Below, I have tried to give the 'feel' of the programme.

Pawb a i Farn (People Talking) is the Welsh equivalent of 'Question Time'. For two to three months or so, each year, it goes 'on the road', transmitting live from a different venue each Friday. It starts at 2030 and has a duration of 60 minutes. Approximately 70-80 people form an invited audience in front of a panel representing a cross section of political representatives and usually a 'personality' to add a different perspective to the show.   

 Planning starts for me about two months prior to the first show, when we have a 'Recce' to each of the possible venues for the O.B. (Outside Broadcast) We being the Production Designer and myself visit each location with a view to making sure that:

1) The size of the Hall (usually School or Leisure Center) is big enough. The current set requires a floor area of about 50' by 50', and I look for a minimum height of 18' (for lamps)

2) Access for vehicles and equipment. The Scenery and O.B. Trucks are large (and heavy) and my job is to ensure that we can get near enough to the Hall. Points I look for are obvious ones such as road width, gates and corners, but also for soft ground, steep slopes or cambers, manholes or evidence of subsidence or damage from previous visits by heavy vehicles. The main control room has to be fairly level, as has the mobile generator sets that we use.

3) The Designer will measure up the hall and check the access doors. (the set and audience rostra breaks down into units that will fit through a standard set of double doors) He will also draw up a scale plan that I can then collate with my intended lighting rig. He will take photos of the Hall interior, as I will. I will also take pictures of the exterior with a view as to ease of access, and any possible obstructions.  

4) The Director (or Producer) on a separate visit, will check out Hall availability, suitable hospitality areas for Guests and invited audience and to negotiate a fee. He will also need to allocate suitable rooms for Make-up, and hospitality for the invited audience and panel.

            The next phase is to collate the info. into an organised file, get the photos processed and start preparing a planning sheet on my P.C. This is usually about four or five pages of A4, giving specific requirements about power, Communication Links, parking, sound coverage, camera, lens and camera mounting requirements, Talkback, Videotape, and Monitor set-ups. Any major problems (usually access) will have triggered a red light response with me, and I will have alerted the Producer or the appropriate Contractor.

         The Director will issue a set of Technical requirements for the O.B., which will then be E-mailed to me. I will then check these to make sure that all the details are as I expect from my discussions with him.

         In the week prior to the show, I will send a Fax to the Manager of the venue, making sure that he/she understands the timing of our comings and goings. The Production department will also have finalized their requirements, using researchers to get an invited audience.      

On the Thursday evening prior to the Friday of the show, the Set Designer will have arranged for the Scenic van (an articulated truck) to arrive on site at about 6 p.m. The crew will carry in all the components of the set and audience rostra, and erect it according to the layout and position of the plan, drawn up by the designer. This takes about three hours and includes covering any coloured lines on the floor with a broadly neutral tape that can be removed after the show.

The planning sheet is a pull together of every technical aspect of the O.B.. It takes quite some time to prepare, and it will only be issued to the recipients about one week before the programme is transmitted. I light the show using floor stands, or by clamping lamps onto the set. I do this for two main reasons. Time, and cost.

        It would be possible to create better lighting by using scaffolding suspended from the roof, or by using towers with a beam over, in the shape of a goal post, but this would take more time to rig, and because another contractor would be involved and his equipment, the cost would soar.    

The tech end of the lighting rig, Paradim digital dimmers. 

         Next, all the lamps, stands, cables and power distribution are put in place, and 'flashed out' (checked).

The rig goes in: 

and the ground station arrives:

        It takes about one hour and a half to 'focus' or 'set' all the lamps to cover the area to my satisfaction. I use a light meter to ensure an overall even coverage in the important areas. I then build up two distinct sets of settings on the lighting control control board, so that I can produce an 'up' and a 'down' light situation for the main part of the programme, and the silhouette ending, over which the credits run.   

        I work at my L.D.'s (Lighting Director) position just behind the audience, and hopefully, out of sight! I need to be able to hear talkback from the Director, as does every other member of the crew. We all wear headphones so as to minimise the possibility of talkback being heard by the viewer. I also have talkback from me to various key people in the technical vehicle, known as a 'Scanner' or more correctly, a C.M.C.R. (Colour Mobile Control Room)

        I have two colour monitors in front of me; one displaying C.M.C.R. O/P (output) so that I can always see what the viewer is seeing, and another which I can switch between cameras, videotape and 'off air' so that I can hopefully correct lighting adjustments before the viewer notices.

        By mid afternoon, the self contained mobile Satellite Ground station has arrived, The engineer sets it up to point to the particular Satellite that we are to use that day. This depends on when the booking has been made, a 'rush job' will mean a different (and usually more expensive) satellite than one that has been booked for some weeks. Usually, it costs about £12 per minute, so the costs for one hours use is not excessive. Before this High Tech equipment was available to us, it was necessary to get the signal 'out' of the site by a number of Microwave (radio frequency, nothing to do with cooking) links in a chain, with as many as four 'hops' before a suitable inject point can be reached. That was invariably expensive, involving many staff at the various sites in order to complete the link back to our Transmitters.              

By about 5p.m. the Director and Producer arrive on site, having already had discussed the ‘key’ questions that are to be asked with Dewi Llwyd (the presenter). The programme is topical, and the questions will be about issues that have been in the news that week. Rehearsals will begin, Wynford Jones (Director) talking everybody through the opening of the programme, the lead in and out of the commercial breaks, and the end. He will also check out the various known positions that the principal questioners will occupy using the O.B.S.M. (Outside Broadcast Stage Manager)

        This takes about an hour and a half. The presenter will arrive during this time and take his place on the set from the O.B.S.M.    

Seen from above, the set looks remarkably like the model! 

        Dewi tells the audience about the way the programme works, how he hears directions from the Director via his Radio Talkback, and about the way that the microphones extend over their heads and are to be ignored at all costs!    

        With fifteen minutes to go before we go 'on air,' the tests of sound and vision will have been carried out. The Satellite transponder will have been booked and the engineer on site will have checked the link out from the dish, via the Geo Stationary Satellite, and back to the 3 metre receiving dish. (alongside the BBC Club in Cardiff!) The signals will be passed through the BBC's Communication Centre to S4C's transmission facility.

        Sharon, the Production assistant, has a two-way talkback facility (via an ordinary telephone line, temporary and booked just for the programme.) by which she can find out the exact time that we go 'on air' and also the time of the commercial break, as well as the total duration of the programme. She will need these times in order to do a countdown  in to the start of the show, but also into the break, as well as the end of the show. The presenter hears these times in his earpiece (30 seconds to Dewi's last words......etc) which enables him to round up the show in a neat manner, hopefully without the viewing public being aware of anything untoward.  Below are a few off screen shots taken during a recent programme.