Newsnight

It was a consistent problem throughout, I expected it to improve as the programme went on. I would have thought someone would have been able to tell the boom operators there was a problem so that they could be quicker at moving the mike towards the guest. We lost quite considerable amounts of some contributors.

I liked how they did it though, the design worked well, and I like the fact that the NHS @ 60 logo had been used (connecting to BBC News) but in Newsnight purple.

Any idea why we had "BBC East Midlands" on the Newsnight still on that monitor behind Gavin all night?

If it was a consistent problem throughout - perhaps it wasn't a case that the boom ops were too slow and needed to move quicker.

Perhaps they didn't have enough boom ops - or didn't organise who was going to speak in a manner that allowed them to cover the audience with the number they had...

It is very easy to assume that you can fix a problem like that just by telling people to work quicker - it doesn't mean they can work quicker.

It is usually sound where corners are cut these days. During planning stages producers will say - "Oh don't worry, we'll warn people to wait until the mic is near before they start speaking", yet on the day will brief the audience "We want this to be really freeflowing, so don't be afraid to speak up and jump in" etc.