Studio Manager
Encyclopedia
Studio manager is a job title in various media-related professions, including design, advertising, and broadcasting.
or advertising
studio manager's responsibilities will typically include traffic management, by ensuring all briefs are dispatched in the studio according to a designer’s skills and strengths and ensure all work is delivered promptly and to deadline
to the relevant people. A design studio manager should have excellent organizational and communication skills, and motivate their team by showing good leadership.
The following are a design or advertising studio manager's responsibilities
Principally, SMs are involved in the operation of studio equipment. This generally encompasses a mixing desk
, alongside ancillary equipment such as ISDN
codecs, playback and recording devices, and telephone and VoIP adapters.
The precise nature of a studio manager's work will depend upon the nature of their deployment, but the core function is usually to ensure the programme is correctly 'balanced'. For speech programmes, this generally means each contributor should heard with the same perceived loudness. A desirable music balance reflects the sound of a performance; for an orchestral rendition, each instrument ought to be heard at the correct relative volume and, for stereo programmes, at the 'correct' position in the orchestra.
Within the BBC
, studio managers are used extensively across news, drama, and live music output.
A studio manager might also be known as a desk driver, technical operator, TechOp, or facilitator, particularly outside of the BBC. For a period around 1970 the BBC used the term Programme Operations Assistant, or POA.
Design and advertising
A designDesign
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
or advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
studio manager's responsibilities will typically include traffic management, by ensuring all briefs are dispatched in the studio according to a designer’s skills and strengths and ensure all work is delivered promptly and to deadline
Time limit
A time limit or deadline is a narrow field of time, or particular point in time, by which an objective or task must be accomplished.In project management, deadlines are most often associated with milestone goals....
to the relevant people. A design studio manager should have excellent organizational and communication skills, and motivate their team by showing good leadership.
The following are a design or advertising studio manager's responsibilities
- Workload dispatch
- Compiling studio schedules for senior management meetings
- Compiling Road map for projects
- Constant update of Studio schedules
- Designer’s annual leaves coordination
- Prompt timesheet collection
- Understanding of how deadlines work
Television and radio
In a broadcasting context, a studio manager, or SM, fulfills an operational role in radio broadcasting to enable and ensure programmes are produced to a high technical standard.Principally, SMs are involved in the operation of studio equipment. This generally encompasses a mixing desk
Mixing console
In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
, alongside ancillary equipment such as ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network
Integrated Services Digital Network is a set of communications standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched telephone network...
codecs, playback and recording devices, and telephone and VoIP adapters.
The precise nature of a studio manager's work will depend upon the nature of their deployment, but the core function is usually to ensure the programme is correctly 'balanced'. For speech programmes, this generally means each contributor should heard with the same perceived loudness. A desirable music balance reflects the sound of a performance; for an orchestral rendition, each instrument ought to be heard at the correct relative volume and, for stereo programmes, at the 'correct' position in the orchestra.
Within the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, studio managers are used extensively across news, drama, and live music output.
A studio manager might also be known as a desk driver, technical operator, TechOp, or facilitator, particularly outside of the BBC. For a period around 1970 the BBC used the term Programme Operations Assistant, or POA.