There was a twitter link that came across the ‘net recently that was a YouTube link to some video grabbed in the production truck during Bill Clinton’s speech at the recent Democratic National Convention. Regardless of your political leaning (I’m strictly independent), if you have any interest in live tv, or if you’ve never seen a live director and technical director do their thing, then click on over and give it a watch. Live television is a fascinating exercise.

I haven’t been around a lot of live tv during the actual production stage but when I am holed up in a production truck I’m always amazed that those guys can do what they do. I have trouble watching and live switching a quad-split in my NLE during multicam editing without wondering what I’ve missed. These guys do much more than four cameras and do it live with millions of people watching.

Like anything on YouTube. Watching one video often leads to a timesuck black hole as you explore more of a given subject and live tv production is no different. The guy who posted the Bill Clinton speech has a number of others posted including Obama’s as well as the Foo Fighters.

Live sports can be quite hectic and is one of the best showcases of live tv production. Here we go Inside the CBC Broadcast Trailer at the Stanley Cup Finals.

If you really want to get into some hectic live production that take a look at this bit of footage from a “technical directing NFL game on sony switcher.” It just so happens that that was my hometown team of the Tennessee Titans a few years ago.

Music is a big place where multicam live tv is important. That can be seen at this Jay-Z concert though they have disabled embedding of the video.

But these guys didn’t disable embedding for this production that included Tenacious D, Dave Grohl, Jack Black and Kyle Gass.

For a bit more detail into how this all works then check out this behind the scenes from an ESPN college football game in 2004. The split screen here gives a good idea of how it all works.

When you think live tv then news is another thing that many people think of and CNN has taken us behind the scenes in their control room as well.

CNN is great and all but your local news is probably the most live production that is seen by the most people every day. These guys show us a bit of how that is done. I bet they do it in their sleep.

And while it’s probably not for sale anymore this little video can show you around one of those mobile production trucks if you’ve never been inside one. There’s tons of these types of videos on YouTube so just scan the sidebar for more. Enjoy your time suck!