Monitor stacks
It is not unusual to walk into a control room and see 60 monitors in a stack. While this may appear daunting, the stack is there for your benefit and, used effectively, it helps prevent problems getting to air.
Layout of monitors
There are thousands of ways you can lay out monitors in a control room, so I cannot give the definitive description here. However, there are some basic layout rules used by most designers.
The transmission monitor should be the biggest, right in the middle. If the picture is wrong here, it will be wrong on your recording or live transmission, Right next to it is the preview monitor. The vision mixer should always put the next source on this monitor, and as a director you must notice what is there. If it is incorrect, say so.
Most sources are grouped together (cameras, VTs, graphics etc.). Become familiar where the groups are in your stack.
Outside source lines (they may be called something else in your studio, but they are for outside broadcasts, satellite feeds etc.) should be visible the whole time. Note that just because you can see someone on an outside source line it does not mean the line is ready or able to be used.
There should be a monitor so that you can see what captions keyed over the output will look like (usually the DSK, or downstream key preview). You must get in the habit of checking this before telling the vision mixer to super.
The mixed effects previews are for the vision mixer to prepare more complicated set-ups.
There should be a prompter monitor in the control room so that you know if the presenter is seeing the correct story. Use it and check it regularly.
If your studio is to go live you will need an ‘off-air’ monitor. Warning: If your off-air monitor shows a breakdown while you are live it doesn’t necessarily mean the studio output is not getting to air in other parts of the country (it may be a regional transmission problem). Do not stop your programme until you have been told to do so by presentation.
Tally lights
Many studios have a system of red tally lights that appear under the monitors of the sources that are on-air, as well as on the cameras themselves. This is particularly useful when shooting an interview, as you will probably spend the bulk of your time looking at the camera monitors, not the transmission monitor.
News control rooms can be enormous. Initially this can put many directors off, but with time you will find all of those monitors useful. Their primary function is to let you see all the incoming sources, while also showing you what is available at what point on the vision mixer.
The largest studios often have the smallest monitor stacks, on the basis that they are probably used mainly for large dramas, which do not involve complex live operations. Usually you just need to see the cameras, and a couple of VTs.