Start with a microphone allocation sheet
Most audio problems on air begin long before the programme does, usually with a question nobody wrote down: who is wearing which microphone? I start every production with a single allocation sheet that lists each presenter, guest chair and prop position against a named microphone, its channel on the desk and its spare.
Keep the sheet short enough to read at a glance. One line per source, in running order, with the radio mic frequency noted beside it. When two shows share a studio on the same day, the sheet is what stops a lapel from walking off with the wrong label still taped to the pack.
Pin the sheet where the floor crew and the gallery can both see it, and date it. An undated sheet is the one people trust least, and the one that causes an argument ten minutes before transmission.
- One line per source, in running order
- Note the spare beside every primary microphone
- Record radio frequencies on the same sheet
- Date and revision-mark every copy
Build the mixing desk setup from a saved template
A mixing desk should never be built from memory on the day. Save a clean template for each regular format, such as the evening bulletin or the studio panel show, with channel names, groups, routing and default levels already in place, and load it as the first act of the morning.
Templates remove the small slips that cost minutes: a guest microphone patched to the wrong fader, a mix-minus left unrouted, a talkback group that nobody remembered. They also make handover easier, since a second engineer opening the same file finds the same layout.
When a show changes shape, edit the template afterwards rather than patching the live session and forgetting. Treat the template as the official version of how that programme sounds, and keep a short note of why each change was made.
- Name every channel in plain, agreed words
- Save one template per recurring format
- Keep a version note for each change
Run the audio checks in a fixed order
Checks work best when they follow the same sequence every time. I go from the furthest source to the nearest: remote feeds and playback first, then radio microphones, then fixed studio microphones, and finally the foldback and talkback paths. The order matters less than the habit of never changing it.
For each microphone, ask the person to speak at their normal level, not a polite whisper, and set gain on that. Listen for handling noise, clothing rustle and any hint of interference. Check each radio pack battery at the same moment, since a pack that reads half full at rehearsal rarely survives a long running order.
Log anything unusual on the allocation sheet as it happens. A note saying that channel six crackled during the walk-through is worth far more than a memory of it at half past six.
- Work from remote feeds towards the studio floor
- Set gain on speech at normal level
- Check radio pack batteries during the same pass
Watch levels and noise during the broadcast
Once the programme is running, the engineer's job shifts from setting to watching. Keep one eye on the meters and one ear on the programme feed, because a meter can look healthy while a presenter is quietly drifting off axis or a guest has begun leaning back from the microphone.
Agree in advance what you will do when something fails, and with whom. A clear phrase over talkback, a named person who fetches a spare pack, and a rule that nobody touches the master fader except the engineer remove most of the panic from a live fault.
Where the gallery and the floor are working from one running order, share a short list of known audio risks with the director: the guest who whispers, the playback clip that peaks, the set piece with a noisy door.
- Agree one phrase for reporting a fault
- Name who fetches a spare microphone
- Share known risks with the director
Keep records that help the next show
After the broadcast, spend five minutes writing down what actually happened. Which microphones were swapped, which channel needed more gain than expected, and which pack was replaced. These small records turn into a reliable picture of your equipment over a few months.
Feed the notes back into the templates and the allocation sheet. If one lapel microphone has been replaced three times in a fortnight, that is a maintenance question rather than bad luck, and it belongs in the equipment record where the next booking will see it.
Over time the habit changes the character of a studio. Audio stops being the department that is only noticed when it fails, and becomes a routine that the whole crew understands and relies on.
A simple routine for these autumn weeks
Autumn brings a busier schedule of news specials and entertainment seasons starting up, and with them more guests, more radio packs in circulation and less time between shows. It is a good moment to tidy the routine before the workload climbs.
Begin by auditing every microphone and pack against the allocation sheet, replacing worn windshields and clips, and clearing out cables that no longer pass a continuity test. Then rehearse the fault procedure once with the whole crew, so that the phrase over talkback is familiar rather than improvised.
None of this needs new equipment. It needs a written order of work, a saved template and the patience to follow both when the day is already running late.
Good audio on a live broadcast is mostly preparation made visible: an allocation sheet everyone can read, a desk built from a saved template, checks run in the same order each time, and notes kept afterwards. Start with the sheet this week, add the template next, and let the records improve both over the coming productions. The result is a quieter gallery and fewer surprises when the programme goes to air.
