Getting a Finished Feed to the Broadcaster: A Practical Delivery Guide
A step-by-step look at choosing between satellite, fibre and secure internet transfer, and what to settle with the receiving control room before the feed leaves the venue.
Daniel Okafor · · 7 min read
Start with what the broadcaster can receive
Before anyone talks about routes, find out what the receiving control room can actually ingest. Every broadcaster has a short list of accepted formats, frame rates, file wrappers and audio layouts, and it is far cheaper to learn that list on a Monday morning than during a rehearsal. I ask for it in writing, along with the name and direct number of the person who will be on shift when the feed arrives. The second thing to establish is whether the delivery is live or finished material. A live feed has to arrive in real time with almost no margin for repair, while a finished programme or package can be checked, re-sent and corrected. The two need different routes, different test windows and a different conversation with the producer.
Once those answers are on paper, the choice of route usually narrows quickly. A venue with no fibre and a tight news deadline points one way, a studio-to-studio file hand-off points another. Write down the delivery window, the format and the fallback in a single short document and send it to everyone involved, including the crew on site, so nobody is working from a different version of the plan.
- Ask for the broadcaster's accepted formats in writing
- Get a named contact for the delivery window
- Decide whether the feed is live or finished material
Choosing between satellite, fibre and secure internet
Satellite suits locations where nothing else reaches: a field, a car park, a remote hillside. It needs a clear view of the sky, a booked slot on a satellite and a short alignment period, and weather at the venue matters more than people expect. Heavy rain or a poorly placed truck can cost minutes you did not plan for, so we allow time for pointing and checking before the agreed start. Fibre gives the steadiest signal and the lowest delay, but it has to exist at the venue or be ordered in advance, and ordering can take longer than the event itself takes to plan. Secure internet transfer is the most flexible option for finished files and for lower-priority live inserts. Its quality depends on the upload capacity at the site, which we measure on a recce rather than assume from a venue's brochure.
None of these is simply better than the others. What matters is matching the route to the deadline, the location and the cost of failure. For a news insert that must go out at a fixed minute, we would rather pay for a second route than explain a gap on air. For a finished package due by the evening, a well-tested secure transfer is usually all that is needed.
Build the delivery around a test, not a hope
Every delivery we run includes a test transmission agreed with the receiving control room. It does not need to be long: a minute of colour bars, a tone, and a few seconds of real picture is enough to confirm that the format, levels and audio channels arrive as intended. What it exposes is often small and easy to fix, such as swapped audio channels or a frame rate mismatch, but only if it is found before the real feed starts. Book the test for a time when both ends are staffed and unhurried, not in the last ten minutes before the programme. If the test fails, you have room to move to the backup route. If it passes, the people at both ends know the path works and can settle into the actual job with some confidence.
After the test, we note what was sent, when, and what the receiving end confirmed. That short log is useful later if a question comes up about a missing second of footage or a level problem. It also means that the person taking over a shift, on either side, can see exactly what was agreed rather than rely on memory or a hurried phone call.
- Send bars, tone and a few seconds of real picture
- Confirm audio channel order with the receiving end
- Keep a short written log of the test
Plan the fallback before you need it
A fallback is only a fallback if it has been thought through before the day. For a live delivery that usually means a second route using a different kind of connection, so a single cut cable or a fault at one provider does not stop the feed. We agree in advance who decides to switch, how long a fault has to last before they do, and how the receiving control room will be told. It helps to be honest about the cost. A second route adds expense, and not every job justifies it. For a recorded interview delivered by file, a retry an hour later may be perfectly acceptable. For a live bulletin, it rarely is. The point is that the client makes that choice knowingly, with the trade-off explained, rather than discovering it during a fault.
Keep the switching procedure short enough to follow under pressure. A one-page sheet with the order of steps, the phone numbers and the agreed threshold for changing route is worth more than a detailed manual nobody has time to read. We hand a copy to the crew on site and to the coordinator at our end so everyone has the same instructions in front of them.
Hand-off: the details that cause late-night calls
Most distribution problems that reach me are not about the route at all. They are about naming, timing and paperwork: a file called something the ingest system does not recognise, a feed that starts a minute earlier than the schedule said, a missing slate that nobody remembered to add. These are dull problems, and they are entirely avoidable with a short checklist run before anything leaves the building. Agree a file naming pattern with the broadcaster and stick to it. Confirm the time zone and whether the stated start time is for the transmission or for the programme itself. If graphics, captions or clean and dirty versions are expected, find out which, and send exactly that, labelled clearly, rather than leaving the receiving team to guess.
When the delivery is done, ask for a confirmation of receipt from the control room, not just an assumption that silence means success. A short message saying the feed or file arrived and was checked closes the job properly. If something was off, you hear about it while the crew and the material are still to hand, rather than days later when options have narrowed.
- Agree file naming and slate details in advance
- Check whether times refer to transmission or programme start
- Ask for a confirmation of receipt every time
A simple order of work for the week before
For a delivery in the coming week, I work through the same sequence. Early in the week, collect the broadcaster's technical requirements and confirm the route. Midweek, check the venue's connectivity or book the satellite slot and any fibre, and agree the test time. A day before, run the test if the venue is accessible, or at least a link check, and circulate the one-page plan to everyone who touches the feed. On the day, arrive with time to spare, check the path end to end, and run the agreed test with the control room. Keep a person on the delivery side whose only job is to watch the outgoing signal, so the camera and production staff can concentrate on their own work without wondering whether the picture is getting through.
After the event, send the log, note anything that needed changing and keep it with the job record. In autumn, when daylight is short and weather is less forgiving, this habit matters more, because outdoor setups lose margin quickly. A small amount of order in the days before makes the delivery itself uneventful, which is exactly what a broadcaster wants from it.
A good delivery is one nobody notices. Ask what the broadcaster can receive, pick the route that fits the deadline and the location, test it with the receiving end, and keep a fallback you have already thought through. Settle naming, timing and confirmation before the feed leaves. If you are planning a delivery and want a second opinion on the route, our distribution team is happy to talk it through.
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