Chapter 84: Two Recorders, One Room
The contract administrator returned with a second recorder and no room left for an off-the-record favour.
On Monday, both red lights came on outside the North Quay listening booth.
One recorder belonged to the neutral rights office.
The second belonged to the independent minute-taker appointed for the renewal session.
Each device carried its own clock check, seal number and named custodian.
The two files would be compared after the session, while neither side could take a master home or edit the official sequence.
Oliver sat on the other side of the listening console with his solicitor.
My solicitor placed the circulated agenda between us.
It had reached both legal teams at the same minute on Friday.
The agenda covered only existing recordings, expiry dates, performer credit and the final-volume audio option.
It did not open either new project's manuscript, budget or private contract.
Alistair's name appeared nowhere because he held no North Quay rights authority.
Oliver objected to two machines recording the same meeting.
The administrator pointed to the written supervision condition already accepted for key old-rights sessions.
Neither recorder could be switched off for a private explanation.
If either failed, the meeting would pause rather than continue on one person's memory.
I accepted the procedure on the record.
Oliver's solicitor reserved his objection but confirmed that they would remain.
The administrator played the first selected passage through the booth speakers.
Oliver's voice carried a Blackwater corridor I had drafted twelve years earlier.
The recording catalogue identified the book, session, master file and current licence end date.
We listened to samples from all six existing volumes.
The administrator paused between them so both solicitors could match the spoken passage to its catalogue row and expiry field.
The selection tested the catalogue against the masters without replaying all twenty-seven nights.
The second minute-taker read back every file identifier after each sample.
Oliver asked to defer the decision until the existing authority had expired automatically.
That delay would remove lawful continuity before the parties had agreed replacement terms.
It could also leave readers' paid access and platform files in an avoidable gap.
I refused to use expiry as leverage against a real performance already licensed and sold.
I also refused any renewal that silently widened the recordings beyond their current books.
My solicitor proposed a time-limited continuation of the six existing audio editions only.
Oliver's solicitor requested the right to record revised passages where platforms later required them.
I marked that request outside the existing-content scope.
Maintenance of current masters was not permission for new performance or new text.
The administrator added separate boxes for existing-master use, technical maintenance and new recording.
Only the first two remained in the renewal discussion.
Every agenda item was read into both recordings before a provisional mark was made.
The meeting moved more slowly than a single informal conversation would have done.
It also left no space for either of us to invent a private concession afterwards.
At 15:14, both minute-takers compared their running summaries.
The administrator corrected one mistyped session number while the audio was still available.
Both custodians signed the correction rather than replacing the original line.
I paid my agreed share of the additional minute-taking charge.
The invoice entered my professional costs without touching the settled production budget.
The procedural note made dual recording permanent for the remaining old-rights meetings.
That safeguard applied symmetrically and gave neither side a private veto over the official record.
It also confirmed identical advance agendas for both sides.
The administrator then displayed the renewal list in its final three sections.
The twenty-seven existing performances across six books were eligible for a limited renewal decision.
No unrecorded material appeared on that list.
The last section concerned the optional final volume.
Its production package had never achieved valid delivery and acceptance.
The audio option for that final volume was marked DELETE.