How early should a rundown be locked before a live programme?

When a producer rings to talk about workflow support, the first question is nearly always the same: how far ahead should the rundown be locked? It sounds like an administrative point, but it decides how calm the gallery feels once the programme goes to air. I am a lighting and camera lead rather than a producer, yet I sit in the rehearsals, and I see what a late or constantly shifting running order does to everyone downstream.

Lighting states are cued to items, camera positions are marked to guests, and the intercom chatter is written around the order of events. Each change after the plan is fixed costs a small amount of attention from someone, and in a live show attention is the one thing you cannot buy more of on the night.

The honest answer is that there is no single number of days. What matters is that every item has a clear owner, a duration and a fallback before the first full run-through takes place.

Locked does not mean frozen. A locked rundown has its items in order, each with a running time, a camera and lighting plan, and a named person responsible for it. Wording of questions, guest order within a segment and the exact script of a link can still move, provided the technical shape of the item does not.

We ask clients to separate the two kinds of change on paper. Technical changes, such as a new remote guest, an extra graphic source or a second presenter position, need time to be tested and are agreed early. Editorial changes, such as a reworded introduction, can be made close to transmission because they do not alter any signal path or rig.

Once that distinction is written down, arguments in the gallery get shorter. People can see at a glance which changes are cheap and which ones have to wait for the next rehearsal.

• Order of items and their running times
• Camera and lighting plan for each item
• Named owner for every item
• Fallback if an item overruns or fails

Our rehearsal support is built around the rundown rather than around the equipment. We run the programme in order, at real speed where we can, and stop only when something would genuinely stop an on-air show. The aim is to find the places where the plan and the room disagree, for example a walk between two positions that takes longer than the link allows.

In mid autumn many clients return to schedules after a quieter summer, with new presenters and changed sets. That makes a full run-through even more useful, because habits have not yet formed and small problems are still easy to put right.

We note timings as we go, then give the producer a short written summary afterwards. It lists what ran to time, what overran and which items we would shorten or reorder, so the decision stays with the people who own the programme.

The second half of workflow support is deciding, before transmission, what happens when something goes wrong. A fault procedure is not a thick manual. It is a short list, kept in the gallery, saying who calls what, in which order, and which item is cut or moved if a source disappears.

Agreeing this in a calm hour is far cheaper than inventing it with a live clock running. We usually write the first version with the technical lead and the producer together, then test it once in rehearsal by pulling a source on purpose and watching what the team does.

The result is rarely dramatic. People simply know their next move. That steadiness reaches the screen as well, because a presenter who senses a settled gallery tends to be settled too.

• Who speaks on intercom, and who stays silent
• Which source is the first backup for each item
• Which item is dropped first if time runs short
• Who tells the presenter, and by what cue

You do not need a polished document to start. A draft running order, the intended transmission length and a note of who will be in the gallery are enough for us to see where the pressure points are likely to fall. If the programme has remote guests or pre-recorded inserts, tell us early, because they bring the most technical risk into an otherwise simple show.

It also helps to share what has gone wrong before. Overruns, late guests and audio dropouts all point to particular habits in the workflow, and a past failure is the best guide we have to what needs rehearsing.

From there we agree the number of rehearsal sessions and the scope of the written summary, and confirm both in writing before any work is invoiced.

Here is the check I suggest to producers. Hand the running order to someone who has not worked on the programme and ask them to explain, item by item, what the camera and lighting team will be doing. If they can do it without asking you, the plan is clear enough to survive a busy night.

If they stumble, the gap is usually a missing owner or an unstated fallback, not a lack of effort. Fixing it takes minutes on paper and saves far longer in the gallery.

Repeat the exercise after any technical change. It costs almost nothing, and it keeps the plan and the room telling the same story.