Seeing through screens, hearing through speakers: Managing distant studio space in television control room interaction

This paper explores how an only partially visible and audible television studio space can be accountably understood from the perspective of a television control room. A proper grasp of the studio space is necessary for understanding, for example, who is talking to whom in the studio, and the position of camera operators relative to both one another and the people they are filming. Such an understanding is crucial for the on-line collaborative editing of the studio interaction, in a way that is intelligible for the audience of viewers. Based on video-recordings of the control room and the studio interaction during the live production of the French interview program Rideau Rouge, this study describes some of the multi-modal resources and practices that the personnel in the control room mobilize for resolving, in interaction, practical problems pertaining to the studio space, e.g. how they manage to show relevant participants, show participants from complementary angles, and direct camera operators to produce specific shots.