Practical notes on cameras, lighting, audio sync and control room workflow for television and live production crews.
A new article appears about once a day, covering studio and live production topics in plain language. Browse the latest below and pick whatever matches the problem on your floor this week.
Camera Advice
A step-by-step walk through choosing, rigging, shading and matching cameras for a small multi-camera studio, written for engineers and producers who want fewer surprises on the day.
Continue readingTechnical Writing
A short list of questions to settle before anyone writes an operating manual or training guide for your crew, so the finished document gets used on the studio floor.
Continue readingWorkflow
Most workflow problems in a studio are not caused by faulty kit. They come from habits nobody has questioned for years.
Continue readingLighting costs
A plain look at how a lighting plan for a studio set or live stage is priced, and which decisions about the room, the cameras and the crew change the figure.
Continue readingCustomer Case
Helen Marsh recounts how a small live team, led by a producer called Daniel, traced a creeping lip-sync fault to one routing choice and fixed it without replacing any equipment.
Continue readingCamera Advice
Seasonal notes on camera rigging, shading and matching as shorter days and busier schedules arrive, with checks that keep a multi-camera studio consistent through autumn and winter.
Continue readingTrade terms
A plain explanation of the sign-off block, the small box at the end of a checklist or procedure, and why a good operating guide for a production crew never leaves it out.
Continue readingWorkflow Review
Two ways to review a studio and control room workflow, compared on what each can see, what each costs in time, and which one we would recommend for most small teams.
Continue readingLighting
A look at how a lighting plan for a studio set or live stage is put together in practice: the visit, the measurements, the drawings and the long evening of focusing.
Continue readingAudio Sync
The question we hear most often about audio sync: why lip-sync drifts in a live chain, how to find where the delay creeps in, and what to correct first.
Continue readingCompany News
A plain account of what happens when a team asks us for camera configuration advice: the questions we ask, the visit, and the written notes you keep afterwards.
Continue readingMethods
Tom Ashworth explains the plain tools, interviews and test runs he relies on when writing operating manuals, checklists and training guides for studio crews.
Continue readingWorkflow
A practical guide to getting ready for a studio workflow review: what to gather, who to involve and how to run a normal day so the findings reflect real conditions.
Continue readingStage Lighting
Before a stage lighting design is signed off, a handful of questions about cameras, power, rigging and budget save a great deal of rework on the studio floor. Here is the list I use.
Continue readingAudio Practice
Most lip-sync and mixing faults in live and recorded programmes come from a handful of habits that are easy to spot and cheap to fix once you know where to look.
Continue readingPricing
A plain account of how we price camera configuration advice for multi-camera studio and live shoots, and which parts of a job make it cost more or less.
Continue readingCustomer Case
How a small regional studio team went from scattered notes to one set of checklists their crew actually used, told through the changeover guide we wrote with Marcus.
Continue reading
