Control Rooms?

[secondchoice]

I know there are sound and video boards and folks for live news, sports, etc. but do the big 4 have operators / technicians at the network hubs that actually switch programs or has PC's taken over switching commercials?

 

[Mediafrog+]

I know there are sound and video boards and folks for live news, sports, etc.

Not so much at the local level any more. Automation systems such as Grass Valley Ignite, Ross Overdrive, or Sony ELC mean that one person controls video and audio sources, graphics and robotic cameras. Full blown systems still done the old-fashioned way (with director, technical director, audio op, graphics op, actual humans running camera, plus other production personnel) are usually only found at the network level for live shows.

but do the big 4 have operators / technicians at the network hubs that actually switch programs or has PC's taken over switching commercials?

Commercials and recorded programs are automated with a preprogrammed computer playlist. Pretty much everything is played out of servers these days. Live programming still has human involvement for program content, but commercial breaks during live shows are run by the same computer playlists. On-air automation for program playout has been around for almost 40 years...originally with video tape, now with servers.

There are still some human operators, but to a great extent they simply make necessary tweaks to the program playlists, then babysit everything. Many local stations are now hubbed in central locations, where dozens of channels can originate.