Technical disaster

Machines break down. Fact. That means if you direct enough live programmes at some stage a machine will let you down. For a recorded programme this is annoying and can mess up your schedule. If you are ‘live’, it can give you a heart attack.

The ‘What if …’ game

The theory goes like this. If you’ve sat down and worked out what you would do for every possible technical breakdown, or better still had someone throw theoretical problems at you, and you’ve worked out how to handle them, then when they happen for real you will know exactly what to do. So, in your spare time, play the game.

What do you do?

1. You make a decision.

2. You tell everybody what you want to do.

3. When everyone is ready you recover from the problem as cleanly as possible and move on.

4. You work around the machine until it is fixed.

All this sounds obvious, but each point needs to be done in order and with cold professionalism.

Making a decision

Do not just sit there looking at the problem. Do you want to stay with the machine or pull out? In a moment we’ll go through some of the possible breakdowns you can face, the basic factors you must consider in making your decision and some of the options available.

Tell everybody

When things go wrong people react in one of two ways. They either remain absolutely silent (the correct response, as long as they have made sure you are aware of the problem), or they yell down talkback.

You must get silence. Everyone needs to hear what you want to do, so shut everyone up as fast as you can (rudeness/aggression is acceptable). Say what you want without rushing. Be clear, be precise.

A clean recovery

Do not blunder from one disaster to another. You must avoid crashing out of a VT back to a presenter who doesn’t know what to do next, with a microphone still closed, and the sound of the broken VT machine still going to air.

Courtesy 124 Facilities

Studio discipline can be very dull to enforce, until someone accidentally knocks a cup of coffee into one of the cameras.