How-To Articles and Videos: May 2009 Archives

Submitted Question:
Everything is now working great, except that I need to listen to the audio during the live broadcast, but if I plug in headphones, it cuts out the audio to the live show going out to the school. I have pass thru to speakers checked which means I have to turn off the sound on the tv we use to see the live feed going out or we get feedback. We do all of this in one room. So is there any way for me to listen to the live show's audio?

Since you are in ONE room for your shows, you are correct that your computer speakers need to be turned WAAAY down low or muted, to prevent feedback. In this situation, I'd suggest a pair of headphones be worn by whomever is responsible for operating the computer, or if using a mic mixer, that person should be wearing headphones.

Do leave the box checked "pass thru to speakers" otherwise you won't hear the mics being used by newscasters.

Since you will need to plug in the headphones AND the live audio out feed to your broadcast gear, you'll need a splitter like this one:

Stereo Headphone Splitter (Click for details)

Hope that helps, let us know by leaving comments or questions below!

Submitted Question:

Let's see if I can make sense of my question. Basically I am asking how you control the placement of trays in a live show? Not how you move them but how you can position them so the next tray does not open too soon or too late. Example- My on screen talent is doing the weather report. After here we go to our anchor to continue the show. We rehearse the show and it takes her 20 seconds to do the weather. So we place the next tray at that point (20 seconds down the timeline) We go live and this time it takes her 25 seconds to do the weather because she talks more or some other reason. How can you avoid this? Hope I made myself clear thanks.

Easy solution!  Pause and unpause the teleprompter as needed.  We do this every single day too, since you cannot plan how long unscripted or ad-lib announcements will be.

The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Spacebar to pause/unpause.  I cover this in episode 7 of Ask Mr Z show at http://www.AskMrZshow.com

Hope that helps, let us know by leaving comments below!

Submitted Question:

How do I extend my desktop to go live and have another monitor facing the news anchors using the teleprompter? Right now, I have the computer screen facing me and a large TV that faces the anchors that is connected to the vcr that sends our signal out by coax to the RF over in the library. When I extend the desktop screen, I loose the teleprompter screen also.

I know this can be confusing, since there are so many configurations possible (TV sets verses VGA monitors).  Let's clarify a few things which may help:

1.  You can ONLY have 2 display devices being used simultaneously at any given time.

2.  Display device #1 is always the computer monitor.  This will be showing the full VC interface, OR optionally the fullscreen teleprompter mode (when you hit rehearse or record).  You cannot have both modes, must pick between regular interface mode, or fullscreen teleprompter mode.  See Ask Mr Z episode 7 to learn more about fullscreen teleprompter mode.

3.  Display device #2 can be either a TV set, another PC monitor, or LCD projector.  Optionally this is your live video feed into your RF modulator (broadcast equipment) as well.

It sounds like the computer operator AND your newscasters should be looking at the same interface (regardless of fullscreen teleprompter or regular mode).  To accomplish this just like we do, you'd need a VGA distribution amplifier that lets you connect multiple PC monitors to the same source.  The same image is displayed across multiple monitors this way.  I've setup our school TV studio this exact way, mostly because we have a 2 room facility (control room and studio room).

I hope that helps clarify, I cover this in Training DVD volume 1 under the chapter that discusses setting up to go live.

Let us know with comments below! 

Submitted Question:

I use the same project file daily with the pledge and
anthem already inserted. Sometimes when I have one long show, then the next day
the show is shorter, I can hear the previous show's recording when I publish.
How do you clear the audio and video of the previous show?

Shorter answer-- under the Project tab (below preview monitor) click on "Clear Recordings".  This will wipe out all previously recorded video and audio footage.  You will notice that the vertical timeline ruler will turn from blue back to grey.  Blue indicates where there is recorded footage on the timeline.

Longer answer (recommendation)-- Make a template, and mark it as READ-ONLY.  We do exactly that.  I took the very 1st show after we prepped it, and in Windows I browsed to the blue VC icon file and right clicked, mark read only.  Now you won't be able to change the template.

Each morning, we open the read-only project file (we named it MorningShow.msh) and then we do a file--save as.  This makes a copy of the template so therefore we have the same starting point each day, regardless of any past shows.

I demonstrate this a bit in episode 4 of Ask Mr Z show.  Also in my workshops, I cover these steps and the complete workflow of preparing morning newscasts.

Hope that helps, post any questions or comments below, thanks!