Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> Television Centre. http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1504298342 Message started by Administrator on Sep 1^st, 2017, 8:40pm

Title: Television Centre.
Post by Administrator on Sep 1^st, 2017, 8:40pm

According to the BBC Studioworks web-site, here, the BBC Television Centre is making televison programmes again.

"Studioworks has re-opened three state-of-the-art studios as well as post production facilities on the site to create the centrepiece of what promises to be a vibrant and creative media quarter in London’s White City."

"The Jonathan Ross Show (ITV1) was the first production to record at BBC Studioworks’ new facility in Studio TC1".

Also booked for the Autumn are the BBC One quiz show, "Pointless", and the "Strictly Come Dancing" companion show, "It Takes Two". These two shows will account for over 120 episodes of television produced between late September and mid December.

Title: Re: Television Centre.
Post by JohnW on Sep 2^nd, 2017, 11:21am

Just think how much more television they could have produced had they still got access to all 8 fully-equipped studios (besides those they 'created' for the non-mainstream services)!! :-X :-X

Title: Re: Television Centre.
Post by Delboy on Sep 2^nd, 2017, 2:33pm

That's why they're keeping the 3 'temporary' studios they built at Elstree open, they need the space.
And of course TVC studios 2 & 3 will be very busy being home to ITV's GMB, Lorraine & Loose Women whilst their own studios are refurbished next year.

Title: Re:"reduced" Television Centre, Elstree & dancing
Post by JohnW on Sep 9^th, 2017, 10:09am

Thought some readers might like this little resume of BBC Studioworks new capabilities, in Elstree and the "reduced" TVC. [It's quoted from TVBEurope!]

BBC Studioworks has announced it has invested in a tapeless recording system ahead of the return of "Strictly Come Dancing".

The Saturday night staple returns to Elstree Studios for its 15th season. For the fifth year in a row the production will be hosted in the UK’s largest gallery-served stage, George Lucas Stage 2. The 15,825 square foot production space specialises in large-scale TV productions, comfortably housing the show’s 360-degree ballroom set and 750-strong live audience.

Studioworks’ workflow for the dancing extravaganza features an 11 camera set-up, including one 30’ MovieBird Technocrane, four pedestal cameras, a radio Steadicam, and four handheld/lightweight tripod cameras.

The series will be using 11 Avid Symphony suites, which will handle up to 100 hours of training footage each week. Rushes will be ingested, logged, edited, reviewed, and incorporated into the Saturday night shows. The results show is recorded on Saturday nights, and edited through the night and Sunday mornings for delivery on Sunday afternoons, ready for the early evening transmission on BBC One.

Strictly’s sister show "It Takes Two" will be the first show to transmit live from Studioworks’ recently opened facility at Television Centre.

"It Takes Two" will be recorded via Studioworks’ new EVS XS4K tapeless recording system, allowing the pre-recorded Tuesday night shows to be streamed in real time to a new 180TB Avid Nexis shared storage facility at Studioworks’ Elstree post production village. Posterity AS-11 recordings of live transmissions will be processed through a Vidchecker AQC system before being delivered to the BBC Archive.

VT content for "It Takes Two" will be edited alongside material for "Strictly Come Dancing" at Elstree and will be delivered to TC2 at Television Centre via diverse HD Baseband video line connectivity.

“Our recent move to tapeless recording will maximise our clients’ valuable editing time and provide them with a secure and efficient solution in areas such as ingest and back-up. The market is increasingly moving away from tape technology, so this future-proofs productions that we facilitate at Television Centre” said John O’Callaghan, head of studios and post production at BBC Studioworks.

Title: Re: Television Centre.
Post by Roundabout on Sep 9^th, 2017, 11:42pm

Shame that with all this technology on this evening's first show in the New Strictly series it was still impossible to hear the lyrics of the song sung by the singer in the black underwear about halfway through! Nothing new in the sound ops department then!

Title: Re: Television Centre.
Post by Amigo on Sep 10^th, 2017, 12:04am

From what I read, the first TX was from Strictly's home studio, Elstree.

Meanwhile, later the same evening....ITV was transmitting "Jonathan Ross Show". Pre-recorded a few days ago I think.

On screen credit:-

"Facilities BBC Studioworks"

What an odd world.....

Title: Re: Television Centre.
Post by Administrator on Sep 10^th, 2017, 12:38am

Off-air credits:-

Strictly Come Dancing. BBC 1
Sound
Tony Revell, Andy Tapley with dubbing mixer Richard Sillitto

Jonathan Ross ITV 1
Sound
Andy Tapley

More about some of the sound aspects here.

And more "Strictly Come Mixing" background here, in which Andy says..(in respect to a more usual live transmission) ."‘By half past six on a Saturday night we have to be ready to go,’ Tapley says. ‘And that involves the live music as well, which is one of the things that sets Strictly apart from other shows.

‘The music is incredibly diverse,’ he explains. ‘It can range from Carmen to classical pieces to heavy rock for the next one. We rely on instant snapshot recall. You can’t rely on the woodwind section just being one type of instrument so you might have to dial in another 15dB on a mic, plus high-pass filtering, just to get a flute through – and it has to happen just like that.’"

"Just Like That".

Title: Re: Television Centre.
Post by Roundabout on Sep 10^th, 2017, 7:47am

But Andy surely the solo vocal must take precedence over missing flutes etc?

Title: Re: Television Centre.
Post by Dickie Mint on Sep 15^th, 2017, 6:32pm

Nice to see in Admin's second link in the last post this:

"and as a system routing hub – with control from BBC Studios & Post Production’s Broadcast Network Control System"

BNCS was developed by BBC Manchester Comms Engineers when faced with a new commercial routing system which just didn't perform! It went on to be used throughout the BBC, mainly Comms routers, but had lots of other applications.