Lights: The lights are hung of a black grid which is attached at least a meter down from the ceiling. This is to make it easier to attach the lights to the grid, as it would be harder to lift the them and attach them from below the grid.
types of light
Soft Light - These lights take a low amount of energy to power, they have 'barn doors'. These are put on the edges which then helps direct the light into the wanted direction or area.
Small Spot Light - These lights are the opposite to the soft light and use alot of energy and have an adjustable concentrate. This light is usually used to light the talent on screen.
Flood Light - These lights make it easy to record, creating general light in the studio. A flood light does not have barn doors making it harder to control it's lighting.
Dimmer Pack - The dimmer pack powers and gives everything the right amount of power to different types of lighting,equipment, different voltages and watts in the studio.
Lighting panel - This piece of equipment controls the percentage of brightness going out to each light. almost exactly the same as an audio mixing desk, this piece of equipment has faders and a computer screen to make it piece of hardware much easier to use.
Camera
Camera pedestal - A camera pedestal is a tripod with wheels. On industry standard pedestals have an expensive steering system to make the flow of movement smoother.
Tally Light - A tally light is a small red signal lamp on the camera. It is usually located just above the lens and indicates that the camera is live. Shots are not to be changed when the tally light is on.
When the director wants to tell the camera operators how they want the camera operated, there are a set of simple terms that are used:
Pan Left/Right
Tilt Up/Down
Crab Left/Right
Track Back/Forward
Zoom In/Out
Exposure Control - Bright/Dull
Focus Control - Sharp/Soft
VU Meter
A volume units meter (VU) indicates what leven your recording in or how high, low the level is. Sound is measured in decibels (dB). The ideal level for speech when recording is -18dB and -9dB. There are two sides to the VU, this is for the stereo output. Each time you go down a dB the percentage is halved. 0dB is 100% of the recording signal. An analogue can handle volumes above 0dB up to +9dB as soon as the signal hits 0dB the signal is very likely to distort making an unclear sound.
Visual and Audio.
A line level is always shown when mixing audio into a sound desk. It will be the more stronger signal and there will aslo be a mic level which shows any audio recorded from a microphone. The mic levels come from different sources. The line level will come from the soundtrack in your live footage and the mic level is received through a stob box which is linked to a microphone which captures audio from the talent and host. Both audio clips are put through a sound desk in analogue. The CD is digital but contains a Digital to analogue converter (D.A.C) this makes the sound easier to work with. As the audio is put through the mixing desk, making sure it is at the right levels so ntohing distorts it is then recorded on a HDD in digital which makes the audio recording solid meaning if it is copied the quality will not change. A sound desk is able to have 4 line inpurts and 12 mic inputs giving a chance to record the most complex live videos. The visual side of mixing is easier as on the studio side of the wall we are able to have five different cameras which are then put through the stob box in the wall out the other side and into the vision mixer. This is controlled by the director making sure he is receiving the best visuals needed for the show. Finaly, the visual meets the mixed audia when being recorded in to the HDD (DN300)
S.T.O.B- Studio terminal outlet box: this allows equipment like microphones and cameras to run from it.
Shotgun mics: These are mics that are suspended from the air.
Can's are used during recording so all members of the crew can interact with each other easily and quickly. For example if there was a problem with one of the camera's, the camer operator can let the floor manager know. When using the can's, the crew are expected to get the information across fast and accurately. The camera operator would let the manager know what is wrong and how long it is going to take to fix it.
Scrips are given to each member of the crew. Scripts are important as they let each member know what is happening at each precise point. It allows the floor manager to keep things in order, the camera operators to know what camera shots to use and when. Running time of show, clips and questions and also scripted audio and video clips.
