Start on the count-in, and take turns

The count-in

Someone with the producer or screener role counts the presenter in on talkback. Talkback reaches presenters and DJs only, never the programme and never a guest (Who hears whom).

1. The screener holds ⌃T on the Screener tab and counts: “In three, two, one.” Every presenter and DJ hears it; nobody else does.
2. They let go on “one”.
3. The presenter starts.

The studio app has no producer seat; a producer’s talkback is the control plane’s talk command with the producer’s identity (POST /api/v1/desk/commands).

The presenter can answer the screener without going on air by holding ⌃T on the desk: while it is held, only the screener hears them.

The rehearsals found that a show begun with nothing said is a show the presenter leaves: in the first live attempt the presenter left after 31 s. A count-in, and a word on what is next, is what fixed it.

Taking turns with remote guests

Everyone hears everyone else a little late, because every voice goes to the desk and back. On loopback the delay is under a tenth of a second; over the internet, in a test through two VPNs, it was about half a second from one person’s voice to another’s headphones.

• Leave a beat after a guest finishes before you answer, and expect the same from them. In the rehearsals the synthetic guests answered after one second of the presenter’s silence; at two seconds the conversation felt “as though they were asleep”.
• Do not talk over a remote guest to hurry them: they hear you late, and both of you stop.
• To hand over, finish your sentence, then pause.

The DJ overlap handover, in which an incoming DJ joins, is cued before the slot and takes the programme with one key (⇧⏎, ADR-0074), is planned. In 1.0.0 the key only shows a note: cue the incoming DJ with their slot’s cue key, put them on air with its digit, and take the outgoing DJ off with theirs.