Broadcast automation incorporates the use of broadcast programming technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a broadcast network, radio station or a television station, it can run a facility in the absence of a human operator. They can also run in a live assist mode when there are on-air personnel present at the master control, television studio or control room.
The radio transmitter end of the airchain is handled by a separate automatic transmission system (ATS).
The production control room (PCR) or studio control room (SCR) is the area in a television studio in which the configuration of the outgoing program takes place.
The production control room is occasionally also called an SCR, or, in British English, a gallery – the latter name comes from the original placement of the director on an ornately carved bridge spanning the BBC's first television studio at Alexandra Palace which was once referred to as like a minstrels' gallery. Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. Master control is distinct from a PCR in television studios where the activities such as switching from camera to camera are coordinated. A transmission control room (TCR) is usually smaller in size and is a scaled-down version of centralcasting.
Universo is an American pay television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises subsidiary of NBCUniversal. The network serves as a companion cable channel to the NBCUniversal's flagship broadcast television network NBC and, to some extent, its Spanish network Telemundo.
Aimed at Hispanic Adults between the ages of 18 and 49, the majority of its programming – which is tailored toward bilingual audiences – consists mainly of sports, scripted and reality series, and music programming. The network is headquartered in Miami Springs, Florida, while its master control operations are housed at the CNBC Global Headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, which serves as master control facilities for most of NBCUniversal's cable networks.
In the context of broadcasting, backhaul refers to uncut program content that is transmitted point-to-point to an individual television station or radio station, broadcast network or other receiving entity where it will be integrated into a finished TV show or radio show. The term is independent of the medium being used to send the backhaul, but communications satellite transmission is very common. When the medium is satellite, it is called a wildfeed.
Backhauls are also referred to sometimes as clean feeds, being clean in the sense that they lack any of the post-production elements that are added later to the feed's content (i.e. on-screen graphics, voice-overs, bumpers, etc.) during the integration of the backhaul feed into a finished show. In live sports production, a backhaul is used to obtain live game footage (usually for later repackaging in highlights shows) when an off-air source is not readily available. In this instance the feed that is being obtained contains all elements except for TV commercials or radio ads run by the host network's master control. This is particularly useful for obtaining live coverage of post-game press conferences or extended game highlights (melts), since the backhaul may stay up to feed these events after the network has concluded their broadcast.