A phone-sync (also known as a tape-sync, a simul-rec, or a double-ender) was a technique used to conduct televised interviews over long distances in the 1980s before

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

became commonplace, in order to provide video to what would otherwise be an audio-only interview. It was commonplace in such news programs as '' The Journal'' on CBC Television. A standard Tape sync works as follows: an interviewer, usually in a television studio, is videotaped conducting an interview via a long-distance phone call to the interviewee in another part of the world. This interviewee, often in a studio in front of a background representing the city in which he or she is located, is videotaped as he or she participates in the interview. The two videotapes are then sent to the interviewer's production team to be synchronized through

video editing Video editing is the manipulation and arrangement of video shots. Video editing is used to structure and present all video information, including films and television shows, video advertisements and video essays. Video editing has been dramatical ...

. Cuts between shots of the interviewer and interviewee are made accordingly, and the higher-quality sound of the videotapes are used instead of the telephone audio. For effect, the interviewer may be taped looking into a bluescreen or

greenscreen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and displa ...

, into which the video of the interviewee would at this point be resized if necessary and inserted using

chroma key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...

. The double-ender technique has become much less commonplace with the proliferation of live

feeds and video over Internet (Skype, etc.), but is still used today when such technology is not available. The double-ender technique can also be done with audio-only mediums, such as radio or podcasting.

Syndicated radio Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

show interviews are often done as a double-ender, with the host in their studio, and the guests recording in their own city, in the studio of their local affiliate. Double-ender audio interviews have become more common with the rise in popularity of

podcasting A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

. The result is a cast that sounds like the hosts and guests are in the same room, when they're actually in different cities.

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