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What's In A Television Station?
"Photography
is going to marry Miss Wireless, and heaven help everybody when they get
married. Life will be very
complicated."
-- Marcus Adams, Society
photographer, in the Observer, 1925.
The TV Station As A Whole
The
basic television system consists of equipment and people to operate this gear so
that we can produce TV programs. The stuff you'll find in a television station
consists of (and this list is not exhaustive!):
 | one
or more television cameras
|
| lighting, to see what we're shooting
|
| one
or more audio consoles, along with sound control equipment, to
manipulate the sounds we generate with microphones, audio recorders and
players, and other devices
|
| one
or more videotape recorders, or other video recording technologies,
in any of a number of formats
|
| one
or more video switchers, to select video sources, perform basic
transitions between those sources, and to create special effects
|
| EFP
(electronic field production)
shooting and production equipment, and storage facilities
|
| perhaps
a post-production editing facility, to assemble videotaped segments
together
|
| some
special effects: either visual or aural; electronic, optical or
mechanical
|
The Studio Infrastructure
Whether
or not you work in a traditional studio or a new "studioless"
environment, the same principles apply. You'll still need:
| an
intercom system (with headset stations for floor directors)
|
| floor
monitors (video and audio)
|
| electrical
outlets for both regular AC and
lighting equipment
|
In
addition, your control room or control centre will have:
| various
program and preview monitors
|
| program
audio speakers
|
| time
of day clock
|
| video
switcher
|
| an
audio control room, with audio console, cart machines, turntable
and/or CD player, reel to reel and/or cassette and/or DAT recorder and/or
other digital recording and playback technology, and auxiliary audio
enhancement equipment
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