Computer Setup

Wow- what do you do exactly?

I'm a technical director I'm responsible for switching between all the video sources cameras, VTRS, graphics, when your watching a live TV show I control everything you see. For this show I had about 30 cameras, 17 VTRS, and 8 graphic sources.

This sounds like an amazing job, and I'm super jealous. I find myself constantly thinking about what the director of all the cameras is doing during a live broadcast, critiquing and admiring him/her at the same time. It seems like a looooot of information to take in at once though. I'm not sure I could do it, but I want to try all the same.

I love my job I get to travel to almost every major sporting event. I learned on the job but it took 10 years before I was trusted with this show. You have to be a good listener and have quick reflexes and a bit of creativity and thick skin when you make mistakes.

And it gets you mad bitches

If he can do that with all those buttons, imagine what he could do to just one. Or three.

How thick should my skin be if I pursue a career as a TR?

So you put the director's call in the preview screen and then he punches it on air?

No he calls out what he wants and I make it happen. The director doesn't push any bottons.

That makes sense, I work in local TV and it's hard for me to fathom the scale of an operation like this when we have just two people + a sound guy in the control room for a broadcast.

In my major, usually we have the Director sitting next to the TD, and the Director usually calls the shots, while the TD sets up what's next, it is a little overwhelming, but it's easier when you have someone there as well.

Looks like an AMA is in order!

How do you get into something like this? Where would one start?

I studied mass communication in school but learned 99% on the job , I interned at a small local TV station and did a little bit of everything before moving up to Technical director.

Would it be possible to get into this field with a degree in Computer Science? I wish I'd known about this sort of thing sooner...

You will make more money if you stick to computer science.

We employ a lot of computer programmers to create custom software and devices we can't buy off the shelf.

Fuck yeah you give me hope! I haven't been to college but I've been working in news for the past 4 years or so. Currently getting more and more experience. My roommate and I(hes a morning news director) were complimenting you during the draft without knowing it.

How much does a job like that pay?

It depends small market TV stations about 35k per year, major markets such as new York or L.A.over 100k. Freelancers can name their price 600 a day and above.

Honestly that's lower than I expected - you're basically editing a film live!

You won't get rich but you will have fun. The major network TD's make a ton and some only work during their sports season such as only during football or baseball season. And the TDs that do the oscars make a ridiculous amount of money.

How does this compare to video editing? Like, how do you work your way up to becoming a technical director? Is it similar to video editing?

What I do is like editing live, a lot of liner editors also were TDs because they needed a switcher for effects that are now done in avid or other non-linear editing systems.

Yes but tape machines have been replaced by video servers called EVS. These machine are always recording and the recording can quickly be re-cued.

Yes like a $400,000.00 TIVO

Oh nice, in only a few weeks i'll be building a full director set on location using Black Magic Design never used the Tricaster switchers.

I work at the local racetrack as the Graphics Operator. We have 5 cameras, 2 VTRs and 1 graphic source (Actually we have 2 now that I think about it, but it's just used for photo finish images). Make us look like childs play haha

Awesome, TD'ing something like the NFL Draft.

Its the most fun and terrifying show I do every year.

This is dope! got to observe the sacramento kings video crew for a game and this type of work is insane. such fast paced

I popped a little bit of a boner over this.

The buttons do different thinks based on what I need them to do or what I program them to do.

I'd like to know this as well. What do those buttons do next to the lever on the bottom row? There's two columns of all different colors

Each color represents a different function, for example the blue buttons represented macros that I use to execute complex actions quickly. I can also assign each m/e bank a color and then anything on the switcher that is linked to that m/e will have the same color. This is all customizable it can be all one color if you want. One TD I know has hers setup to be all pink.

By the looks of it, live video editing. The levers themselves would be for transitions, set the transition and pull the lever at the speed you want the transition to play at. Not sure exactly what those buttons would do, possibly select different transitions? Most of the buttons in the picture would likely be for selecting which video feed is broadcasted.

When a TD does a transition, they actually cut multiple feeds. For instance, before the transition you may see a camera + graphics overlay (scores or something), and after a different camera and no graphics.

As a student currently in a TV and media production program, I've used switchboards on a smaller scale to OP's. The various rows of buttons on the left side are known as MLE's, which switch between cameras and programmed videos/images on the screen.
The various levers in the center of the console are used to transition between the MLE layers, bringing up things such as a namekey over a video, or a corner frame image in the corner during a news segment. The buttons (or at least some of them) are used to differ between transition types (fade, wipe, cut, etc.). Hope this helps!

What does 'MLE' stand for? Can't find anything on Google.

MLE is a term used by the Canadian company Ross video. Sony and Grass valley calls them M/E banks or mix effects banks. It's where I can layer video and create complex effects without tying my main program buss.

MLE - multi layer effects

I don't know what the job title actually is but I think he's running the video production switch for the draft. Assuming I'm correct the various buttons/dials are for switching between each video source (cameras, playback sources, etc) to control what goes out to the broadcasters. The big levers are what control the cut from source A to source B.

That, my friends, is a video switcher. If you take the left side of the board about 2/3 of it is video sources such as cameras, tape players, and graphics. There are 4 rows so this board we're looking at probably has 4 M/Es. (Could be less, hard to tell from one picture.)

Looking at the delegates on the multi-function module, 4 MEs.

Posts like this are why I love this coolcomputersetups, especially as a college Film and Video student.

That's how I feel sometimes !

I wrote a test for this panel called the Monkey Test, it simulates random button presses over time. For physical monkey tests we would just have coworkers bring in their small children and let them have at it.

So is that you in the picture?

I have done the draft for 6 years this is my 4th year doing it from new york .

I think he was asking if that particular guy was you.

That is me a few hours before the draft started.

Cool! Why do you have to dress nice if no one ever actually sees you? Serious question.

I dress nice for the TV executives that watch over my shoulder. I always where a pink shirt on big show day.

Its something my director and I do its just superstition.

Sweet, I wrote the software that runs that panel!

I love this switcher it makes my job almost easy.

Thanks! A lot of TD input went into all the software updates. Like, the OLED displays did not have outlines in early versions of software which made it difficult to match the text to the button visually. Anyway, I am not with the company anymore, but this was one of my more favorite projects for sure.

Where do you work/who for? My Dad is a TD for NBC at 30 rock in Manhattan. Growing up he used to let me hang out with him in the control room when he did the Today show and it was always awesome.

I work for a major sports network. This pic was taken on Thursday before the draft started as I was double checking all me effects. This is inside one of 3 mobile units we use for the NFL DRAFT its SS25 which also does NBA basketball and Monday Night Football.

Mobile Unit? This just became 200% more awesome!

Looks like you work at a desk covered in glowing gumdrops.

I want to drop acid and just look at all that shit for a few hours.

Every time I watch an old scifi movie or TV show and see a panel of analog buttons I think to myself "wow, they really didn't see touch screen interfaces coming". This shows what I know. Damn.

With a touchscreen, they would have look down and aim precisely for the button. With a physical button you just need a rough idea where it is and you can instinctively do the rest by touch. Since they probably have to look at the video feeds all the time this is important.

I have a few buttons memorized such as cameras 1-5 and the run button that fires some of the special effects. I can cut between those without looking Everything else I have to quickly find when the director calls for it. If the director wants me to "take" it I push the corresponding button on the program buss, if he wants a dissovle or wipe I put it in the Preset buss then chose the appropriate transition to get to it.

That's what those handle/levers are for right?

The levers on the right are for disloving between sources you can control the speed. I don't usually use them unless we are talking about death or something tragic.

It's hard to watch TV I question decisions the director or TD makes and I catch mistakes all the time. And I hate going to best buy or radio shack and listen to the sales people try to explain TV production or what a good video signal looks like.

Yes, extremely so. I work for a large network here in Canada, and you find yourself silently judging whatever programming you're watching (or in a control room, rather audibly with your co-workers). I constantly am bothered by simple things like misplaced cuts/dissolves, most of the time something the average viewer would not notice.

What would that even look like?

And this is why I hate my car's touchscreen navigation system.

Please do an AMA on r/nfl.

What do all the buttons do? There's so many!

I replied to someone else about this so if you want to know a bit more detail you can look for it in my comment history. But basically the button you press take a certain source (video, camera, graphic) to a certain output.

That's pretty cool. I can respect that. I have fun with messing with a mixer with a few band instruments plugged in. I can imagine having that many sources to keep track of.

My job is easy compared to audio that's a nightmare that I can't even begin to comprehend.

Basically, they control what you get to see on TV during a live broadcast. There are always many video sources to pick from (cameras, graphics, etc) and this panel allows the TD to combine them all by resizing and overlaying them and such.

But can it run crysis on high settings?

I would pretend I am on the Death Star and play with those levers when not doing anything important.

I've done a little TDing, but nothing that crazy (I've used a Tricaster 850 Extreme). Way cool to see how the big boys do it.

Hey! Fellow TD/Director here! That's a nice board. 2 or 3 MEs on that thing? Also, I'm curious...what do you folks use for character generation?

5 m/e's , 4 channels of viz, 2 virtual cameras, 4 channels of spot box , 4 channels of K2 video and key.

Look at all the... pretty lights.

Ooh fancy mobile units. Do they do uplink too? I used to be an uplink tech on a sat trunk but I've never seen anything like this

These units don't have their own uplink. For this production I had 2 fiber paths and a satelite back up to the mother ship. I control these paths via a another router , I can send the output of my switcher or any other source independently.

Would you do an AMA over your job? There seems to be a lot of interest!

RGB LED Buttons which change color depending on user setup and assigned functionality.

How much direction are you getting from producers in an average minute? How many people are talking in your ear?

I listen to the director but I have to sort of split my attention between the producers, and camera ops. The ad will talk to me directly if I have to run a billboard or something sponsored. I have a module dedicated for what I call $. It calls up billboards ect.

Are those actual commercials or sponsored messages that pop up without leaving the live broadcast? (like here's the Old Spice Red Zone stats blah blah)

Yes they pay a lot of money for those "pop up" I try to Not to screw those up. Billboards are usually run comming out of or going o commercial breaks.

What does that button do?

What ever you want it to ;-)

I have always been fascinated by this when watching tv all the thing that go behind it. More pics!

Which truck is this? Looks like one Game Creek's newest.

Gamecreek's Glory was used by the NFL Network, I didn't get a chance to check it out but it's more powerfull than what I had.

As someone who works in live tv, your truck is much nicer than ours.

Kayenne I would be screwed if I had to do this show on a kalypso ! My colleagues back at the network are doing their part of the show on a kalypso. They do the pre-show then once the draft starts its all me.

Bro, do you even lift?

Is that an influxis feed?

Hang on, I need to find out where my jaw went...

Each button does between 4 and ~10 different things, depending on what action the user is currently performing. Most buttons have an display to go along with them, but most users rely on sense memory (it is taking a long time to introduce touch screens into this industry, as you may imagine).

What does those levers do? they look tempting.

When transitioning from one camera to another the operator can press a button to do a mix or wipe at a fixed rate, or if they need more control, do it manually using the fader (aka tbar aka lever arm)

I want to push all those buttons. All of them.

Just imagine a game ment to play on that.

Which button fires the phasers?

I originally read this as "my crucible". Seems to make way more sense. That's intimidating as hell!

What did you think of the cardinals draft picks?

I didn't watch the draft I was a kinda busy.

I could never go into that office. I couldn't stop myself from pressing every single button.

Hey man, I do a lot of video & editing, mostly skating footage. I've been at it for a few years now, mostly dslr stuff. I know this is broad, but this anything you really like? A certain transition or slo-mo cut; have you ever been given a tip[ thats helped your work? Thanks mate...

I want to press every one of those buttons.

Grass Valley is by far my favorite video company. All of their stuff is so sexy.

Does anyone have a video of what it's like to be in this room during a broadcast? Like a behind the scenes of a typical live broadcast? I'd really like to see that.

Oh man... I use to work on a Sony 9000... I miss those days.

What an awesome midi controller that would make.

They're blinking and beeping and flashing....and they're flashing and beeping and...

My favorite job in television.

Did you get around to destroying Alderaan?

Does it support full NKRO via USB and PS2-connections?

Could you use those monitors for, say, porn?

No porn I have be careful what I feed my switcher just in case it makes air by accident.

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