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The production team: the unsung heroes of news

So, you’re making a newscast. Who do you need? A news anchor or two, a weather anchor, a sports anchor, a couple reporters and that’s it, right? Not exactly. 

There are faces behind the faces, and as deep as that sounds, its true. Behind every anchor is a director calling the shots, a camera person framing the angles and an audio technician balancing sound levels. The production team brings the show to life.

Before every newscast, the production team is preparing for the show. While some team members may actually be broadcasting another live program, other team members work to create graphics for each story in the newscast. Those name graphics, fancy over the shoulder graphics and monitor graphics don’t make themselves. The production team whips them up in editing software.

At Troy TrojanVision News, our production team arrives at least two hours before every newscast to prepare the show. They work hard in a booth beside the studio, creating graphics, as the producers update the daily news rundown. The crew makes last minute checks, starts streaming then we are live. 

The director calls all the shots. They orchestrate the entire show. Over headsets, the director communicates to camera operators on how to adjust camera angles. They can also talk directly to the anchors in their IFB earpieces to make changes to the show as we broadcast. 

Camera operators run the cameras and cue anchors. When an anchor is live, the camera operator will point at them, so they know to begin speaking. They can also communicate information from the director to the studio via their headsets.    

The audio technician controls the sound levels. This person monitors every anchor’s microphone to prevent them from being too quiet or too loud. They may also play or fade out music when necessary. A newscast cannot be heard without the audio technician, so this person has a lot on their shoulders. 

The server operator plays every video on the show following the director’s command. They sit behind a monitor and wait for their cue to hit play. This person may play full news stories, known as packages, or simply B-roll as an anchor reads. 

Lastly, a teleprompter operator controls what the anchors read. They scroll on a computer to the speed of the anchors, which is why they don’t have to completely memorize their scripts. This person is vital in giving the anchors what they need to sound the best they can on air. 

While you never see the production team, they do a ton of hard work. If you don’t notice what the people behind the camera are doing, then they are doing their job well.

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