Does anyone work in the outside broadcasting sector?

[raf_gti]

I've just been offered an interesting opportunity with an OB company via a friend and thought I would do a litle bit of research before dismissing it.

No real specific questions to ask as I'm just after general knowledge, I'm guessing the pay is decent but there are also plenty nights away/short notice jobs, both of which I'm used to at the moment.

Any good gen then fire away

[528Sport]

I work for a large radio group (engineering and IT dept) we sometimes hire OB companies but mostly I do them

Drop me a PM with your questions and we can talk on email (nothing to hide from joe public just email is easier for me at the moment)

Dave

[Lunja]

I guess it depends on what kind of truck you'll be working with, and the jobs that are usually given to that unit. If you're working with one of the smaller Transit-sized satellite trucks you may find yourself involved in more news-type work, which can involve exciting high-speed dashes to important events, or sitting around for hours outside a courtroom waiting for a verdict. If you get into news, you may find it hard to keep a work-life routine, as you'll be on-call a lot and your hours may change a lot.

However, if you get into sport, especially football, you should get to work with some of the lorry-sized OB units. Because of the obvious regularity of football you might find that you prefer the work-life balance that you can establish as you know that your saturdays are taken, but your weeks are likely to be free.

Then again if you're working with the smaller Mini Clubman sat units like SiS use then you may find yourself being put into more corporate-style video work, or working more with radio.

Whichever company you work for, you're likely to get a very out-of-the-ordinary job that should keep you interested for a good few years! You'll also get to meet a wide range of people from directors and camera operators to celebrities and politicians, and you'll make some great contacts and maybe discover another career path in the media that you'd have never known of before.

[Super Slo Mo]

I do, feel free to PM me with any questions, or details of the opportunity if you like.

Depending upon what you're doing, it can be very varied (lots of travel, both UK and internationally), or quite routine. Live sports tends, in general, to be very routine since it's pretty much the same stuff you do from venue to venue.

It gets, erm, exciting when things go wrong, particularly if you're on air, but if everything works first time, you could end up sitting around without a lot to do for hours (For instance, on Weds I was standing in a doorway (outside in the cold and rain) for 13 hours, just babysitting my gear, but that's a bit of an extreme really).

Is it a technical role, or production based? There's quite a bit of difference between the two, the technical guys (and girls) are responsible for making sure all the equipment is set up properly and working, while production show up some hours later and deal with the show itself from behind the scenes.

[Parrot of Doom]

I work for plenty of OB companies in the UK as a cameraman. Feel free to drop me a line.

Edited by Parrot of Doom on Friday 4th December 11:08

[raf_gti]

Super Slo Mo said:

I do, feel free to PM me with any questions, or details of the opportunity if you like.

Depending upon what you're doing, it can be very varied (lots of travel, both UK and internationally), or quite routine. Live sports tends, in general, to be very routine since it's pretty much the same stuff you do from venue to venue.

It gets, erm, exciting when things go wrong, particularly if you're on air, but if everything works first time, you could end up sitting around without a lot to do for hours (For instance, on Weds I was standing in a doorway (outside in the cold and rain) for 13 hours, just babysitting my gear, but that's a bit of an extreme really).

Is it a technical role, or production based? There's quite a bit of difference between the two, the technical guys (and girls) are responsible for making sure all the equipment is set up properly and working, while production show up some hours later and deal with the show itself from behind the scenes.

It would be a technical role. Having had experience of military sat comms in the past I'm well used to getting up and going, the idea of a 9-5 job with no chance to get out fills me with dread tbh!

Is there a crossover between setting up the outside kit and the studio kit?

thanks!

[528Sport]

raf_gti said:

Super Slo Mo said:

I do, feel free to PM me with any questions, or details of the opportunity if you like.

Depending upon what you're doing, it can be very varied (lots of travel, both UK and internationally), or quite routine. Live sports tends, in general, to be very routine since it's pretty much the same stuff you do from venue to venue.

It gets, erm, exciting when things go wrong, particularly if you're on air, but if everything works first time, you could end up sitting around without a lot to do for hours (For instance, on Weds I was standing in a doorway (outside in the cold and rain) for 13 hours, just babysitting my gear, but that's a bit of an extreme really).

Is it a technical role, or production based? There's quite a bit of difference between the two, the technical guys (and girls) are responsible for making sure all the equipment is set up properly and working, while production show up some hours later and deal with the show itself from behind the scenes.

It would be a technical role. Having had experience of military sat comms in the past I'm well used to getting up and going, the idea of a 9-5 job with no chance to get out fills me with dread tbh!

Is there a crossover between setting up the outside kit and the studio kit?

thanks!

Setting the links up would be in my opinion the easy bit. Do you understand about audio engineering? clean feeds, what mics to use where and when how to get round faults? if a audio buss on a desk was faulty how would you get round that issue. Most of the time you take enough spare kit so that should someting fail you can get round it but thats not always possible. Ususally fixing kit on location is hard unless its just a simple soldering job.
To be honest it is all stuff you can learn and I doubt any decent ob company would throw you in at the deep end!

[Super Slo Mo]

528Sport said:

raf_gti said:

It would be a technical role. Having had experience of military sat comms in the past I'm well used to getting up and going, the idea of a 9-5 job with no chance to get out fills me with dread tbh!

Is there a crossover between setting up the outside kit and the studio kit?

thanks!

Setting the links up would be in my opinion the easy bit. Do you understand about audio engineering? clean feeds, what mics to use where and when how to get round faults? if a audio buss on a desk was faulty how would you get round that issue. Most of the time you take enough spare kit so that should someting fail you can get round it but thats not always possible. Ususally fixing kit on location is hard unless its just a simple soldering job.
To be honest it is all stuff you can learn and I doubt any decent ob company would throw you in at the deep end!

I suppose that would depend on whether it's the Audio or Vision side he'd be working in, although I appreciate ideally you need a good understanding of both.

To the OP, there can be a crossover, it depends on the job and location. Studio stuff (on location) tends to be cameras/lights/mics/video monitors, plus the furnishings, the outdoor stuff (at the event end, say a football pitch) is usually cameras/mics/monitors etc. Otherwise, it's the setting up of the OB Truck, plugging cables in, routing feeds, liasing with each department, making sure that everything meets the relevant broadcast standard (or at least, you should, it doesn't always happen!). If it's a SAT truck (and I've not rigged one, but worked with a few), it's a case of finding the Satellite (obviously), then taking and sending feeds (video & audio) from/to the OB plus, again, ensuring they all meet the necessary standards.

Do you mind me asking which OB Company it's for? And what the role might be? Obviously don't answer if you don't want to (or PM).

[raf_gti]

Super Slo Mo said:

528Sport said:

raf_gti said:

It would be a technical role. Having had experience of military sat comms in the past I'm well used to getting up and going, the idea of a 9-5 job with no chance to get out fills me with dread tbh!

Is there a crossover between setting up the outside kit and the studio kit?

thanks!

Setting the links up would be in my opinion the easy bit. Do you understand about audio engineering? clean feeds, what mics to use where and when how to get round faults? if a audio buss on a desk was faulty how would you get round that issue. Most of the time you take enough spare kit so that should someting fail you can get round it but thats not always possible. Ususally fixing kit on location is hard unless its just a simple soldering job.
To be honest it is all stuff you can learn and I doubt any decent ob company would throw you in at the deep end!

I suppose that would depend on whether it's the Audio or Vision side he'd be working in, although I appreciate ideally you need a good understanding of both.

To the OP, there can be a crossover, it depends on the job and location. Studio stuff (on location) tends to be cameras/lights/mics/video monitors, plus the furnishings, the outdoor stuff (at the event end, say a football pitch) is usually cameras/mics/monitors etc. Otherwise, it's the setting up of the OB Truck, plugging cables in, routing feeds, liasing with each department, making sure that everything meets the relevant broadcast standard (or at least, you should, it doesn't always happen!). If it's a SAT truck (and I've not rigged one, but worked with a few), it's a case of finding the Satellite (obviously), then taking and sending feeds (video & audio) from/to the OB plus, again, ensuring they all meet the necessary standards.

Do you mind me asking which OB Company it's for? And what the role might be? Obviously don't answer if you don't want to (or PM).

TBH I'm not sure, it came via a friend of a friend and I don't really have more details than they are looking for techs to deal with various OB jobs.

The type of role I'd be interested in would be one that covers pretty much everything based in the thread so far, although lacking in media experience I believe from speaking to several past colleagues that my skillset from the RAF is a reasonably sought after thing.

Of course, that may be a case of Billy Big bks who is trying to make himself sound better after he has left!

[Super Slo Mo]

raf_gti said:

TBH I'm not sure, it came via a friend of a friend and I don't really have more details than they are looking for techs to deal with various OB jobs.

The type of role I'd be interested in would be one that covers pretty much everything based in the thread so far, although lacking in media experience I believe from speaking to several past colleagues that my skillset from the RAF is a reasonably sought after thing.

Of course, that may be a case of Billy Big bks who is trying to make himself sound better after he has left!

Ok, I see. They will probably train you in all the relevant stuff anyway. Your skillset will be important, but also of interest will be your mindset. In my experience, people from a military background aren't fazed by the hours/travelling/production-'toys out of pram' type things that can surprise people from a more 'conventional' background (and new graduates in particular!).

I enjoy it, it's varied, can be technically challenging, and you get to travel quite a bit. It doesn't suit everyone, but I suspect you'll get on just fine.

[528Sport]

If you pick things up quick you will be ok.
Some of our techop's ( technical operators (studio operators)) are so bloody stupid I often wonder how they got in past reception!

I have little/no experience of Tv so I cant advise as others can but radio/audio can be complicated but it's not rocket sience.
If you have some free time why not go along to an OB with the comapny and see what its all about. Dont get put off by what you see it can be manic but its great fun and very simple once you understand it.


For the techies here.
One of our techop's went out to test an ISDN line, thinking he was big and clever he asked for ref tone at 0db on the line at our codec. I asked what frequency he wanted 10khz he said (normally use 1khz)
So I put the 10k as requested, when he go to site he could not here anything so rang up and said the line was faulty even thou he had a framed indicator. I then pointed out that the codec he was using was aptx encoding only using 64k of avalible line bandwith and the frequence responce rolls away at 7.5k. Still makes me smile.

to the op pm me and maybe I can arrange a visit round your local radio station (if they still have an engineer on site)

[Parrot of Doom]

raf_gti said:

TBH I'm not sure, it came via a friend of a friend and I don't really have more details than they are looking for techs to deal with various OB jobs.

The type of role I'd be interested in would be one that covers pretty much everything based in the thread so far, although lacking in media experience I believe from speaking to several past colleagues that my skillset from the RAF is a reasonably sought after thing.

Of course, that may be a case of Billy Big bks who is trying to make himself sound better after he has left!

Good. Coming from the RAF, you'll not be afraid to tell anyone from production poncing around in a thin sweater to ps off, when they say or do something stupid.

[Mr. Potato Head]

raf_gti said:

although lacking in media experience I believe from speaking to several past colleagues that my skillset from the RAF is a reasonably sought after thing.

Trade group 3?

[raf_gti]

Mr. Potato Head said:

raf_gti said:

although lacking in media experience I believe from speaking to several past colleagues that my skillset from the RAF is a reasonably sought after thing.

Trade group 3?

What was TG3, we're now amalgamated with TG11 and called TG4 with the techs classified as ICT Techs (systems)

Apologies if you already know this!