I know how tricky producing a show can be with a skeleton crew. I've seen shows where the same person operates camera 1 and tries to give time signals to a host looking toward camera 3.
Here is a JavaScript segment timer you can use for shows, if you prefer to keep time on a laptop in the studio: http://www.cybermansoftware.com/SegmentTimer.html
Please download and save a copy, because you might not be able to access it remotely from in the studio. Because it's JavaScript, you will need to run it inside a web browser.
Buttons:
"reset" - sets the clock to an initial countdown time (see "settings" below), clock must be paused
"start" - starts running the clock from where it is
"pause" - pauses the clock where it is
"show settings" - makes the setting visible
"hide settings" - hides the settings to show more of the background
Settings:
"Default Time" - the time to which the clock will be set when you click "reset"
"Font Size" - sets the size of the displayed clock
Note: The font size is a trade off between ease of reading from a distance and visibility of the background, which turns yellow at 10 seconds and red at 0 seconds.
The ideal placement of the laptop is visually (host's perspective) between the guests and camera 1 or 3, depending on where the host sits.
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