By Michelle Westgate

In a special narrative piece, University student Michelle Westgate provides an insider account of the presidential debate.

I received a very special insider’s view of how a presidential debate is put together. The last three days of my life I have been working for a man named Larry Estrin. He is part owner of Best Audio, a company located in Studio City, Calif.. More importantly, at least in this case, Estrin serves as Audio and Production Communications Director for the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).

My first day on the scene, I spent part of my time shadowing and assisting “Shipley,” the technical guru of the team. He was responsible for communicating with telephone, internet, cable and any other kind of companies that would be installing connections for the entire debate area. He also told the media trucks, vans and buses where topark.

First thing in the morning, I watched the surprisingly advanced method for determining which location each media team would occupy. One of the CPD employees ripped paper into small pieces, wrote numbers on each piece then put it in a hat! Each media team pulled a number from the hat to determine their spot.

I found it amazing that Shipley knew the exact distance from any spot in the parking lot to the corresponding news space in Spin Alley. He also solved problems without blinking! It’s no wonder that everyone seemed to love working with him.

Later that day I had the opportunity to work with a group of guys doing audio set-up in the debate hall. I was able to spend time behind the debate stage, where the real action happens. There was a dilemma over which style microphone the candidates would use and how that would look on camera. Then there was the speaker check, which involved talking into a wireless microphone and monitoring the output on a handheld device.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had the opportunity to assist Steve Mendelsohn, the Frequency Coordinator for the event. Mendelsohn is one of the top experts in the radio frequency field. He laughingly called himself the “radio police” for the debate. This is probably very close to the truth.

Mendelsohn continuously monitors the airwaves around the event, to make sure that there is no interference with the candidates or the officials. He also makes sure that the news teams do not interfere with each other. Anyone operating a wireless device in a certain airwave range is required to contact the Frequency Coordinator, or turn off the device. Anyone found in violation could have their equipment confiscated and be removed from the event.

Mendelsohn and I walked through all of the Debate areas. We used our eyes to spot equipment that might be in violation, and he used a special instrument to detect equipment using unauthorized ranges. Most of the news people were very cooperative if they were “caught,” and while I was there, nobody was tossed out.

During my experience, I learned that doing your homework is very important to the smooth operation of any function. I learned that in putting together an event this size, you should always bring a book or some handheld device with games stored on it. You can expect to spend a lot of time waiting for other people to get their job done so that you can go in and do your part. I also learned that you should never think that you can’t be detected if you are using a wireless device.

Big Brother is always watching…especially when it’s His event!