[BC] Dealing with the Brain Challenged

[Dana Puopolo]

When I do a studio build, before anything is dfone, I know how it wiull be
laid out-because I have already asked and planned as much as can be.

Here's an opposite example: When I woirked for PAX TV, coprorate engineering
pre built all the master control rooms at their facility in Florida, and sent
them off to the statons. It was up to the stations to find space to make them
fit-not the reverse. It wasn't a big deal for me, because my space was empty,
so we literally studded and sheet rocked a room in one corner of the empty
building.

I'm a lefty-and I noticed that the remote control for the Beta SP decks was on
the left side of the table-perfect for me, but difficult for the right handed
operators that were in the majority. I watched them crossing their arms trying
to switch and start a deck at the same time. The cure was obvious-we moved the
control to the right side of the table-problem solved......

Until corporate engineering showed up one day. They went BALLISITC when they
saw what I had done. How dare I change their design! Then they went even MORE
ballistic when they saw that I had put the Profile video server in another air
conditioned room instead of in the MCR  rack-and was remoting the keyboard,
mouse and monitor into the MCR. Of course, the reason I had done so was to
minimize heat build up in the room (I believe that heat is one of the things
that causes equipment faliures). A few days later a registered letter came
from corporate engineering notifying me that I was officially on probation for
six months.
What corporate engineering didn't realize was that by then I was also the
General Manager of the station and a simple phone call to Dean Goodman (the
President of TV) took care of things. Of course, THAT so POed them at C.E.
that I am now blackballed at Paxson. One more thing-they seemed to have a LOT
of trouble at Paxson with their Profile servers overheating and shutting
down-except in Boston of course-until I left and the idiot that replaced me
put it in the rack in MCR (and also moved the remote control back to the left
side). Then they also started to have overheating problems.....

Some people just can't learn anything.......

-D

------ Original Message ------
Received: 06:32 AM PDT, 04/04/2010
From: "Thomas G. Osenkowsky" <tosenkowsky at prodigy.net>

> How about engineers who "didn't get it" when designing a technical 
> showplace of a studio that no one can comfortably work in?

Whenever I design or rebuild a studio I always ask
"What do YOU want in the studio? How do YOU
want it to be laid out? Where do YOU want the
sources to appear on the pots?, etc." The talent,
not I, have to work in that studio. I am going to
build it the way YOU want it, not the way I think it
should be (despite having been a DJ in the distant past).
BK. Have it YOUR way!

Boeing employed this philosophy in the design of the
777. They asked pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and
others involved in the daily operation of the aircraft for
input and feedback. OTOH, another arm of Boeing
designed the border security for the Arizona/Mexico
border. It is a debacle. Laptops in vehicles don't cut
it in the rough road surface, sand in the keyboards, etc.
Dr. Laura specified her own wishes for call screening
software/display. A number one class talk show is the 
result. (I just had to put that in for Rich).

Tom Osenkowsky, CPBE

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