Television Studio Discussion

[Dirty Epic]

Interesting that an expanded arts and exhibition space was going to be planned for the Broad Street area related to ATV locating there Sparky. Sounds like so many of these planned 1960's/70's redevelopments the reality sees them not quite delivering what they promised and/or not being as good as what they were planned to be either.

Kind of ironic that the National Indoor Arena would locate about half a mile from Broad Street in the 90's too.

[Sparky]

More from ATV/Central Birmingham...

This is the "Master Control Room" - circa 1996.

This is where everything that was being broadcast was routed to the midlands transmitters.

Adverts/Programmes and Announcements were linked through here.

The Announcers studio was in a room to the left. The Lines room - which patched in here, there and everywhere is in a room to the right.

There are three large monitors on the right, stacked vertically - Top (East Midlands), Centre (West Midlands), Bottom (South Midlands).

These are "off air" monitors - and receive their signals from the transmitters as the viewer would see them.

This gives the Transmission Director a view on what the viewer is seeing in comparison to what the studio is putting out.

This is the same area about 12 years later.

The large window on the left is the Announcers "In Vision" studio. (Studio P)

This is Studio P - the In Vision Announcers Studio.

This was built in 1985, after the entire fourth floor was re-vamped. The original ATV Announcer studio was Studio 4, on the floor below (pictures will follow soon)

In the Basement; film facilities were houses (Lab / Cutting Rooms / Dubbing) and a Preview Theatre - equipped with 35 & 16mm film.

This was taken 1998 just after the seating was removed.

The Projection Room - Circa 1996.

[Sparky]

This is The "East Midlands Transmission" suite.

Circa 2004.

On the monitors in front - an "Off Air" monitor for the East Mids only. (Analogue Off Air), "Digital WS" off air, a feed from Carlton in London.

This set up was designed for single person control (as opposed to 2 or 3 with that in Birmingham)

And the East Midlands Announcers Studio

[Sparky]

Jan 17, 2019 13:53:07 GMT Dirty Epic said:

Interesting that an expanded arts and exhibition space was going to be planned for the Broad Street area related to ATV locating there Sparky. Sounds like so many of these planned 1960's/70's redevelopments the reality sees them not quite delivering what they promised and/or not being as good as what they were planned to be either.

Kind of ironic that the National Indoor Arena would locate about half a mile from Broad Street in the 90's too.

Yes, it was ironic the NIA popped up too. And that LWT used to do Gladiators from there!

There was a heck of a lot of controversy about how ATV acquired the site - what they did with it, and what they paid in rent.

This was still rumbling on well into the 90s.

The Labour Council were complaining that ATV had got away with paying virtually next to nothing in Rent, and this continued with Central.

I read that they were still paying the same rent rate that they agreed in 1968-  in 1995.

The Labour council used this against them in 1980, when the franchise renewal round popped up.

It's a contributing factor to why ATV had to restructure.

The design of the hotel had to be changed too - as Holiday Inns are all built to fixed dimensions - as all the fixtures & fittings are made and supplied en masse - to the same measurements.

The original design of the hotel was quite different - and was adjusted so Hoilday Inn would take it on.

[Dirty Epic]

Interesting stuff Sparky especially the rent thing too.

Take it the original hotel is now the Hyatt on Broad Street?

[Sparky]

Jan 17, 2019 14:28:18 GMT Dirty Epic said:

Interesting stuff Sparky especially the rent thing too.

Take it the original hotel is now the Hyatt on Broad Street?

I haven't been to Birmingham for a few years.

Though I would think it's the Hyatt Hotel. Last time I was there, it wasn't Hyatt.

Many staff who worked in the hotel had billions of stories regarding famous stars who had stopped there - as the Hotel had a special deal with ATV and Central.

Has the multi-story car park next door gone too? I would think so - it was pretty shabby on my last visit.

[Del Boy]

A great look at the behind the scenes workings of a tv station. Stuff most know little about. I bet a few stories could be told about controllers who pushed the wrong button or slider with half the Midlands spoting the mistake.
Cheers for uploading Sparky.

[Sparky]

Some more from Birmingham...

This is the original 'as fitted' Master Control Room, circa 1970 - just as the building opened.

The MCR was at the opposite end of the 4th floor, until it was moved to the new are (previous pictures) in 1985.

This is one of the panels - I'd assume it's something to do with monitoring, and line switching judging by the monitors.

The two monitors (UHF and VHF) really date this photo - as TV was then broadcast in UHF Colour, and VHF Black & White.

Again, those two monitors were "off air" feeds - receiving whatever the station was putting out.

In this case, nothing but colour bars! As it was 10.30am, and in those days - Daytime TV never existed!!

The same MCR control room, in use - this from 1978. The control panel (above), is shown on the far right.

The chap in the centre is the Transmission Director - he basically calls the shots on timings, what to do on a breakdown (both Nervous and Programme).

The transmission controller (responsible for doing the fades/mixes) is sat in the extreme left.

In the centre is the window, this is a view of the Announcer Voice Over Studio.

Tot he left are monitors - with feeds from Studio 4, the Announcer "In vision" studio - which was directly below the control room.

This is Studio 4 - The "In Vision" announcer studio, directly below the above control room.

It was used as an announcer studio between 1969 & 1985, by both ATV & Central.

Until 1985, this is where various Childrens ITV links would be recorded, before moving upstairs to Studio P.

By 1997, it was used as a Bluescreen studio - mainly for weather.

It was the original 1974 home to "Tiswas" (Believe it or not)

This is Studio 3, circa 1970.

S3 was the smallest of the main production studios - known for being the home to "Tiswas" from 1975.

Studio 3 was used mainly for the local news - "ATV Today" (set below) and later Central News - until 1985.

The same Studio, pictured in 1975 - again for ATV-Today, with the dreadful brown set!

A mid 1980s photo of the Props department - they also had a huge store area.

This is the legendary "5th floor" annexe, located on the roof - circa 2005.

As mentioned before, often used in General Hospital and Crossroads.

The Alpha tower and Hotel is behind!

The 5th floor housed the Central TV travel department.

The Broad Street main entrance, around 2005.

[The Saint]

Very informative posts and behind the scenes photos, thanks Sparky

The Saint

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

That's really interesting info and photos Spark, cheers for that!