Television Studio Discussion

[Sparky]

Jan 25, 2019 20:55:37 GMT Del Boy said:

Great insight again Sparker's 
As you say it really did look seamless most of the time to the viewer. Who knew that all that work was going on behind the scenes.
I remember the announcers on Thames but am i correct in thinking this practise ceased in the early 80s ?
 
Next time i see the relative who worked for LWT at Southbank during the 70s I shall see if i can get any info pictures etc.

That'd be great if there are any photos. I haven't seen too much of LWT.

The in-vision Announcer vanished from Central around 1987/8; other regions at different times.

I know Granada continued for a little longer, and then smaller companies like Grampian had an in-vision announcer as of the late 90s.

ATV, Thames and Central would swap between the "vision" and "out of vision" announcements.

For ATV this was usually before the News, or local news bulletins - with the latter; the "in vision" studio was also used for the bulletins. So the announcer had to make their way upstairs to the voice-over booth opposite the MCR.

I know an announcer who worked for ATV around 1979-1980; and she would mainly cover the weekend mornings.

One occasion was the station opening on a Saturday before "Tiswas" started.

The studio was set to go live, children/stars/presenters in place - and those pesky electricians decided to walk out.

A furious Chris Tarrant thundered upstairs to complain.

The show wasn't broadcast; though the show continued in Studio 3 as per script - internally - for those who attended the studio that day.

Another was; in 1980, when we came so close to Iran and Russia nuking us all; when all of Sunday mornings programmes were cancelled, with extra news bulletins / extended "Weekend World" - while WW3 hid just round the corner.

Schedules were constantly changing. Must have been quite hairy!

[Sparky]

If this works.

This is the Master Control Room at Television Centre, around 1981. Featured in "Did You See".

This a good example of how things may have worked on ITV in the old regional days.

The clips starts with a "Network" announcement, going out across the entire country.

It explains how the Presentation Dept operates and works the timings.

Though the really interesting bit is towards the end; it shows the "regional opt out" and how it works.

Excuse the quality of the video!

[Del Boy]

I really enjoyed watching that
What an operation, a very pressurised environment! 

The crew make it look so easy and the announcers always sounded very laid back to me. Good to see the announcers had control
of all those cards with announcements, BBC clock, globe etc.

Its dynamic nature of having to adapt on the fly to maintain the schedules is no mean feat. Even in times of News Flashes and Technical Breakdowns things seemed fairly seamless as a viewer. You can imagine the atmosphere being quite stressful in the control room at those times. 

I think the trailer and the following announcement into the 5.40 news (shown at 7.45 in the vid) is a great demonstration of it
coming together to make a seamless junction. 

They speak of keeping things tight to the schedule in the video and were rightly strict on maintaining it. I certainly think
standards have slipped regarding running to time over the years. The amount of programs that run minutes late these days
is noticeable. Even with a two min overrun set on my recorder the ends of programmes still get chopped! 

I much prefer the old mechanical clock and Programme title cards compared to the computer generated stuff of today.
Give me a blue spinning globe rather than some crap hot air balloons or annoying dancers any day 

[Sparky]

Dancers, Balloons - I much preferred the twirling globe.

Besides, it probably didn't cost anywhere as much as making the Balloons.

It's a fascinating clip - and something you wouldn't normally see.

Those areas are normally deep within a building somewhere; and guarded by security.

At Central; to go anywhere near - you had be supervised or have a security guard with you. As if we'd Hi-jack the air waves ;-)

The upshot with this clip, is that London shows it's own trailer for about a minute; and the 11 or so BBC regions "opt out" to show their own link/trail - to meet back up again at bang on 5.40 for the networked news.

The transmission director tells the regions to "opt out"; though it's up to them (the regions) to join back up at the appropriate time.

The directors assistant was giving the running times.

With ITV; this was constant - not just for a minute or so. But it would have worked the same way.

Pub trivia time: The Announcer in the script meeting was Clive Rosilyn - father of Gabby.

I believe - though may be corrected. That BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham had a backup "Network Control" area like this - just incase.

Though, there is another rumour, that there was also an underground master control area underneath the main fountain at BBC TV Centre - to be used in the advent of a nuclear attack or war.... though; following a nuclear attack - how many TV transmitters will be still standing and people still alive to merit sitting down, watching "It's a Knockout" or similar? ;-)

[Del Boy]

All area's of public life have back up control op's rooms in case of major incidents ;councils, railways, power networks, government,
radio/tv stations. I would think that some transmitters have spare capacity to help patch up service should one go in a major incident. 

This clip from 1993 shows some of the other control rooms in operation including Children's BBC's The Broom Cupboard  
Its interesting to see the Open University announcer worked alone. Assume they did schools programmes from here on Monday to Friday.




The Broom Cupboard certainly was a good idea and stayed throughout the rest of BBC children's tv broadcasts.
Before then I fondly remember programme cards such as the Look And Read Schools example below that would be shown
during the programme junction with some music. The crossover for these ending was approx 1985. 

Program holding card

[Del Boy]

This one was of interest as it shows the sound part of the desk and how the music is cued up for a breakdown.
On a remote vinyl deck no less.

[Villain]

What a great thread - I'll be giving it a proper peruse tomorrow after work over a nice cool Martini... 

Villain 

[Del Boy]

Some great insight on this thread Villain thanks to Sparky. Well worth a read and look at the videos.

[Dirty Epic]

Agree brilliant work from Sparky on this and the other threads, some great insights into behind the scenes and shows like auf pet and Bullseye too.

[Dirty Epic]

Jan 26, 2019 12:27:40 GMT Sparky said:

Dancers, Balloons - I much preferred the twirling globe.

Besides, it probably didn't cost anywhere as much as making the Balloons.

It's a fascinating clip - and something you wouldn't normally see.

Those areas are normally deep within a building somewhere; and guarded by security.

At Central; to go anywhere near - you had be supervised or have a security guard with you. As if we'd Hi-jack the air waves ;-)

The upshot with this clip, is that London shows it's own trailer for about a minute; and the 11 or so BBC regions "opt out" to show their own link/trail - to meet back up again at bang on 5.40 for the networked news.

The transmission director tells the regions to "opt out"; though it's up to them (the regions) to join back up at the appropriate time.

The directors assistant was giving the running times.

With ITV; this was constant - not just for a minute or so. But it would have worked the same way.

Pub trivia time: The Announcer in the script meeting was Clive Rosilyn - father of Gabby.

I believe - though may be corrected. That BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham had a backup "Network Control" area like this - just incase.

Though, there is another rumour, that there was also an underground master control area underneath the main fountain at BBC TV Centre - to be used in the advent of a nuclear attack or war.... though; following a nuclear attack - how many TV transmitters will be still standing and people still alive to merit sitting down, watching "It's a Knockout" or similar? ;-)

Just out of interest Sparky did anyone (disgruntled etc.) ever broadcast anything they shouldn't like running things after closedown or something?

Strangely enough I did once see ITV Meridian or West Country's late night programmes on Winter Hill's BBC2 frequency CH 62 with a normal good signal for about 30 mins or so before it disappeared in late 1992 and not sure really why?

Apart from test transmissions never really saw anything like that again.