What clients ask before booking a live feed
Practical answers on crews, signals, delivery formats, quotations and payment, for producers and event organisers planning live coverage in the South West.
Frequently asked questions
These are the questions we hear most often from news desks, programme editors and event organisers. If yours is not covered, write or call and we will answer it directly.
Which areas do your crews cover?
Our base is in Exeter and most of our work is across the South West, from Cornwall to Somerset. We travel further for outside broadcasts and festival feeds when the schedule allows. Tell us the venue and date in your enquiry and we will confirm whether we can staff it and what travel adds to the quotation.
How far ahead should we get in touch?
For planned events such as concerts, festivals and scheduled programmes, earlier is better, because crews and signal engineers are allocated per job. For breaking news we will say honestly whether we can field a crew at short notice. A short call usually settles that quickly, and a written confirmation follows.
What happens if a connection drops during a live feed?
Marcus Ellery designs each setup with monitoring at the venue and at the point of delivery, so a fault is seen as it happens. Where the job justifies it, we plan a second path, such as a bonded cellular link alongside a fixed line. We agree the fallback with you beforehand, so everyone knows what the viewer will see.
Which formats and delivery methods can you work with?
We deliver finished feeds to television channels and news desks over secure links, in the format your receiving team specifies. Tom Pascoe liaises with your technical contact before the day to confirm resolution, frame rate and delivery timing. If a broadcaster has particular requirements, send them with your enquiry.
Can you supply a single camera operator rather than a full crew?
Yes. Live Camera Operation can be booked on its own for news, studio and outside broadcast shoots. Our operators work handheld or on a tripod and bring their own judgement on framing and safety. If you later need signal management or distribution as well, the work can be added to the same quotation.
How do we order, and when do we pay?
Send an enquiry through the contact page. We reply with a written quotation, and once you confirm it in writing we issue an invoice, which you pay by bank transfer. Nothing is bought or paid for on this website. The Prices page sets out what each service costs and what is included.
What if we need to cancel or change the booking?
Tell us as soon as your plans change, in writing, so the crew can be released or rescheduled. How cancellations and refunds are handled is set out in our Payment and Refund Policy, and your quotation refers to it. We would rather adjust a booking sensibly than argue over it.
Do you treat the content we film as confidential?
Yes. Discretion is one of our working values. We do not discuss unreleased footage, embargoed stories or event details with anyone outside the job. If your production needs specific confidentiality terms, raise it in your enquiry and we will agree it in writing before the shoot.
Describe the venue, the date and what must reach the broadcaster, and we will reply with a written quotation covering camera operation, signal management or distribution as needed.
Tell us about the programme or event you are planning
ContactWhat helps us plan a live job properly
A good quotation depends on a few facts we cannot guess. Gathering them before you get in touch saves a round of emails and lets us name the right crew, equipment and delivery route from the start.
The venue and the day
Give us the address, the date and the times that matter: get-in, rehearsal, going live and wrap. If the site has no fixed connection, say so, because a remote contribution kit may be the sensible answer. Mention anything about access, power or crowd areas that your own team already knows. We will ask follow-up questions where something is unclear, and we can discuss a site visit if the job is complex.
Where the feed must go
Tell us who receives the signal and in what form: a television channel, a news desk or screens at the venue. If a technical contact at the broadcaster is already named, include their details so Tom Pascoe can speak to them directly. Delivery requirements decide the equipment and the testing time we set aside, so it is worth settling them early.
Your fallback expectations
Think about how much risk the programme can tolerate. A short report can often run on one link, while a live concert or scheduled bulletin may justify a second route and extra monitoring. Tell us what an interruption would cost you and we will propose a setup to match, with the extra cost stated plainly in the quotation.