Organisational Structure of a Television Studio

A television broadcast station is the place where all the production and transmission process takes place. It requires an army of managers, producers and other technicians to keep the station running. The television stations are organized into five basic departments under the guidance of a company president and a general manager. These departments are news, programming, engineering, sales and advertising, and business administration.

• News Department

The news department is the busiest division of any television station. News department consists of a news desk and news bureau. Bureau chief leads the news bureau. News readers, reporters and editors are the people involved in news production. There are also several other people who facilitate news coverage, including the news director, makeup artists and a variety of producers and content writers. The news bulletins and interviews are conducted in a news studio. It is also called a news floor.

• Programming Department

Programming department consist of program studios, production control room and editing rooms. Programming department is headed by program manager who control many other staffs like program producers, video editors, camera persons, artists and production managers. The final preparation and finalisation of a program is conducted here.

• Engineering Department

This department handles the technical aspects of broadcasting and on-air time. It is headed by a chief engineer. There are a team of managers, engineers and studio crew members, including audio board operators, teleprompter operators, tape room editors and engineering technicians. They monitor transmitter readings, align satellite receiver equipment and make sure video airs in proper sequence.

• Sales and Advertising

This is the department of the television station that generates revenue. The director of sales heads the department; Sales managers and representative functions under him. The sales executives focus on the local market, making contacts with businesses and other organisations in the community to sell advertising.

• Business Administration

The business administration department handles the day-to-day business of a TV station. Office managers or station managers work under the general manager and oversee clerks, receptionists and other help staff. Controllers are responsible overseeing the station’s financial transactions, reports and budgets. The human resources or personnel manager hires employees and ensures a safe workplace in all departments. Business administration might also house building maintenance workers who take care of the facility, from the studio to the restrooms.

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Structure of a Television Studio

Television studio is the place where video production activities take place. A television production studio is similar to any other video production studio. A professional television studio has three main rooms connected via intercom.

The physical structure of a television studio comprises of one or two studio floors, production control room and master control room. There are also some other divisions like library, green room and storage attached to it.

Television Studio or Studio Floor

A studio floor is the place where the television program is recorded. It is a huge closed room which can be altered according to the requirement of the program. The decoration or alteration made in a studio is called a set. Television production may include a number of Jibs, track and trolleys, large number of studio lights and lighting rigs. A studio should be large in size to meet the space requirements for all these devices. It is installed with several monitors for live preview of the recorded content. The floor manager controls the area management for all the equipment and the set used in a production, and the program producer controls all the technicians and artists through a public address system which will be installed in the studio. All the professional video cameras will be connected to the production control room via cables.

Production Control Room (PCR)

Production control room is a place where the composition of outgoing programme takes place. It is also called a studio control room or SCR. It is situated near to the studio floor, with a glass window placed between them for direct visual contact. The entire production happening in a studio floor is queued and recorded from the production control room. The cameras from the studio floor will be connected to the vision mixer in a production control room through coax cables. A vision mixer or video switcher is a device used to select between several different video sources. It is a large control panel commonly used in multiple camera production. In some cases it is used for compositing video sources together to create special effects. In newer versions of vision mixer a DVE or digital video effects is integrated to manipulate the video sources. In some productions the camera actions in the studio floor will be controlled by the operators in production control room. A PCR will be installed with a video monitor wall. It is a set of monitors which is used for program, preview, camera out, graphics and other video sources. The PCR also includes an audio mixing console for recording and mixing audio from the production, and a character generator or CG to generate on screen graphics and titles. The final out from the production control room will be transferred to the transmission control room.

Master Control Room

A master control room is different from the production control room. It controls the on air signals from a studio. Master control room is the final point before a signal is transmitted over-the-air for terrestrial television or satellite provider for broadcast, or sent on to a cable television operator. Television master control rooms include video monitors, satellite receivers, video servers and transmission equipment.

Other than these three divisions there are also other facilities like green room, library, etc.

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Structure of Television Script

Every television script is written with an emphasis on visual elements. Structure of a television script comprises of three parts. They are the climax, cause and effect. 

Climax is similar to the lead in a news story. 

It tells the viewer the main point of the story. Cause tells the circumstances in which the story happened. Effect is the interpretation of the story. A television script should fit in the allocated time frame and attract the audience.

Important terms in a script are:

A. FADE IN: - All caps and underlined

B. SCENES - numbered using CAPS. Ample space above and below and underlined.

C. SLUG LINES - indicate location, time of day, and underlined.

D. Character List - should appear directly below the slug line and indicate which characters are needed for the scene. Also enclosed in parentheses.

E. ACTIONS/DESCRIPTIONS - listed in a capital letters

F. V O - Voice over.

G. SOUND EFFECTS/SPECIAL EFFECTS/CAMERA INSTRUCTIONS - Capitalized and underlined.

H. CHARACTER NAMES/DIALOGUE - Capitalized and double spaced.

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Organisational Structure of a Radio Station

The head of a radio station is the general manager. In a radio station there are basically four distinct departments. They are:

Administrative Department

The overall administration and management of the station is taken care by this department. The department takes care of the internal and external affairs. It is further divided into accounting, business, public relations, advertising, human resource, etc. This department provides all the support and resources that is required for the functioning of the station.

Programming Department

This department is responsible for broadcasting of radio programmes and other media related activities. Programme director is in charge of this department. Main duties of this department are programme planning, research and production. The final authorisation for transmission of the programme is issued by the programme director. Under the programme director there are music directors, production di-rectors and production executives, who are responsible for the production and supervision of the segment allotted to them. There are also reporters, radio jockeys, instrumentalists and singers who work under this department.

Engineering Department

The engineering department is headed and supervised by the chief engineer. Under the chief engineer there will be a number of assistant engineers. The technical aspects of the station are handled by this department. Engineering department plays a major role in the transmission of radio programmes.

Sales Department

This department monitors the sales and promotion activities and ensures financial flow to the station. The organisation of this department depends upon the business model followed by the station. In commercial radio stations, sales department consists of account executives, advertisement managers, sales representatives, etc.

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What is the Structure of a Radio Station

The physical structure of a radio station consists of radio studio, control room, administration department and the transmitter.

• Radio Studio

A radio studio is different from a video production studio. The entire studio is strictly dedicated to audio. Radio studio is a closed sound proof room where voice can be recorded without any interference. A studio has a single sound proof door and no windows. There is a small enclosed place before the studio hall. This empty space is called a sound lock, which prevents unnecessary outside sounds from entering the studio. A studio is so designed without any interference to ensure that outside noises are not recorded and the speaker’s voice is heard clearly. The ceiling and walls of the studio hall will be perforated with woollen panels. These are also called acoustic panels. A studio floor consists of at least three microphones. There will at least be two studios in a station. The second studio may be smaller in size with the same type of doors, walls and ceilings. This is where the announcer does the announcements. This may be called an announcer’s booth or a transmission studio.

• Control Room

Control room is the most important technical area of a radio station. It is situated next to a recording studio hall. The control room operators can see and give signals to the announcer in the studio through a glass window that is attached to the wall. Whatever is spoken in the studio or played from a CD player or computer is sent to this control room. All the programmes are sent from here to the transmitter. A control room is connected with all the other segments of broadcast.

The microphones in the studio hall are connected to the devices in control room. So whatever that is captured by the microphones will be directly sent to control room. From here they are sent to the transmitter for its onward transmission to the listeners. A lot of changes take place when one speaks through a microphone. In the control room, technical people control the whole process and immediately send these waves to the transmitter. The transmitter sends these sound waves to the listeners’ radio sets which convert them into sounds.

• Transmitter

A transmitter is the equipment through which we receive the radio broadcast on our sets. This is big equipment in comparison to other equipment installed in the studio or control room. The strength and type of the transmitter determines the coverage area of the broadcast. There are two types of transmitters; namely Low Power Transmitter (LPT) and High Power Transmitter (HPT). There is also another classification as short wave and medium wave radio broadcast transmitters. Transmitters are generally located outside the city boundaries. The transmitters are of different capacities such as 1 KW to 100 KW, 200KW or 250 KW or above. Their locations are decided according to their capacity. A 1 KW transmitter is normally installed in the vicinity of the studio/control room whereas the high power transmitters are installed outside the city.

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