Journal
Notes from the studio floor on cameras, sound, lighting and keeping live broadcasts steady from rehearsal to transmission.
Our journal collects practical notes on studio integration, camera direction, room acoustics and lighting. A new article appears about once a day, written for people who plan and run live television.
Building a Camera Plan for a Two-Chair Interview Set
A step-by-step guide to planning cameras, framing and operator briefing for a two-person interview, from the first floor sketch to the last check before the red light goes on.
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Before you commit: a checklist for studio equipment integration
Choosing how a studio's vision mixer, router, monitors and intercom will be specified and wired is easier with a list of questions. Here is the one our lighting desk wishes more clients carried.
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Six Acoustic Mistakes That Spoil Speech on Air, and How to Avoid Them
Most poor sound in live studios comes from a handful of repeatable mistakes. Daniel Okafor walks through six of them and the checks that catch each one before the programme starts.
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What On-Site Live Crews Cost and What Moves the Price
A plain breakdown of how we price technical crews for broadcast concerts, festivals and staged events, and which decisions on your side raise or lower the quote.
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Keeping Skin Tones Steady: A Lighting Rig for Mark's Studio
Daniel Okafor recounts how a regional interview studio, run by a client called Mark, fixed shifting skin tones on air with a simple key, fill and backlight plan and dimmable fixtures.
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Auditing Your Live Signal Chain Before the Winter Schedule Starts
As autumn schedules fill up, a written audit of signal path, backups and rehearsal habits shows what to fix while there is still time to fix it quietly.
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Cutting, Coverage and Cover Shots: Camera Direction Terms Explained
A short glossary from the gallery floor: what a director means by a cover shot, a cut-away and a two-shot, and why these terms matter when planning live camera work.
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Router or Patch Bay: Choosing How a Small Studio Moves Its Signal
Two ways to connect a studio's video and audio sources, compared on cost, speed and risk, with a recommendation for newsrooms and interview sets that need to stay on air.
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How a Room Is Measured and Treated Before Presenters Go on Air
A look behind the scenes at how we survey a studio or stage, decide what to treat first, and check the result with presenters in the room before anything goes live.
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What Does an On-Site Crew Actually Do on a Live Broadcast Day?
The question we hear most about live show production support: what the technical crew does on site, who is in it, and what a venue should have ready before we arrive.
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Lighting rigs that keep skin tones steady during a live broadcast
A closer look at how we plan key, fill and backlight with dimmable rigs, so presenters and guests look the same at the start of a programme as at the end.
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What We Check on the Rack Before a Live Programme Goes to Air
Priya Shah describes the tools and methods behind our reliability audits: signal tracing, backup tests and rehearsal logs, and how they become a written list of fixes.
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Before You Decide on Live Camera Direction: A Checklist
A practical list of questions to settle before commissioning camera direction for a live interview, news desk or multi-camera show, written from the lighting side of the gallery.
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Six Studio Integration Mistakes We Keep Finding, and How to Avoid Them
Most faults in a newly built studio come from decisions made on paper: mismatched formats, thin intercom plans, untested spares. Here is what we see on site and the fixes that hold.
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What Acoustic Optimisation Costs and What Moves the Price
A plain account of how we price room measurement and treatment for studios and stages, which factors raise or lower the figure, and what to settle before asking for a written quotation.
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A Harvest Concert, Four Cameras and One Dropped Feed
Daniel Okafor tells how an on-site crew handled a live broadcast from a village marquee for a customer called Marcus, and what the evening showed about preparation.
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