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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Production people or Studio personnel

There are a number of technicians and other creative people involved in a television production.

1. Producer

The head of the production is called a producer. A producer is in charge of the whole production process. The producer is responsible for coordinating technical and creative aspects of a production.

2. Production assistant

A production assistant facilitates all the requirements of a television program.

3. Script writer

A script writer prepares the script for the production. He is in charge of the entire script.

4. Anchor

An anchor is a person who presents program formally on a television. There are news anchors or news presenters and anchors who present entertainment programs.

5. Camera person

Camera person operates the camera for the production. The chief camera person is called the director of photography.

6. Sound Recording artist

A sound recording artist records the sound streams of the entire program.

7. Art director

Art director is in charge of the set and other graphical presentations in a production.

8. Floor manager

Floor manager is responsible for the entire activities on the studio floor, and supervises the floor personnel. A floor manager is also called a stage manager.

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Production equipment in a Television Studio

The basic equipment used in a television production is of five types.

1. Lights

Lights are used in a studio to provide illumination for the camera. Camera can’t capture visual without light. Different types of lights are used in a studio production. Key light, fill light and back light are the basic types of lights used in a production.

2. Camera

It is the key equipment used in a television production. Professional cameras are commonly used in a production. It is the quality of the camera that determines the picture quality.

3. Microphones

Microphones are used to capture audio. Microphones used in a production studio vary in size and quality according to the requirements of the production.

4. Live editing suit

It is used to live edit the recorded video footage of the production.

5. Jib, track and trolley, and rigs

These equipment are used to mound the camera and move it in necessary directions.

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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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