commonra has supplied video feeds to news and television producers since 2014. This page explains how the company began, how we work, and who is behind the cameras and the signal.
Helen Marsh started commonra in 2014 after a career in television operations. She had seen how often a good programme was let down by a weak link in the feed. The company was built to remove those weak links.
In television operations, Helen saw the same pattern repeatedly: strong editorial ideas and capable presenters, undermined by a poorly planned signal path, a late delivery or a camera in the wrong place. Most of these problems were avoidable with earlier planning and one person responsible for the whole chain.
She set up commonra in Shrewsbury in 2014 with a simple aim: to supply broadcasters with feeds they would not have to worry about. The first jobs were single-camera shoots for news programmes, where speed and clear communication mattered more than a large rig.
As the work grew, so did the range. Live signal management became a service in its own right, and crews began covering concerts and festivals, where several cameras are switched together and sent out as one programme feed.
Distribution followed naturally. Clients wanted one company to shoot, monitor and deliver, so we added satellite, fibre and secure internet transfer, handled by a coordinator who speaks directly to broadcaster control rooms.
Today commonra remains a small team working from Coleham Head Works. We take on work we can staff properly, and we say so plainly when a request is better suited to another provider.
Broadcast work leaves little room for second attempts. A missed shot or a dropped signal cannot be recreated once the event has passed. For that reason our daily routines are built around a small set of principles, each of which shows in how a job is planned, run and handed over.
Reliability means preparation before the day. Equipment is tested before it leaves Shrewsbury, signal paths are checked at the venue, and an engineer monitors the feed for the whole transmission. Daniel Okafor's team keeps spare cabling and a fallback route for critical jobs, so a single fault does not stop the programme.
Clarity applies to pictures and to communication. Crews agree shots with the producer before recording, and our coordinator confirms delivery details in writing. On the day we use short, plain instructions over talkback, and quotations list what is included so there are no surprises when the invoice arrives.
Discretion matters because we are often present at sensitive news events and private rehearsals. We film what the client asks for and nothing more, we do not discuss one client's work with another, and we handle footage and delivery credentials with care until the feed is safely handed over.
Four people make up the core team, and each looks after one stage of the chain. Between them they cover management, signal operations, camera work and distribution, which means a client usually deals with the person who will actually do the work.
Helen Marsh oversees client relationships and writes the quotations. Her background in television operations means she knows what a control room needs to receive and when. She is usually the first person to speak to a new client, and she stays involved from the first enquiry until the final invoice is settled.
Daniel Okafor leads live signal management and checks that every feed reaches its destination cleanly. Tom Eccleston schedules deliveries and handles technical hand-offs with broadcaster control rooms. Together they decide the route a signal will take and keep a record of each transmission for later reference.
Priya Shah is our senior camera operator, with experience shooting news and live music events for broadcasters across the Midlands and Wales. Crews are staffed from the team around her, and operators are matched to the job, whether that is a fast news shoot or a long festival day on a stage.
commonra supplies broadcast-ready video feeds, camera crews and live signal management to news and television producers from its base in Shrewsbury.
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