Live TV is the art of not being seen. There must be many contingency plans with the final being to end the show but under most circumstances a crisis like this can be completely averted. A vision mixer controls what is put on a live broadcast for TV so if, for example, a camera went down, on a multi-camera set, the mixer can just change which view the audience can see from. As long as a production can remain seamless and a viewer doesn’t realize there has been an issue, the production is still a success. Equipment on a live TV production is prone to having issues so in putting one on we need to make sure we have several backup plans. In the studio, each camera will have an SD card so we can review the footage and alter it if necessary in post to make it more succinct. Of course, on a truly live broadcast, this is not possible as what goes out goes out so we must channel that as much as possible. On a multi-camera show, the director must be professional and flexible to make sure they know exactly what must happen if there are any issues on set either with equipment or crew. Live TV is always about the man behind the curtain so as long as he isn’t seen, metaphorically speaking, the production will run smoothly. The success of the show is also determined off the success and commitment of the staff and crew. If a problem does occur, a production team must all know exactly what to do and move onto. Therefore, a crew must have a good attention span, teamwork, easy adapting to the situation and no excuses. A production crew will also have an EIC who is the technical support for the crew. This person must have leadership and be a technical expert so they are ready to be the person to sort an issue during the production if necessary. The EIC must be the one with back up plans and say no to any plans on the production that poses a risk. An unseen risk on a production is a torpedo so all members of the crew must be prepared to avert these. Overall, the major video errors with a live production come down to the cameras going offline or sometimes the broadcast. These days, a way of reducing issues with the broadcast is by saving all files to a cloud which means they can still be acquired even if the broadcast fails. Cloud based productions mean that the broadcast can also be higher quality and removes travel concerns if an entire production crew isn’t able to be on site. This became very common when the pandemic hit in 2020 as production crews couldn’t all be on site so alternatives had to be made. The issue here was the distribution of equipment as everyone would work together as a team through a call using zoom, teams, etc. Due to this, the line between broadcast and webcast has been drawn closers so the future of live broadcasting is uncertain. In our case, we will be doing a live broadcast on the college grounds so we won’t need to worry about distribution and remote crews but it is good information to bear in mind. We will make sure to back up our footage to a hard drive and SD cards in the cameras to keep it safe and keep an eye on the cameras to thoroughly check for issues. The cast must make sure to continue if there is an issue and not draw attention to the problems on set.

The most common audio issues that occur on live tv concern the lack of audio, delayed audio and echoing audio. To begin, the lack of audio for viewers is problematic and usually happens due to faulty equipment, streaming software or the central operating system. You must make sure to check for bugs and viruses as they may corrupt the program. These issues tend to also arise due to the recent adaptations to the pandemic as people work on a broadcast from their own work stations at home rather than a unified studio. The first thing to do to sort these problems is to test all the equipment through a different computer or system to test if they work. By doing this, you are also preventing any viruses from harming the main production. The central systems must be updated to handle any complications and you must make sure to check the audio is configured correctly. This also applies to using a mixing desk as the audio levels must be correct for a decent audio quality for the broadcast. Unintelligable audio, when it is heard but not clear for a viewer is likely to happen with poor quality microphones and equipment. The microphone may be damaging the broadcast quality so it is best to invest in good high quality equipment even though it can get expensive. Make sure who ever is using the microphone has rehearsed with it before the broadcast as they can get to understand the distance they should be from it, the projection they need for their voice, etc. It is adviced that you should stay around 35cm away from a standing mic to reduce loud, muffled breathing noises but this may vary from person to person. Additionally, we must make sure to be aware of echoing audio, which may happen if the mic is picking up excess input.The space of the recording should feel somewhat busy rather than hollow or empty to prevent echoing, which shouldn’t be an issue in the TV studio on the college premises. A solve to echoing audio is to use headsets that can channel the audio and block out unnecessary sounds. Finally, we come to delayed audio, where the video and audio isn’t synced. This may be because the CPU is running too much and needs to compensate. To reduce this issue, in the gallery, I must make sure that only necessary systems are running, which might mean leaving the prerecorded segments to a later edit will be the better choice. At all costs, we must make sure that the audio is still running as a show without sound can be painful for viewers. Even if the audio on the day doesn’t work, we must make sure to secure an alternative set of sounds or create a graphic with an apology message in the worst case. Whoever is sound mixing in the gallery must make sure to set up and test all the microphones before we begin filming to adjust each level. If I decide to add a background track in post, it must be dialed down as a major problem viewers have with live broadcasts nationally is the sound levels, finding that it can be difficult to hear the actually show at points. Another issue with this comes as shows and adverts are set to different levels, meaning a viewer must manually change the level as each feature appears but there is a set level that all broadcasts should hit that I will try to adopt. As long as, throughout the video including the live and VT elements, the sound level remains constant, we have a success. 

Over the decades, many types of Live broadcasted show genres have emerged, setting trends and conventions that we must follow in this assignment. In our case, we wanted to follow the style of courtroom shows such as Judge Rinder. This one in particular is a courtroom reality show that uses obscure cases to humor the audience and play on the traditional appeal of a courtroom’s serious nature. Each episode of Judge Rinder features three or four cases over a 40 minute episode where a defendant and respondent, who tend to be friends, colleagues or ex-lovers, will come to the stand and be confronted by Judge Rinder. Rinder himself, a real court judge who transferred into a TV personality through this show, provides the show with its humor and levity as he destroys these people and their obnoxious cases, using a screen to present evidence. The set is built to look like a true court room, even with an audience that sit behind the two people on trial. The cases take about 7 to 10 minutes, being followed by an advert break, and then the verdict before a new pair arrive at the stand. There are also segments that take place in the hallway immediately after the case is decided to present the pair’s reactions to the verdict. Rinder is ruthless but funny and this is what attracts the audience so our show must have an appealing judge to carry it through. In terms of camera movement, there is very little but the vision mixer switches between ‘characters’ when they are speaking. The framing for each episode is very linear with one camera on the Judge, a two shot of the pair on trial, and individual shots of these two. Rinder wears a traditional judge gown but for our show we want to take a more budgeted, talk show esc atmosphere so the host will instead wear a suit, more in line with a show such as Jeremy Kyle in the way he presents himself. Jeremy Kyle is another similar show that grinds people and their experiences but in a chat room scenario instead of court. This is an idea we are also playing around with, depending on how the set team decide to present the show. To fashion an interesting case for the show to be carried on, we later did research into the court system. In terms of the case itself, I had a look into existing Judge Rinder episode cases. They tend to follow two people who are very familiar with each other and have fallen out over something that is made to seem major by the way the show handles it. Examples include a brother not paying back a loan on times which keep changing or a woman graffiti her former partner’s van after she found him cheating. For our case, we want to play with expectations and begin the defendant and respondent as entirely separate people before the case uncovers they actually did know each other. We have been toying with the idea of one person has been making and selling a rip off brand and the other is there to put an end to it, which is ironic seeing as the sponsor we have made up for the show is called Ooogle, which is further established in the advert research.

Additional notes on courtroom shows (specifically Judge Rinder):

- Realistic setting

- Props including flags, law books, bankers lamps

- Judge bench, two standing desks, large seated audience, no jury

- Judge wears formal robes but no wig

- Even lighting, high key

- Body mics on all three members of cast along with desk mics

- Lower third graphics for names

I believe that this genre is popular as the cases tell amusing stories for a high entertainment factor and the seriousness that they are talked about by the Judge. Additionally, people enjoy watching shows where there are many argumentative people and this is no exception to that. Placing the advert break right before the verdict is a good way to keep the viewer hooked and wait for the next section. The fact that the set also feels real gives viewers a greater thrill factor overall.

Another type of show that is influencing ours is SNL, a comedy sketch show where each week they bring in a celebrity host that takes part in a variety of sketches as an outsider. This is a fun light hearted show with a manic energy that we wish to channel to make our courtroom show a little different. This can be achieved by throwing the cast of the live show into additional VT footage that contrasts the show to throw the audience off. The show has a live studio audience and the camera movements are generally very static, allowing the comedians to provide the entertainment without changing the perspective. Each show begins with a swooping movement that looks down over the audience clapping before settling on the guest host on stage for their opening monologue. With lighting, the show is a lot darker than Rinder and courtrooms to provide the atmosphere of a studio nightclub or jazz bar. This show uses prerecorded segments and different sets unlike the courtroom which will be an aspect we do not carry over for our show. What will be influenced by SNL, however, will be the darker gritty lightning set up and the light hearted scripting. Unfortunately, I think the overall show will be better if we fully script the court case rather than improvisation which is vastly seen here. Another aspect we wish to reference in our show is the music theme tune. I’m personally a big fan of cool jazz music so I believe this will transfer well to accompany our courtroom. 

We also chose to research talk shows and their formats due to a potential direction we take with the set, possibly swapping out the defendant and representative stands for a sofa to gain a more relaxed talk show feel. Here are a few codes and conventions of talk shows:

- Formal dress and large studio audience

- TV display as neutral backdrop or promotional/ chat topic material

- Sofa for guests and chair for host, surrounding a coffee table

- Host interactions with audience

- Medium Close Ups and Close Up shots on cast

- Host directly addresses camera

- Crane shot before and after advert breaks

- Wide shots of cast

I consider that these shows are popular through escapism for the viewer, allowing them to be encapsulated into the lives of the guest celebrities, being guided by an enthusiastic and endearing host. From looking into talk shows, I our show, we will use the cinematography and lighting in the tv studio, along with framing of the cast.

Hotels & Travel

• Iconic song/ pop song for soundtrack

• At end of Ad an Upbeat or soothing voiceover

• Shows diverse range of customers (Families, couples, alone) doing activities

• T’s & C’s/ disclaimers in small white writing at bottom

• POV holding hands (Jet2)

• Overly happy couple/ family doing lots of activities (Jet2)

Online trading (Crypto, NFTS etc.)

• Stereotypically masculine 

• “Do it” attitude 

• Direct address to audience 

• Make audience feel powerful

• Plug massive celebrities e.g. Matt Damon, Mike Tyson 

• Showcase example NFTS 

• Presenter must look strong or smart

Chocolate ads

• Themes: Giving, kindness 

• Advertise how, “healthy” the product is 

• Slogan at the end e.g. “You’re not you when you’re hungry”

• Make jokes about how far people are willing to go to get the chocolate

• Title card at end, showing chocolate

• Shot of someone eating chocolate 

Perfume ads

• Female protagonist 

• Famous pop song for soundtrack (female artist)

• Catchphrase directly addressed to viewer e.g. “what would you do for love?”

• Protagonist wearing dress/ summer clothes 

• Nature setting e.g. field, beach, use of flowers 

• Male characters presented as love interests 

• Seductive voice over, French accent

• Themes include Love, sex, and empowerment 

Horror Film Trailers 

• Dramatic monologue from main character acts as voiceover 

• Or Action voice narrator (not as contemporary) 

• Large text e.g. “What makes you smile?”

• Gore & jumpscares 

• Lots of “fade to black” transitions

• Tense music, usually one extreme e.g. low and intimidating, or high pitched and frightening

• Plot revolves around murder

• Low-key, high contrast lighting 

• Night time setting

• In climax of trailer lots of fast cutting of action/ scary shots 

Life insurance ads 

• Lower ⅓ graphic which has telephone number and website address 

• Advert revolves around family (Grandparents, parents and kids)

• Set inside a family home  

• Voiceover talking about looking after family when, “the worst happens”

• Small white text (T&C’s)

• Companies life insurance benefits explained using voiceover and graphics

Our target audience for this assignment is 16-24 year olds. In doing our research about TV shows and broadcasting, we generally discovered that younger audiences are fading out as they have many alternative ways of receiving news, sporting and other information on streaming and social media platforms. The world of live broadcasting is slowly vanishing with the generations so we wanted to produce something that would bring that audience back into the mix. We discovered that viewers between the ages of 16 and 24 spend about 53 minutes a day on average watching live television shows which has fallen by two thirds over the last decade. In comparison, this is a seventh of viewers over the age of 65. 90% of our target age range immediately turn to their favorite streaming shows instead which means that the use of live broadcasting conventions will slowly die out at the generation becomes the majority. The shows they do end up watching tend to be sitcoms and comedy shows so our spin on a court room show may be more appealing. I believe, from my research, that streaming will be the way forward and live broadcasting will eventually be removed completely as the general public opt for ease. When TVs were first introduced, there would’ve been a very limited number of channels and shows to watch so it would unite a family as they all had to watch the same thing. However, these days, the industry has expanded expanentially so there is no need to sit and wait for a show to be broadcasted when there are thousands of options on streaming. To me, live broadcasting is still an important medium and that is why I was very onboard with aiming to produced something for this age category that plays with the tropes of live broadcasting and adapts them for younger viewership.

I have looked into the title sequences for shows such as Judge Rinder, Judge Judy and Dr Phil to get some inspiration as to the style of logos and titles I should use. The underlying theme with the court shows is a gold title with an iconic item associated with the court and justice, usually scales or a gavel. The other option was to go slightly more corporate and chat show like with clearly defined block letters, usually in blue or white, that move between images on screen about the host.  I personally prefer the scales as there are better designs that you can incorporate it into and it’s imposing, telling the audience firmly that this is a court room show. The colours need to be contrasting and striking so that the golden font is clear. In terms of movement for a title sequence, I want to have the title quickly scroll across the screen before making the scales centre stage and merging the two at the end. I have decided to go for a golden font with a black revolving background to add an extra bit of intrigue. 

The next thing to look at was the graphics for the overall opening of the show. Due to the show’s structure of being a court room show within a sketch show, I needed to look into two types of title sequences. I mainly looked at SNL as I like the simplicity of the letters jumping around and the cool jazz music to support it. The block letters really work for this type of show and I like the singular blue N in the middle to break it up a bit and add slightly more interest. This is a great logo as it can be altered easily for theming purposes. I don’t know what the title will be yet but I believe this is the way to go about the logo for our show.

Apart from logos and title sequences, it is important to consider the use of lower thirds. Lower thirds are used to highlight breaking news or a presenters name at the bottom of the screen to help a viewer follow along the show easier. I want my lower thirds to be themed to the part of the show currently underway. This would mean taking the designs of the titles for the courtroom and sketch show to make a rounded package of graphics. 

On a live production, a vision mixer works closely with a director to cut between the broadcasting cameras to decide what goes on the live broadcast. They must be able to work quickly and under extreme pressure because any mistakes that they make are shown to the audience live. The vision mixer sits in the gallery with a director and the two are able to talk to each other and the camera crew in the studio through a headset. This allows a director to tell the camera crew how to position before telling the vision mixer to cut to which ever camera is set up. At a vision mixing desk, the mixer will have a tricaster and screens to preview the footage. In the tricaster, you can store up to 16 files that can be prerecorded video tapes (VTs) and graphics. On the tricaster board, there are two lines on buttons that control the preview and program monitors. The preview monitor allows the vision mixer to scroll through the cameras and watch as a shot is prepared whereas the program monitor is the live broadcast that is seen by the audience so whatever goes on here must be already prepared or it looks unprofessional. You can then add graphics and additional videos on top of the main broadcast. These graphics may be lower thirds, logos, virtual backgrounds or simply additional broadcast material. As the person also in charge of graphics, I will make sure to have all the appropriate material, also including prerecorded video tapes and title sequences setup up on the tricaster. To do so, I must collect all the footage on my hard drive and be in charge of who’s doing what at what time because we have a lot of planned VTs to get through. When it comes to loading files into the tricaster, because I only have 16 slots and we have many advert VTs we want to make, I am going to edit together set advert breaks that can be played in a large chunk. On the mixing desk, there are also faders that can get you between shots quickly. The take button switches which camera is playing on the preview and which is on the program so a director may simply say ‘take’ and this transition is done. An alternative is the fade between the two using the T bar and manually pull or push to crossfade at a speed of your choice. I think I will do a good job of vision mixing as I can think quickly and will be able to zone in to block out distractions. 

For this research, I provided the research and links for the audio and video issues, vision mixing and graphics hence why these are the links below. The rest of the research topics were shared between people. Where I was able, I reworded them in full.

• https://www.thebroadcastbridge.com/content/entry/9933/live-tv-crisis-control 

• https://aws.amazon.com/media/tech/video-latency-in-live-streaming/

• https://blog.ipv.com/broadcast-problems-and-what-to-do 

• https://www.tvunetworks.com/guides/why-cloud-based-production-makes-sense-in-broadcasting/ 

• https://amplify.nabshow.com/articles/producing-live-tv-in-2020-the-game-changed-and-we-changed-with-it/ 

• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07370024.2021.1984917 

• https://www.smartmeetings.com/tips-tools/technology/135242/livestreaming-challenges-solutions 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FXEUDBS9R0 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8zF93jlw8 

• https://glimpse.me/blog/how-to-fix-live-stream-audio-problems-and-sound-better/ 

• https://www.boxcast.com/blog/how-to-fix-the-audio-issues-on-your-live-streaming 

• https://www.bbc.com/academy-guides/why-is-loudness-such-an-issue-for-tv-viewers/ 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjX6WlzOnIs 

• https://streamyard.com/blog/live-streaming-audio/7-ways-to-improve-live-stream-audio/ 

• https://www.studentfilmmakers.com/the-five-most-common-location-audio-problems-how-to-prevent-and-fix-them-in-post-by-anthony-q-artis/ 

• https://www.sony-asia.com/electronics/support/articles/00026069 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision_mixer 

• https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/unscripted-tv/editorial/vision-mixer/ 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyg-yaS9epU 

• https://www.mediacollege.com/video/production/vision-mixer/ 

• https://www.careersinscreen.ie/role/vision-mixer/ 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hdlBBV4iII 

• https://www.easytechjunkie.com/what-is-a-vision-mixer.htm 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcDK7lkzzsU (Smile 2022)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKJmEC5ieOk (IT 2017) 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvYGO4o334I (Ladder life insurance ad)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXQlJtaRixo (British seniors life insurance ad) 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnYG-9Q4RB8 (Premier inn) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roS_m72R_ec (Jet2) 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVdTjxkM1TY (Crypto) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeUH90coXSI (Trump cards) 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfMt3HN8tuY (Cadbury’s ad) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIVDxL2lgN4f (Snickers) 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4s0llOpKrU (Miss Dior advert) 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wafe6kDBb6c (Gucci Bloom advert)