One. Not a joke. One person. That’s all you need to run a show. No technical crew. Not even an actual control room. One person who can build a rundown, bring it to the studio, and record or stream it live — all the while maintaining the same high production value as a classic setup with a control room and a crew.
What Is a One-Man Band Setup?
One person who can “spacebar” their way through the show. Why? A one-man band allows creative people — content makers, journalists, podcasters — to create their shows whenever they want. Whenever news breaks. Early mornings, late nights, weekends… no schedule required. Sometimes, the news is unexpected, and do you really want to have a full crew on standby 24/7? It is costly and inefficient. A one-man band setup allows for freedom and answers these 3 questions:
- How do we give creators the tools to produce content whenever and wherever they want?
- How can we increase output without compromising quality?
- How do we keep our crew available for jobs where their expertise is truly required?
The answer is Cuez. Or a powerful combination of Cuez and many of the tools we integrate with.
Why Do You Need a One-Man Band?
In today’s broadcasting world, speed, efficiency, and adaptability aren’t just nice to have — they’re essential. A one-man band setup isn’t just a tech trend; it’s a strategic response to how content is consumed, produced, and distributed.
1. Be First, Stay Relevant
News is now discovered incidentally — people stumble upon it via social feeds, push alerts, and search. Being first means being found. With a one-man band solution, you can react instantly to breaking stories without waiting for a full crew or a traditional control room to boot up.
2. Do More with Less
Staffing a control room 24/7 just isn’t scalable anymore. That’s why many broadcasters have already turned to automation with tools like Overdrive, Mosart, or ELC. The Cuez one-man band model takes it further — it’s flexible, cloud-ready, and dramatically reduces overhead, allowing even smaller teams to create professional shows with confidence.
3. Affordability Meets Agility
Your competition isn’t just other broadcasters anymore — it’s creators with a webcam, a ring light, and OBS. A modern one-man band setup lets you match that agility, but with studio-grade quality and control. It should be simple, smart, and affordable — and that’s exactly what we’ve built.
4. Fuel the Multichannel Feedback Loop
Linear is no longer the sole focus — broadcasters are media houses now. With more content created for digital platforms and fewer resources to do it, one-man band setups are the obvious solution. Create once, publish everywhere — instantly. That’s how you drive engagement back to your primary channels and keep the audience loop alive.
5. The New Standard in Workflow
65% of European broadcast CTOs agree: AI and automation are now the most important levers for modern media companies. And it’s not just about technology — it’s about workflow transformation. One-man band production streamlines your operation, saves time, and helps bridge creative and technical teams like never before.
In short? The battle for attention is on. To win it, you need to be fast, flexible, and everywhere. A one-man band setup helps you do just that.
One-Man Band Studio Setup with Cuez: Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Set up Your Cuez Project
- Set up a new Cuez Project
- Configure Blocks as needed, based on the type and the flow of your show — i.e. create the backbone of your show
Step 2: Build Your Episode
- Create your Script and Rundown
- Add timings, speakers, media, and any other elements relevant to your show
Step 3: Install and Connect Cuez Automator
- Install Automator on your main computer
- Pair Automator with the existing Cuez Project
Step 4: Add and Configure Devices
Add relevant devices in Automator, for example:
- Graphics systems (Viz Flowics, Singular.live)
- Other hardware devices (PTZ cameras, Blackmagic devices, audio mixers)
Ensure your inputs/outputs work (NDI, SDI, Dante, etc.) and confirm that devices are remotely controllable (e.g., via web interface)
Once connected, Cuez will automatically recognize inputs, outputs, available features, and so on
Discover the full list of Cuez Automator integrations.
Step 5: Configure your automations
Configure your Cue Blocks so that
- Triggering a clip plays the clip on the playout device
- Triggering a lower third triggers it on the graphics device
- Triggering cameras cuts to a certain camera/shot
Depending on the show and your needs, you can define what happens in each block — no code needed
Step 6: Choose Your Control Method
- Set up keyboard shortcuts for easy control of automations, i.e. “spacebar your way through the show”
- Alternatively, link to a Stream Deck via API for button-based control of your show
Step 7: Enjoy Your One-Man Band Setup!
- Depending on the show and requirements, you can create simple or more advanced automations with multiple hardware and software devices
Curious to see how it works in practice? Have a look at how HLN Live at DPG Media use the one-man band solution.
Things to consider
Ultimately, every studio boils down to the same components:
- Inputs such as cameras, microphones, and remote sources (e.g. LiveU).
- A central hub that brings it all together (e.g. vMix)
- Outputs for streaming, recording, and screens
- When it comes to a one-man band studio, 2 things are essential:
- Bringing all the signals into your mixer (SDI, NDI, SRT, …)
- And being able to control those devices remotely
Since we do everything over the network, you will need to have a working network and some very basic networking skills. In the end, when all the tools for your studio can exist within the same networking environment (i.e. in the same VLAN, within the same IP range), that makes everything simpler and more reliable. And easier means (in most cases) a more stable setup. The fewer ‘moving parts’, the more peace of mind.
Our integrations are bi-directional, so once connected, Automator fetches available data, like input names, outputs, templates, or graphic fields, from devices like vision mixers or graphics engines.
For one-man-band setups, we highly recommend tools like vMix, Singular Live, Viz Flowics, or Blackmagic, as they expose the right info for smart automation.
How to automate
Automating your production, lastly, becomes an easy step. All it requires is the cooperation between the tech team and the editorial crew. Taking the story-first approach and automating your studio to achieve that top-quality broadcast. Or, in our case, one person can be both.
Automator is a no-code automation building tool. That means there is no need to have deep technical knowledge to automate your studio. All you need to do is tell the system what to do and when to do it. And that can be as easy as pressing a button. You can create simple or more advanced automations with conditions, for example:
- Use dropdowns in the Cuez Rundown (e.g. ‘SOT’ or ‘OFF’) to let Automator set the right audio levels automatically.
- If a lower third has text, Automator shows a button to trigger it. No text? No button.
- During a crosstalk, you can configure Automator to detect who’s speaking, and it will switch shots and graphics accordingly, hands-free.
Another useful feature in Cuez is Rundown templates. This is a powerful feature that allows you to get started quickly. Create one or multiple templates, depending on your production — one for a daily sports show, one for a weather report, and one for breaking news. We call it efficiency!
Automator is an adaptable tool that allows you to explore studio automation at your own pace and with your needs in mind. The limit of Automator is only your imagination.
Keep it lean and mean
This means you should consider equipment that’s easy to set up and maintain. We mean tools like vMix, Tricaster/VizVectar, BlackMagic Design, Singular Live, and Viz Flowics. Also, try to keep the equipment lean and mean. Try to avoid using a single product for a single task. vMix is a very fine example: it can do video switching, clip playback, all kinds of effects, has a great built-in titler, audio mixing and is fully controllable by an automation system such as our Cuez Automator.
How to run it: Tips and Tricks
Once the heavy lifting is done, it’s time for the tech teams to start rehearsing with the content makers — find the issues and eliminate any friction between the creative workflow and how the automations work. The key is building confidence using the tool by using it consistently and learning what works for your production.
Have some fun and break stuff! Really get to know the tool, and make it feel natural to just spacebar through your show. Off you go!
Ecaterina Caprari
Content Marketeer