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What Live Show Workflow Planning Costs and What Moves the Price

A plain look at how rundowns, cue sheets and crew communication plans are priced, and which parts of a live show push the work up or down.

Hannah Doyle · 16 October 2026 · 6 min read

Why workflow planning is priced by effort, not by the page

People often ask for a flat figure for a rundown and a set of cue sheets, as though the paper were the product. In my experience the paper is the smallest part. What you are paying for is the time spent understanding how your show actually runs, who needs to know what and when, and where it tends to wobble once the red light is on.

That is why we do not publish a single price for Live Show Workflow Planning. A ten-minute bulletin with one presenter and a fixed running order needs far less thinking than a ninety-minute live programme with remote guests, pre-recorded inserts and a studio audience.

What we can do is explain the factors in advance, so that when you ask for a quote you already know which answers will shape it. Everything below comes from the way we scope work at the studio in Salisbury.

The first driver: how long and how complex the show is

Running time matters less than the number of moving parts inside it. A long programme that is essentially two presenters and a desk is simpler to plan than a short one that cuts between three locations, a graphics operator and a live phone-in.

We count the elements that need a cue: segments, inserts, graphics, outside sources, music beds and ad breaks. Each one needs a trigger, an owner and a fallback, and the planning effort grows with that count rather than with the clock.

Shows that change shape from one edition to the next also cost more to plan than a fixed format, because the templates have to be built to flex without losing their discipline. A weekly show with the same skeleton every time is the cheapest case, and one-off live events are usually the most demanding.

Number of segments, inserts and remote sources
Fixed format or a show that changes each edition
Number of crew positions that need their own cue sheet

The second driver: crew size and how people talk to each other

A small crew who share a room can often manage with a clear rundown and a short briefing. A larger crew spread across a gallery, a studio floor and a remote location needs a proper communication plan: who speaks on which talkback channel, who calls the shots, and what the floor manager says to the presenter and when.

Writing that plan means sitting with the people involved, so more positions means more conversations. I usually find that the talkback arrangements deserve as much attention as the rundown, because a good running order is no use if the instruction never reaches the person who has to act on it.

If your crew changes often, or you use freelancers who join at short notice, we also build in a one-page handover so a newcomer can be useful within the first rehearsal.

The third driver: what you already have in place

Clients arrive in very different states. Some have a rundown template that mostly works and want it tightened. Others have everything in people's heads and nothing written down. Starting from nothing takes longer than refining something that exists, and we say so plainly when we scope the job.

Having notes from previous shows helps a great deal. If you can share old rundowns, a record of what went wrong on a difficult night, or even a rough list of recurring problems, we spend less time discovering and more time fixing.

Access also affects the price. Watching a live show from the gallery tells us far more than a description of it, so planning that includes observing at least one real transmission or full rehearsal is worth more than planning done from a briefing alone, and it is usually where we find the problems nobody mentioned.

Existing rundowns, cue sheets or show notes
Whether we can observe a rehearsal or live show
How much of the process is written down today

Where the money is easy to waste

The most common waste is over-engineering. A cue sheet with forty columns that nobody reads is worse than a simple one that everybody does. We would rather give you a lean set of documents your crew will actually use than an impressive folder that sits on a shelf.

The second is skipping rehearsal. A plan that has never been run against the clock is a draft. Setting aside time to walk through it, even once, usually reveals timing assumptions that were optimistic, and fixing those on a rehearsal day costs a fraction of fixing them live.

The third is planning in isolation from the rest of the production. If the lighting, camera and sound teams have not seen the rundown, they will make their own assumptions. Bringing them in early adds a little to the planning cost and takes a good deal out of the stress.

How to get a sensible quote from us

When you contact us, a few facts let us give you a realistic idea quickly: the format and length of the show, how often it airs, the size of the crew, what documents exist now, and what has gone wrong before. You do not need polished answers; rough ones are fine.

From there we agree what is included, what you will receive and when, and what we need from your side. We prefer to be specific about scope at the start, so there are no surprises when the work is delivered.

If the budget is fixed, tell us. We would rather shape the work to fit, perhaps focusing on the rundown and talkback plan first and leaving refinements until later, than quote for more than you need. A clear, modest plan that your crew trusts is worth more than an elaborate one.

Format, length and how often the show airs
Crew size and where people are based
Any budget limit you are working to

Workflow planning is priced by the effort needed to understand your show and to make the plan usable, not by the number of pages produced. Length, complexity, crew size and what you already have in place do most of the work in shaping a quote. Tell us honestly where things go wrong, let us watch a rehearsal if you can, and we will agree a scope that suits both the show and your budget before any work begins.

About the author

Hannah Doyle

Audio Engineer

Hannah looks after microphones, mixing and monitoring, keeping dialogue clear in busy live environments.