Organised chaos with just days to go

By RENEE KIRIONA

At Maori Television's Newmarket headquarters it looks like chaos.

In the studio, lights are being erected, sets are being assembled and presenters are practising their lines while the ear-piercing sound of a fire alarm rings through the building.

At first glance the more than 105 staff might appear to be in a state of anarchy, but behind the scenes the rush to meet the channel's to-air deadline is under "full control", according to the station's general manager of operations, Barry Russ.

"Don't worry about the fire alarm, guys, it's just a practice run to see if it's working," announces one of the staff.

With only four days to go until the channel's debut, Mr Russ admits there is a fair amount of work to be done.

"Obviously there are a lot of nerves and a lot of people here trying to get a lot of work done.

"Everything here runs in a sequence. For example, we cannot erect and position the lights, which we are ready to do now, until the set has been put together."

Most of the major work had been done, Mr Russ said, and focus was now on all the "little but important things" such as checking that every piece of equipment was running properly.

Having helped to set up TV3 in 1989, Mr Russ is no newcomer to bringing television networks tolife.

In fact he has brought in a former colleague from TV3, Bruce Eagles, a training and technical adviser.

"At TV3 we had more time and more money, so naturally we are going to be under more pressure here," Mr Eagles said.

"TV3 brought in a lot of overseas experts, engineers and consultants to set up their station, but we can't do that here simply because it costs too much."

While staff had received only a week's training in the station's state-of-the-art equipment and software and were referring to their programme manuals, Mr Eagles said he had full confidence in them.

"Of course there's the little fires to put out, but I think the staff here are going to be just fine."

Because the equipment is new to New Zealand and no one else in the country knew how to work it, Mr Eagles has had to teach himself and pass this on to the staff.

"We are leading edge and doing something revolutionary in terms of technology and broadcasting."

The station's general manager of news, current affairs and sport, Tawini Rangihau, said putting the daily news programme, Te Kaea, together had been a "scramble".

"Some of us are still having to refer back to our manuals. But then everyone is a new kid on the block at Maori Television."

She said Te Kaea would not be mainstream news in Maori but news from a Maori perspective.