle, I am definitely focused on that. And that brings up my one other question for y'all:

While I know that a contestant cannot be so blatant as to say,
"type 'alfred russell wallace' into Google"

My plan is to be extremely terse:

(1) open the conversation with nothing but the google search terms that I have in mind...
"alfred russell wallace"

(2) pause a beat or two for the query results to pop up..
"..."

(3) add the context and the choices...
"he was associated with the work of another scientist"
"darwin, einstein, newton or bohr?"
... "ten seconds" ...
"darwin, einstein, newton, or bohr"
etc

Does anyone see any reason why that obviously google-centric approach would be deemed unacceptable by TPTB?

I have made sure to tell my PAFs to type quietly and maybe throw in "I'm thinking..." for the sake of theater.

doitneatly -

I tried sending you a PM, but it wouldn't go through - check your regular e-mail.

another crucial question is how to type as few characters as possible. "Alfred Wallace" and "A R Wallace" give similar results to Alfred Russel Wallace, in fact Alfred Wallace yields the same page.

Now, you don't necessarily know that in advance, and there have been contestants who have asked too few characters and too general a term.....

I have a kind of PhD of Pafology question which I will print in a separate thrad...

My other non-participant hints are to spell carefully, and use for crucial letters (D for dog), and although I dont recall seeing anyone doing this, it is overwhelmingly logical to pronounce crucial numbers aviation-style (niner).
I would also have a code phrase for "I'm absolutely absolutely certain..Get anything else OUT of your head"
If they ever let Canadians like me on this show or any other similar American show with a phone connection, I will ask that the famous 1972 political phrase "one thousand percent certain" be used. (even though it dint work out that well the first time).

doitneatly wrote:thanks for the useful responses, everyone.

As for the google-angle, I am definitely focused on that. And that brings up my one other question for y'all:

While I know that a contestant cannot be so blatant as to say,
"type 'alfred russell wallace' into Google"

My plan is to be extremely terse:

(1) open the conversation with nothing but the google search terms that I have in mind...
"alfred russell wallace"

(2) pause a beat or two for the query results to pop up..
"..."

(3) add the context and the choices...
"he was associated with the work of another scientist"
"darwin, einstein, newton or bohr?"
... "ten seconds" ...
"darwin, einstein, newton, or bohr"
etc

Does anyone see any reason why that obviously google-centric approach would be deemed unacceptable by TPTB?

I have made sure to tell my PAFs to type quietly and maybe throw in "I'm thinking..." for the sake of theater.

I can't imagine that TPTB would have a problem with it. You should be sure, though, that it works with your PAFs. You need to practice with them under "game" conditions. That means a third person to throw the conversational ball over to you, they don't get an advance look at the question or an opportunity to get comfortable speaking to you, and they're not responsible for keeping time. Your PAFs should be at whatever phone they'll actually be using during the show, so that you can spot any sound quality issues in advance.

If your friends aren't fans of the show, using old show questions should be fine. Otherwise, you may find it challenging to come up with appropriate practice material. My best thought, under those circumstances, is to ask your friends not to watch the show when it airs, so that you can use that day's questions for practice.

Be sure to throw in high-level questions that you think are or may be difficult or impossible to Google. You want to be sure your PAF isn't thrown if suddenly thrown onto the resources of their own knowledge. Also, try to use some "not" questions. Communicating the correct response can be confusing -- is the PAF saying that choice A is "not" the correct answer, or saying that choice A is the correct answer because it satisfies the question's "not" condition?

This is the sort of thing that gets sorted out effortlessly in ordinary conversation, but under the conditions of a PAF call can lead to unfortunate misunderstandings. My practice, when I can only eliminate one or two answers, is to use the specific phrase, "Rule out B" (or A, C, or D, as the case may be). I believe this specific phrasing lowers the chance of confusion.

Good luck! --Bob