Rehearse the interview, not a role-play of it
Most media training happens in a meeting room with a camcorder on a tripod. The thing that actually catches people out on air is hearing a voice in their ear while they are trying to speak, and a boardroom cannot reproduce it. This studio can, and Jawsmith runs the day.
In short: Granary Digital runs media training days at a working broadcast studio near Chichester, West Sussex, with real IFB earpiece talkback, mix-minus, 4K cameras and an engineer. We supply the studio, the rig and the crew; the training is delivered by Hilary Jeffs of Jawsmith, who has coached Cabinet Ministers and FTSE executives since 2006. UK media training typically costs £2,000 to £5,000 +VAT per day; ours is quoted per brief.
A boardroom can simulate the questions. It cannot simulate the earpiece.
Ask anyone who has done a live interview what threw them, and they rarely say the questions. They say they could hear the presenter in one ear on a slight delay, they could hear themselves a fraction of a second later, and they lost their thread halfway through a sentence they had rehearsed forty times.
That effect has a name. It is what happens when a spokesperson is fed programme audio without a proper mix-minus, so their own voice comes back at them delayed. It is disorienting enough that broadcast engineers design specifically to prevent it. And it is completely absent from a training day run in a meeting room, where the trainer simply sits opposite you and speaks.
Which means most media training rehearses the easy part. The answers get better and the delivery stays untested, because the conditions that break delivery were never present in the room.
What the studio brings that a meeting room cannot
Real IFB talkback
An earpiece carrying a trainer who is not in the room, cueing and interrupting exactly as a gallery would. This is the single biggest difference and it is why the day works.
Mix-minus, properly configured
Programme audio minus your own voice, so the rehearsal reproduces broadcast conditions instead of an echo. We can also deliberately break it, so people know what a bad line feels like before it happens live.
Three 4K cameras
Wide, tight and cutaway, so playback shows what an editor would actually use. People correct habits far faster when they can see the shot that would have aired.
Broadcast sound
Shure microphones into Midas preamps. Delivery faults that a phone camera hides are audible here, which is the point.
Immediate playback
A 55-inch panel in the room. Record, watch, discuss, go again, inside a few minutes.
A room that feels like an occasion
A 16th-century barn rather than a hotel suite. People take the day more seriously when it does not feel like another meeting, and nerves in the room are useful data.
How the day is put together
We supply the studio, the rig and the crew. Hilary Jeffs of Jawsmith runs the session. We are a production studio, not a journalism school, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. What we bring is a room with genuine broadcast talkback and mix-minus, three cameras, an engineer, and the ability to make a practice interview feel like a real one. Hilary brings the questions that hurt.
She already works here every week. Hilary devised and hosts Experience, a weekly podcast about the human behaviour behind the news headlines, made with her co-host Professor Peter Kinderman. It is recorded in this studio and produced by us. So this is not a referral arrangement between two firms who have exchanged business cards. She knows the room, the crew and the kit, because she is in it.
If you already work with a media trainer you trust, you can still hire the facility on its own. Most trainers have never had this equipment available to them.
- Studio, engineer and camera crew for the day
- IFB earpiece talkback and mix-minus, configured and tested
- Three 4K cameras with immediate playback on a 55-inch panel
- All practice interviews recorded and handed over
- An experienced media trainer, matched to your sector
- Optional edit of the best material afterwards
Four to six people is the practical maximum for a day where everyone gets real camera time. Quoted per brief, all prices exclude VAT. Ten minutes from Chichester, free parking.
Ready when you are
Availability and a firm quote, usually same day. No pressure, no hard sell.
Who runs the training
Hilary Jeffs is a broadcaster and strategic communications specialist who set up Jawsmith in 2006. Before that she spent five years running communication training programmes as European Media Training Manager at Weber Shandwick, and was head of broadcast at hblmedia.
She has trained Cabinet Ministers, celebrities and senior executives at companies including Microsoft, Oracle, Coca-Cola, BT, Lloyd’s of London and Barclays Bank. She has worked with Ofqual since its inception, with QCA before that from 2002, and with UCAS and the Exam Results Helpline, which makes her unusually well versed in education and careers policy. She also has a degree in mathematics, which turns out to be handy when an interviewer starts quoting your own statistics back at you.
Her stated position on feedback is that she will tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear, which is the only sensible reason to bring in someone from outside in the first place.
More than a standard media training day
Jawsmith runs several formats, and some of them benefit far more from a real studio than a standard interview day does.
Select committee preparation
Mock committee sessions covering written and oral evidence, run as interactive workshops with a role-played committee. Multi-camera capture makes the playback genuinely useful, because how you looked under questioning is half the lesson.
Crisis simulation
Stress-testing how a team actually performs when something has gone wrong. This is where the talkback rig earns its keep: a live interview request landing mid-simulation, in your ear, is about as close to the real thing as rehearsal gets.
Presentation & executive presence
Conquering the podium rather than the camera. What you say first, how you deliver it second, worked through with playback on a big screen.
Podcast and on-screen communication training is available too, which is increasingly what people actually need. Tell us which of these you are after and we will scope the day around it.
Who books this
Communications and PR teams preparing a spokesperson for a launch or an announcement. Professional services firms whose partners are asked for comment and currently decline. Charities and universities with experts who should be on air more often than they are. Companies heading into something difficult, where the first interview will be the one that matters.
And, increasingly, people preparing for podcast appearances rather than broadcast ones. The medium has changed but the skill has not: you are still being asked questions by someone whose interests are not identical to yours, on a recording you do not control.
If you want to know what a day actually involves hour by hour, read what happens in a media training day. If you are trying to build a budget, read what media training costs in the UK.
The same rig also runs remote interviews and guest appearances, which is often the next booking after a training day.
Questions we get asked
Do you provide the trainer?
Yes. Sessions are delivered by Hilary Jeffs of Jawsmith Training, a broadcaster and communications trainer who founded Jawsmith in 2006. We provide the studio, the broadcast rig and the crew. If you already work with a trainer of your own, you can also hire the facility on its own.
What makes this different from training in our offices?
The earpiece. In a boardroom the trainer sits opposite you and asks questions, which is nothing like the real experience of hearing a presenter in your ear, on a delay, while a camera stares at you. We have genuine IFB talkback and mix-minus, so the practice interview produces the same disorientation as the real one. That is the part people need to rehearse.
How many people can you train in a day?
Four to six is the practical maximum if everyone is to get meaningful camera time and playback. Beyond that the day becomes a lecture rather than practice, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a bigger room.
What does it cost?
The UK market runs roughly £2,000 to £5,000 +VAT per day for bespoke corporate media training, and from around £1,000 per head for groups of six or more. Our pricing depends on the trainer, the group size and whether you want the session edited afterwards, so it is quoted per brief. See what media training costs for the full breakdown.
Can we keep the recordings?
Yes, and you should. Every practice interview is captured on 4K cameras with broadcast sound. Most clients use the footage for internal review; some find a clip good enough to publish, which is a useful side effect of training in a real studio rather than a meeting room.
Is it only for broadcast interviews?
No. The same day covers podcast appearances, conference panels, investor Q&A and internal town halls. The techniques transfer. If your team is more likely to face a hostile podcast host than a news presenter, we build the session around that instead.
granary.digital · 01243 884993 · studio@granary.digital · The Old Grainstore, Adsdean, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 9DN · All prices exclude VAT