Six Common Mistakes on Concert and Festival Feeds and How to Avoid Them

The commonest mistake is arriving on the day having never seen the site. A stage plan on paper says nothing about where the cable run crosses a public walkway, how far the front-of-house position sits from the truck, or whether the only flat ground for a camera platform is also the fire exit route.

I visit, or send someone who will be on the job, before we agree a camera plan. We walk the route from stage to transmission point, note where power comes from and who controls it, and photograph every position we might want. Ten minutes standing where a camera will stand often changes the whole plan.

Organisers sometimes feel a visit is a cost with nothing to show for it. It is the cheapest hour of the whole job, because every problem found there is solved with a conversation rather than a scramble.

• Walk the cable route from stage to transmission point
• Confirm power sources and who controls them
• Photograph each candidate camera position
• Note public access routes that cabling must cross

A running order tells you who plays; it does not tell you what the broadcaster needs to see. A news bulletin wants crowd reaction and a recognisable wide of the site. A full performance feed wants clean close work on each player and a director who knows when the solo is coming.

We ask the broadcaster early what the feed is for and how long each cut will run. That decides how many cameras we place, which of them are locked off, and which need an operator who can follow a moving singer without hunting for focus.

Adding cameras to be safe is the usual reflex. More cameras mean more cable, more monitoring and more chances for something to fail, so each one should have a stated job on the plan.

Pictures get the attention, but a feed with thin or mismatched sound is unusable. At festivals the house mix is made for the crowd, not the broadcast, and it can swing wildly between acts. Taking a clean feed from the desk, or agreeing a separate broadcast mix, has to be settled with the sound team well before doors open.

We also agree who owns the talkback channels and what happens if the stage and the truck lose contact. On one weekend job the camera plan was perfect and the only trouble was a talkback line nobody had tested after rigging, which left operators guessing at cues.

Test every audio path end to end during line check, with the same equipment that will carry the show, not a spare set carried for the purpose.

• Agree a broadcast audio source with the sound team
• Test talkback in both directions after rigging
• Check levels across several acts, not only the first

A festival field is a hostile place for links. Crowds soak up mobile signal, temporary power sags, and a lone connection that tested well at noon can fail at the headline set. Depending on one route to the broadcaster is a decision to hope.

We build a second path wherever the job allows, and agree with the receiving desk what they will see if we switch over: a short drop, a held frame, or a slate. Producers cope with a planned, announced change far better than with silence.

Weather belongs here too. In mid autumn a dry afternoon can turn within the hour, so connectors, encoders and joins are covered, raised off the ground and checked again after any shower.

Schedules at multi-act events are tight, and the soundcheck slot is where time gets cut. Without a proper line check, the first time anyone sees the finished picture is when it is already live. Colour mismatches between cameras, a frame rate set wrongly on one source, a monitor feeding the wrong image: all of these surface at the worst moment.

We ask for a defined window, even a short one, in which every camera is on air to the receiving end and a person at the broadcaster confirms what they see. Where a full soundcheck is impossible, we use the support act as the test, telling the desk first.

The aim is to have found every fault while it still costs nothing.

• Confirm format and frame rate with the receiving desk
• Match colour between cameras before doors open
• Have the broadcaster confirm what arrives, not just what leaves

Crews at festivals work long, cold hours in difficult places. A rota that puts one operator on a platform for eight hours with no relief produces tired, drifting shots by the evening. Relief breaks, hot drinks and a named person to hand over to are part of picture quality.

Briefing matters as much. Each operator should know the plan for their position, the cue to expect, and who to call when something changes. Last-minute changes from artists and stage managers are normal, and a calm crew absorbs them.

Finally, agree one decision-maker on the day. When three people give instructions, the operators follow none of them well.