CBN Studio Transformations

Reduced production labor 75% while more than doubling studio output

I joined CBN after helping establish its Southern California broadcast studio, initially as Director of Photography. Within months I became Technical Director, and within roughly a year I was functioning as Production Manager and Lead Producer.

Eventually, I was responsible for production and post-production supporting approximately 75% of the channel’s produced programming.

The organization needed to produce significantly more programming without the budget or staffing required by traditional studio-production models.

I redesigned the studio workflow around robotic cameras, reusable green-screen and black-curtain environments, flexible grip and dolly solutions, standardized preproduction requirements and smaller crews.

I oversaw production across a 17-person multidisciplinary team consisting of 7 producers, 4 editors and 6 production crew, supporting as many as 13 concurrent programs and 7 live broadcasts per week.

I also deliberately built redundancy into the organization—what I called my “bus rule.”

I trained three team members to technical-direct productions and coached editors in graphics and After Effects so the operation would not depend on any one person.

I later coordinated production across California, Virginia, London and Kiev and worked on location in Turkey, Germany and Finland.

Results

* Reduced average labor from approximately 32 to 8 staff-hours per show
* 75% reduction in production labor requirements
* Freed approximately 120 production hours per week
* More than doubled programming output
* Supported up to 13 concurrent programs
* Supported up to 7 live broadcasts weekly
* Oversaw production representing approximately 75% of channel programming
* Developed team members to assume higher-level technical responsibilities