Six Common Mistakes in Concert and Festival Broadcast

Plans drawn from a distance hide real problems: a low roof that limits a long lens, a car park that floods after rain, a mixing position behind a pillar. In mid autumn the light fades early too, which changes how an afternoon festival looks on camera by the final act.

A site visit need not be long. Walk the cable routes, stand where each camera will be, and look at the stage from the audience's view. Check how far the outside broadcast kit must travel from where it parks, and whether the ground will carry it in wet weather.

Take a note of any rule the venue has about rigging, noise or access times. These details are cheap to learn in advance and expensive to discover while a crowd is arriving.

There is a pull towards either extreme. Some organisers hope two cameras will cover a whole stage and then find the director has no spare shot when one operator needs to reframe. Others ask for eight positions, and the crew spends the show managing kit instead of watching the performance.

The right number depends on the music, the stage width and what the footage is for. A solo acoustic set needs far less than a band with a brass section moving around a wide stage. We usually build a plan around what the director must always have available: a wide, a close on the lead, and a spare that can drift.

Fewer, better-placed cameras with experienced operators beat a large rig with no time to rehearse it.

As the audio engineer I feel this one personally. Picture is planned for weeks while the sound feed is left to whatever the house desk can spare. A broadcast mix is not the same as a room mix: the room is loud and boomy, the broadcast must be balanced and clean on a small speaker at home.

Agree early how the feed reaches us. A split from the stage boxes gives the cleanest result, while a stereo tap from the front-of-house desk is quicker but carries the room's choices into the broadcast. Both can work, but the crew should know which one it is long before soundcheck.

Plan for ambient microphones on the crowd too. Without them, a good performance can sound oddly empty on air.

Festival schedules slip. Sets overrun, a headliner arrives late, rain stops play for twenty minutes. A crew that has only seen the running order on paper will lose its footing the moment it changes. Even a short rehearsal with a support act lets operators learn the stage and the director learn the cues.

Backup matters just as much. Carry spare cable, a second recording path, and a clear rule for what happens if a camera drops out mid-song. Know who calls it and what the picture falls back to.

These plans are rarely used, which is why they are easy to cut when budgets tighten. They are also the reason a small crew can stay calm when something does go wrong.

The last mistake has nothing to do with kit. Camera operators work close to performers, security, stage managers and the public. If nobody has briefed them about where they may stand, who can be filmed and when they must clear the pit, trouble follows quickly.

A short briefing before doors helps everyone. Introduce the crew to the stage manager, walk through hand signals, and agree intercom channels so the director can reach every position. On a cold evening, think about warm clothing and breaks too, because tired operators frame badly.

Small courtesies like these keep a broadcast running to time and keep the relationship with the venue intact for the next booking.