Guides
Practical articles on studio layout, camera control, lighting, sound and streamlined workflows, written by the showvary team for producers and event organisers.
Our guides explain how we approach real studio and live event problems, in plain language and with concrete steps. New articles appear about once a day, so there is usually something fresh to read.
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Setting Up a Small Studio Monitoring Chain, Step by Step
A practical walk through the first part of sound engineering: choosing microphones, setting gain and building a monitoring chain you can trust in a studio or a small live venue.
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A checklist to work through before you commission a workflow review
Before anyone maps your signal routing, file handling or delivery steps, a few questions are worth settling.
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Camera control mistakes that slow a multi-camera shoot, and how to avoid them
Most camera control problems start long before the first take. Daniel Whitcombe goes through the setup, labelling and operating habits that cause trouble in multi-camera productions, and the fixes.
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What Stage and Event Lighting Costs and What Moves the Price
A plain look at how lighting plans and rigging advice are priced for concerts, festivals and corporate events, and which decisions push the figure up or down.
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A small television studio, planned around a 6 metre wall
Priya follows Marcus, who needed a compact streaming studio fitted into a former storeroom, and shows how the floor plan, cable routes and lighting grid were settled before anything was bought.
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Sound Engineering for the Dark Months: Preparing Rooms and Rigs
Autumn brings damp venues, longer event calendars and heating noise in studios. A seasonal look at the monitoring, microphone and mixing desk checks worth doing before winter bookings arrive.
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What 'Signal Path' Really Means in a Production Workflow
A plain-words explanation of the signal path: the route a picture or sound takes from camera or microphone to delivery, and why mapping it is the first step of any workflow review.
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Hardware Panels or Software Control: Choosing for a Multi-Camera Studio
A comparison of dedicated hardware control panels and software-based camera control for multi-camera productions, with a clear recommendation on which suits which kind of studio.
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How a Lighting Plan Gets Built, From Venue Visit to Load-Out
A behind-the-scenes look at how we turn a venue walk-through into a lighting plan and a rigging list, and what happens on the day the truss goes up.
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Broadcast Studio Floor Plans: The Questions Producers Ask Us First
The questions we hear most when a studio layout is being planned: how much floor space, where cables run, and what to settle before any equipment is ordered.
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What we have changed in how we plan sound for studios and venues
A short account of how our sound engineering work now starts: a listening survey before any equipment list, and monitoring decisions made early rather than left to the final week.
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The Tools We Use to Review a Production Workflow
A look at the sheets, drawings and test files we rely on when reviewing a workflow, and how each one helps a team see where time is lost between camera and delivery.
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Setting Up Camera Control for a Multi-Camera Shoot: A Step-by-Step Guide
A practical walk through configuring camera control, vision mixing and remote operation for a multi-camera production, from first power-up to a clean rehearsal.
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A Checklist for Planning Event Lighting Before You Commit
Before you sign off a lighting plan for a concert, festival or corporate event, work through these questions on venue, power, rigging, control and crew.
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Studio Design Mistakes We See Often, and How to Avoid Them
Priya Nair, our lighting lead, goes through the planning errors that cost television and streaming studios time and money, and the checks that catch them before the floor is built.
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What Sound Engineering Costs and What Moves the Price
A plain look at how audio design for studios and live venues is priced, which choices push the figure up or down, and what to settle before asking for a quotation.
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