Operate communications, transmissions, or broadcasting equipment
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 8 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Controlling Machines and Processes (4.A.3.a.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 8 occupations that perform it.
- Operate and maintain on-air and production audio equipment.
- Operate equipment to produce programs or broadcast live programs from remote locations.
- Give network cues permitting selected stations to receive programs.
- Transmit news stories or reporting information from remote locations, using equipment such as satellite phones, telephones, fax machines, or modems.
- Install, adjust, and operate electronic equipment to record, edit, and transmit radio and television programs, motion pictures, video conferencing, or multimedia presentations.
- Play and record broadcast programs, using automation systems.
- Set up and perform live shots for broadcast.
- Set up and operate computer editing systems, electronic titling systems, video switching equipment, and digital video effects units to produce a final product.
- Direct setup of remote facilities and install or cancel programs at remote stations.
- Set up, operate, and maintain broadcast station computers and networks.
- Set up and operate electric news gathering (ENG) microwave vehicles to gather and edit raw footage on location to send to television affiliates for broadcast.
- Install broadcast equipment, troubleshoot equipment problems, and perform maintenance or minor repairs, using hand tools.
- Monitor strength, clarity, and reliability of incoming and outgoing signals, and adjust equipment as necessary to maintain quality broadcasts.
- Select sources from which programming will be received or through which programming will be transmitted.
- Substitute programs in cases where signals fail.
- Make commercial dubs.
- Align antennae with receiving dishes to obtain the clearest signal for transmission of broadcasts from field locations.
- Set up and operate portable field transmission equipment outside the studio.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
8 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate communications equipment or systems”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Operate communications equipment or systems | 12 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.