Journal
Notes on studio galleries, camera craft, acoustics, lighting and the habits that keep live programmes steady.
The journal collects short, practical pieces from our work in live studios, published about once a day. Each one takes a single problem, from talkback discipline to desk lighting, and explains it plainly.
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How to Run a Rundown Review Before Your Next Live Show
A step-by-step guide to reviewing rundowns, cueing, talkback and fallback plans on paper, so the faults that surface on air are found in a quiet room instead.
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Before You Commit: A Checklist for Gallery Equipment Integration
Priya Shah sets out the questions worth answering before a studio gallery is wired: signal flow, intercom, monitoring, testing and fallback, so the finished system behaves as one.
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Five acoustic mistakes that spoil a live studio and how to avoid them
Most on-air sound problems start in the room, not the microphone. Five common acoustic mistakes in live studios, and the practical checks that stop them.
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What Camera Operation Coaching Costs and What Moves the Price
A plain account of how coaching for live news and interview camera crews is priced, which choices raise or lower the fee, and what to settle before you ask for a quotation.
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One Evening Bulletin, Three Different Faces: A Lighting Case
Priya, a studio manager at a small regional broadcaster, asked why her presenters looked different at the start and end of every live evening. This is how we found the answer.
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Before the Dark Evenings: Steadying Your Live Workflow This Autumn
Longer evenings bring more live output and tighter turnarounds. Tom Eastwood explains how a review of rundowns, cueing and talkback can be timed to these weeks.
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Tally, Talkback and Genlock: Gallery Terms in Plain Words
Three terms that cause confusion when a gallery is wired as one system, explained without jargon: what a tally does, how talkback differs from programme sound, and why genlock keeps pictures steady.
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Treating the Room or Treating the Mic Position: Which Comes First
Two ways to improve how a studio sounds on air: fit acoustic treatment to the room, or rework microphone placement and presenter positions. Here is how they compare and which we recommend first.
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How a Camera Coaching Day Is Built and Run in the Studio
A look behind the scenes at how a camera coaching session is prepared, run and reviewed, from the first walk-through of the studio to the notes crews take back to the gallery.
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Why Does Our News Desk Look Different an Hour Into the Show?
The question we hear most about lighting: why a set that looks right at rehearsal drifts on air, and what a plan for long broadcasts does to keep it steady.
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How We Run a Production Workflow Review, From First Call to Written Report
A look at how our Production Workflow Review runs in practice: what we read, who we speak to on the gallery floor, and what ends up in the written report your team keeps.
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The Tools We Trust When Wiring a Live Gallery
A lighting designer's view of the methods behind studio equipment integration: signal maps, labelled looms, test routines and rehearsal habits that keep a gallery steady on air.
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How to Check a Studio Room Before You Treat It for Sound
A practical walk-through for producers and studio managers: how to listen, measure and note down what is wrong with a room before any acoustic panel is ordered or fitted.
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A Checklist Before You Book Camera Operation Coaching
Before you commit crew time to camera coaching, work through these questions on formats, crew experience, studio access and what you want to see on air. Daniel Okafor sets them out.
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Six Lighting Mistakes on Live Sets and How to Avoid Them
Most lighting problems on a live set are planned in, not caused on the night. Helen Marsh goes through six common mistakes on news desks and interview sets, and the habits that prevent them.
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What a Production Workflow Review costs and what moves the price
A plain account of how we price a written review of rundowns, cueing, talkback and fallback procedures, which parts of a studio change the effort involved, and what the fee covers.
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