Imagine the possibilities!

Are you struggling to compete in a competitive niche like cooking? Set up a simple TV studio in your kitchen for less than five grand and you can dazzle your fans with shows that put you in league with Emeril!

Set up your own QVC Network! Look at QVC with the mind of a TV producer and what do you see? A couple of people sitting on a simple set, holding up products, and chit-chatting non-stop. How easy is that?

Incredibly easy.

Much of the equipment needed to set up a studio is the exact same needed for field production, especially the camera. If you want to do both studio and field work but don't want to buy two sets of equipment, you don't have to. Everything can be the same. You'll just have to get used to putting your studio together and tearing it apart again. Portable lights on stands take up more room than those mounted on the ceiling but your shot will still look OK and that's all that matters.

Typically, a TV studio has at least three cameras and some way to switch between the cameras live as the show is happening. Of course if all you have is one camera don’t let that stop you.

Using multiple cameras and a video switcher to edit your show on the fly saves hours and hours of editing. The technique was originally invented in Hollywood once TV was invented as a cheaper and faster way to produce shows.

A TV studio is usually divided into at least two rooms. The studio where the lights, camera, and action take place and a control room where the director and technicians are. The audio and video switchers are both in the control room along with lots of monitors.

TIP!

If you don’t have a video switcher, and still want a studio show look, run multiple cameras simultaneously and record the show in its entirety from each of the cameras. You could have different priority audio going to each camera. Then, synch up all the video during editing, mix the audio and choose the best shot. If you do this correctly, it’s actually very fast, not at all time-consuming like the old cut and splice method or the analogue methods used for editing years ago but now obsolete.

The director or technical director operates the video switcher, going from shot to shot when appropriate. The director also adds graphics when appropriate. All video sources are plugged into the video switcher and are under control of the director. A large operation will have separate components and operators for graphics, pre-recorded tapes and other sources of video such as satellites. A small operation can get by with one director and all the cameras locked down on tripods.

Today, powerful computers can take the place of all the video and audio switchers and graphics components, which makes it even easier to set up a portable studio. You can do it either way.

Here’s a list of the video production equipment you need to set up a fully functional yet simple TV studio:

• Multiple Cameras
• Tripod for each camera
• A video switcher that can handle every single video source you have (or computer system)
• Multiple microphones
• An audio switcher that can handle every audio source you have (or computer system)
• Graphics generator
• Multiple TV Monitors, minimum of one per video source
• Video tape/DVD decks
• CD/audio tape players
• Cables and connectors to piece it all together
• Lights
• Set furniture- usually something homey. Avoid detailed patterns. Go for solid colors that blend.

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