The Times-Picayune's Dave Walker watched in person as FNC's Shepard Smith brought Studio B to the Crescent City.

A live remote anchor shift is a disorienting thing to watch from behind the cameras, dislocated as it seems from the network signal, both a part of and apart from what viewers at home are watching.

The anchor shifts seamlessly between off-camera electronic conversations with producers elsewhere — both by earplug-and-microphone voice communication and hand-held texting — and live, little-window interviews on the air.

TV: More than "merely wires and lights in a box."