Live link-ups through the darker months: what to check before you go out

Autumn is when live reporting stops being forgiving. Daylight shortens, so a report that would have gone out at four in the afternoon in summer now happens in near darkness, and the camera has less to work with before a single lamp is switched on. Rain, wind and cold arrive together, and every one of them finds a weakness in a portable transmission kit. I have spent a good many evenings on wet pavements waiting for a gallery to cue us, and the pattern is always the same: the problems that sink a live shot are rarely dramatic. They are damp connectors, a battery that has lost a third of its charge in the cold, or a cable that was fine last week.

So we change how we prepare once the clocks go back. Kit that sat in a van over the summer gets checked properly, and we assume the first live of the evening will be harder than the last.

Batteries lose capacity quickly when temperatures drop, and a pack that reads full in a warm office can sag within minutes outside. Our habit is to carry more than a single live needs and to keep spares inside a coat or a bag against the body until they are wanted. A report that runs long because the story develops is the normal case, not the exception, and nobody in the gallery will thank you for a dead camera halfway through a cross.

We also label every pack with the date of its last full charge and rotate them, so the oldest is used first and nobody guesses. If a mains point is available at the scene, we use it for the transmission unit and keep batteries for the camera and lights. It sounds fussy, but it removes one whole category of failure from a night when there are plenty of others.

• Carry at least one spare pack beyond the planned running time
• Keep spares warm until needed
• Rotate packs by date of last full charge

Mobile coverage is the quiet limit on any portable link. Before we set up, we test the connection at the exact spot the reporter will stand, not at the van, because fifty metres can be the difference between a clean feed and a frozen one. Leaves still on trees, a building across the road or a crowd holding up phones can all change what the link sees. When the first position is poor we move early, before the gallery is waiting, and we say so plainly to the control room.

Weather decides the rest. Wind can shift an antenna or knock a tripod, so we weight the legs and keep the mast low. Rain on a lens is handled with a hood and a dry cloth in reach. A reporter who is comfortable and sheltered speaks more clearly, so we think about the person as well as the equipment.

A live shot in the dark is mostly a lighting question. A reporter lit only by a street lamp looks tired and flat, and the background disappears into black. We use a soft key light close to the camera, kept low enough to avoid glare, and we make sure something recognisable behind the reporter is lit enough to show where the story is happening.

Daniel-style handheld habits matter here too: a steady stance, elbows in, and a frame that does not wander while the reporter talks. We check exposure against the actual skin tone on the monitor rather than trusting the preview, and we recheck as the sky darkens, because a setting that was correct at five o'clock is wrong by six. Small adjustments made before the cue are invisible; the same adjustments made on air are not.

• Soft key light near the camera
• Light something behind the reporter to place the scene
• Recheck exposure as dusk deepens

Whatever the weather, we finish with the same unhurried rehearsal. The reporter and I agree the opening line, the cue to throw back and a fixed signal for when something goes wrong. We confirm with the gallery which return feed they will hear, check that the earpiece is working and that the reporter can hear the programme sound without delay in it.

Then we wait. The last ten minutes before a live are the best use of the whole evening, because nothing new should be introduced. If something does fail, the team already knows the order of fixes: power, then connection, then audio, then picture. That order keeps people calm, and calm is what the viewer at home sees on screen when the cue finally comes.