The key differences between a TV broadcast engineer and any other engineer from a communication type background would be:
- Constant change (operational and technical to meet channel specific requirements)
- Single direction for signal flow (always need to understand source & destination)
- Linear time continuum (no retransmits, focus on continuity and fluid content delivery)
- Focus on content quality and consistency (program has to make sense and the edits or corrective actions taken cannot break the story flow)
- Presentation and ergonomics are priority (sound proofing, mellow lighting, rested eyes and ears detect video audio defects better). Also graphics and visual audio styles used throughout facility need to be thought out creatively whilst understanding the psyche of the viewer.
Internal & External Clients
TV Stations or Data Centres where broadcast transmits through via satellite or IP last miles have two different classes of “clients” that the broadcast engineer needs to work with. The internal broadcast management team that defines the flavour and feel of the channels being broadcast and the viewers who are the ultimate end users of the broadcasters.
Broadcast and video content is transmitted and consumed in a 24 hour, 7 day week manner by various types of viewers who in their own way prioritise some key things in how they commit their time to a screen; customer experience, content relevance and ergonomics.
Customer Experience & Technology
To ensure these client needs are met successful broadcast teams and broadcast engineers are constantly driven to excel in deploying technology in an artistic manner. Hence good broadcast engineers often need a good appreciation for soft skills such as artistic flair, understanding story telling, user ergonomics and data on viewer preferences. These ranges of soft skills are increasingly being included as a part of the customer experience or CX of broadcasters.
Broadcast engineers have always needed to balance the CX delivered to internal and external clients & stakeholders with the choice of technology and methods of intervention deployed in cases of emergency or change. There is no room to conduct technology experiments or problem resolving interventions without adequate planning and the management of change across all stakeholders (trouble slides or ticker tape on screens, reserving maintenance activities to low viewership times, building redundant and high availability architectures & maintaining disaster recovery plans).
Change Management
To deal with constant change, the Broadcast Engineer is required to be highly methodical and a well-documented person. In an industry that demands immediate and constant change, the responsibility of keeping things in as standard configuration as possible falls on the engineers.
Creativity, a high level of communication and teamwork is needed to do this job function well. Technology changes need to happen in some places and frozen in others. Systems that suit other broadcasters may not suit all. Creativity is needed again in creating and managing the bespoke workflows that make up the broadcast organisations core competencies.
Directional Signal Flow - Linear Video
The same way a navigator at sea needs to always have an idea of where North is, a broadcast engineer always needs to understand signal flow in the sense of what is upstream and what is downstream (as in a river).
Devices upstream are always sources to devices downstream (destinations). When tracing a signal path therefore it makes sense to always start with destinations and work backwards to the source (always start downstream).
Using a river analogy, if you start upriver and head downstream to a certain riverside city, you will need to know which branches in the river you’ll need to take to get to your destination. However if you don’t already know the path and which river branches to take, it would be easier to trace back from the city and head to the source which would only reduce in the number of branches as you go upstream until you came to a single source (usually).
In video routing to this day, broadcast engineers always define destination first before selecting source.
Non-Linear Video and VOD
The days of IT-broadcast integration brought us non-linear editing which basically turns a continuous flow of video into recorded media that can easily be manipulated disregarding time. These workflows and methods led to video-on-demand (VOD) and the world of new media watched via applications installed in smart devices and TVs.
Time linearity for a broadcast output or a viewer has not however changed and become completely non-linear… i.e. if you’re watching a show, you would require that it is presented to you in sequence. Jumping across the timeline will create story jumps or discontinuity which would confuse the viewers and effectively disrupt the story (or game) flow. What has changed is the sequence of programs that we watch and how we switch between them, which is not very different from having hundreds of streaming channels and a TV remote with recording capability
Content Quality and Continuity
This needs to be the most important consideration for a broadcast engineer attempting to troubleshoot or carry out engineering works that affect the station output. Some questions that should be asked before interrupting the output signal are:
- Can the signal break wait until a certain movie or sports program has finished playing out?
- Is there going to be a jump in the sequence of this program when changing the signal?
- Can the signal be changed or broken with minimal audio & video viewing discomfort for the viewer at home?
- Will the signal break or change cause the viewers to change channels or move away from the current programming?
- If using a trouble slide, is the information on the slide necessary, can we continue without the slide or use an alternate signal?
- Can we forewarn the viewer of disruption to reduce the impact of a signal change? If so how much information should we be able to give?
The above points are not just for works carried out by engineers trying to correct a fault but also as a general guideline for improving TV station output quality; hence the use of audio levellers and frame synchronisers at the station output end.
Presentation and Ergonomics
The factors that define a successful TV station are programme quality, presentation and availability (in order of importance). Quality of programming is based on the content acquisition team’s ability to acquire programmes that meet the viewer’s tastes. Presentation is an operational matter that involves branding and graphics capability. Availability is purely based on engineering capability.
Presentation however is something every engineer needs to take into consideration in their daily lives in a TV station. An engineer’s actions whilst trying to resolve problems should not lead to poor presentation of the station output. Putting on a HD trouble slide onto an SD channel or cross routing wrong programming, cutting to tape while the tape is still cueing are some examples.
It’s always good practice for engineers to consult the operational teams when proposing or implementing on air workarounds so as the presentation output of a station is not neglected. Engineers will also have an opportunity this way to learn about presentation leading to cross functional engineering teams.
Ergonomics are required in broadcast design owing to the nature of some of broadcast operations which are very taxing on the eyes, ears as well as mind. Adequate sound proofing, soft lighting and accurate yet flexible test and measurement systems enable the operational and engineering teams to make precise judgements on the quality of the station output without tiring them out.