Karen Davila

Davila is a celebrated Filipino broadcast journalist known for her thought-provoking, intellectual, principled and well-presented stories. From television to radio, Davila has earned respect-deserved acclaim. Every weekday, she talks to her audience through her TV morning news show, Headstart. Her work has been recognised internationally by Unicef and CNN, to name a few. She has worked with the World Economic Forum and the Asean.

How has your transition from studio life to WFH been like? Could you share some changes and how you were able to adapt?

Working from home has its perks but making it into a studio isn’t as easy as it looks. When I started anchoring Headstart, my show on ANC, remotely from home, my husband and I had to upgrade. In the beginning, when I was broadcasting via Zoom with a home background, I was just using my son’s old laptop. The camera quality wasn’t as sharp and old laptops aren’t able to support the virtual background feature! My husband ended up buying a new Macbook Pro for the sharpest camera and use of virtual background feature (ANC background). We tested several microphones, but I would often get the complaint that “tunog lata ako (I sound mettalic)” when it hit the studio controls. Turns out the best audio is coming from the Macbook Pro itself with the airpods. The green screen is such a mess in the house but it serves a broadcasting purpose. Your hair and edges don’t bleed in the virtual background! We also ended up buying ring lights until we perfected the right balance. It was such a mano-mano (manual) operation. It can get quite stressful honestly but now, during emergencies I have to say it helps to know that you can broadcast from anywhere!

What’s an item that you use and can’t live without while WFH?

I would say a ring light! At least one. Of course the perfect daylight would be enough but sometimes, you need that extra glow and a ring light would do just the trick!