Why planning starts weeks before the show
A live broadcast that starts on time is usually decided long before the first camera is powered up. Our production management and crew planning service exists to settle the questions that cause delays on the day: who is doing what, which equipment is going where, and when each team can get into the building.
Priya Nair takes the first enquiry and builds the plan around it. She asks about the venue, the running order, the number of cameras wanted and whether the show is recorded, relayed to screens or streamed. Those answers shape the crew list and the kit list, and they let us say early what the job needs and what it does not.
I work on the graphics and replay side, so I see the plan from the point where it either holds together or falls apart. A good plan means I know the show running order, the names that need captions and the clip points before I arrive.
Building the crew list
Crew planning begins with the roles the show actually needs. A small stage event might need a technical director, two or three camera operators and one person on graphics. A longer festival day adds relief operators, an engineer and someone to keep the intercom clear.
Helen Marsh leads the gallery as technical director on every production, so her availability is the first thing Priya checks. From there the other roles are filled around her, with each person told in writing which part of the day they cover and who they report to.
We try to keep crews together from one job to the next where we can. People who have worked a gallery together already know how the others call for a cut or a clip, and that saves a surprising amount of talking on air.
- Technical director confirmed first
- Camera and graphics roles named in writing
- Relief cover agreed for long days
- One contact for the venue on the day
Deciding what goes in the van
Kit planning is where Daniel Pritchard's work meets ours. He knows which switchers, monitors, intercom packs and cabling suit a given venue, and he checks the list against the signal paths the show will need before anything is loaded.
The aim is a list that is complete but not padded. Carrying every spare we own makes loading slower and the gallery harder to set up, so we bring what the plan calls for plus sensible spares for the items most likely to fail, such as cables and power supplies.
Before the van leaves Dorchester, the kit is checked against the list and tested where it can be. Finding a faulty cable in the workshop costs a few minutes; finding it in a venue with an hour to the doors opening costs a great deal more.
What a run sheet actually contains
The run sheet is the document everyone in the gallery follows. It lists the show in order, with timings, camera assignments, graphics cues, replay points and any moments where the stream or recording changes, such as a break or an announcement.
We build it with the organiser, not for them. They know when the speaker will really finish and which act tends to overrun, and we write that into the sheet as notes. A run sheet that only shows the ideal timeline is less useful than one that admits where the day may drift.
For graphics, I need spellings of names and titles confirmed in advance, along with the order they appear. A caption with a wrong name is easy to avoid and awkward to fix once the show is running.
- Timings with the likely overrun points marked
- Camera and graphics cues against each item
- Names and titles confirmed before the day
- Break and stream changeover points
Access, power and the venue visit
Where we can, we recommend a visit or a call with the venue before the show. The questions are practical: where the gallery will sit, how cable will run to the stage, what power is available and when load-in is allowed.
Venues vary a great deal. A theatre may have a ready-made control position, while a field site needs a tent, generator power and weather cover, and each of those changes the kit list and the arrival time we put in the plan.
We write the arrival time, the load-in route and the contact name on a single sheet and send it to the whole crew. Nobody should be ringing round on the morning to find out which gate to use.
Keeping the plan alive on the day
A plan is only useful if it can change. Acts move, speakers run long and a camera position gets blocked by staging that was not there at the survey. Priya stays reachable throughout, and Helen has the authority in the gallery to adjust cues and camera cover as things shift.
Before going live, we hold a short briefing with the whole crew: the running order, any known risks and who calls what. It takes a few minutes and means everyone starts from the same version of the show.
Afterwards we note what slipped and why. Those notes feed straight into the next plan, which is how our run sheets and kit lists have improved over the years since the company began in 2012.
Production management is quiet work, and when it goes well nobody in the audience notices it. For us it means the crew arrives knowing the show, the kit has been tested, and the run sheet reflects how the day will really go. If you have an event coming up, Priya is the person to speak to first, and the contact page is the place to start.