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BBC Midlands Today

(October 2001)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
TB
tbj
What about the asbestos?

Surely it would be cheaper for them to move than to get rid of all the asbestos from BBC Pebble Mill?? - I know that when BBC East Midlands moved from York House in Nottingham, it cost Nottingham Trent University large amounts of hard cash to remove the asbestos from two floors!!
ED
EDTV
Is MIdlands Today REALLY 'utter pants'?
NG
noggin Founding member
Isonstine posted:
Ah well! Are they going to upgrade Pebble Mill in anyway? Of course, eventually it will have to be fitted out with 16:9 cameras, but will all the technology be updated and the studio kitted out, so they can build a bigger set?


Pebble Mill was already kitted out with 16:9 digital studio technology a year or so before they decided to close it... However this kit was in their main 'Network' production studio - the one that would have been used to make daytime network programmes (though there weren't many of these - which is one of the reasons they shut the studio operation down a while back)

I don't know where it went when the main studio closed - if it were mothballed then technically it would be possible to re-jig the studio operation for Midlands Today and move it to 16:9 studio productions quite easily (the vision mixer was the same as used in all the London BBC News studios - with the exception of the Liquid News studio) However if the studio was totally shut I would imagine the studio cameras would have gone to OBs (they use the same Sony cameras as Pebble Mill used - unlike most other BBC studio centres who use a different make - Thomson)

It may however require extra investment to move to location 16:9 shooting - though many regions have already started to move to a new digital format - DVCam - which supports 16:9 / 4:3 switchable cameras - though who knows if the regions bought these...

As for Midlands Today getting a huge new studio when/if it moves to the Mailbox... I wouldn't hold your breath - the two newest regions - Tunbridge Wells and London - didn't get any studio space at all - they are both working in small spaces in the newsroom, in their own different ways.

(Regional plans for new broadcast centres are radical, and planned on using far less floor area... For instance BBC Norwich is apparently occupying twice as much space as it officially needs - this is because it still has separate offices for managers, subtitling, personnel etc., rather than a large single open-plan space, and it also has rather a nice canteen...)
SU
StandUpAndBeSeated
Remember me mentioning once that a friend of mine told me that BBC Birmingham are in Sollihul at the moment (my friend lives in Solihull, that's how he knows)?

BTW, in case you need it clarified, Sollihul is not an area of Birmingham , it is a town in it's own right. It is approximately 8/9km south east of B'ham city centre.

Sollihul was meant to be a temporary home until the behind-schedule construction of the Mailbox was completed. Having been to the Mailbox a couple of weeks ago, it seems about as completed as it'll ever be. So why are the BBC still in Sollihul?

I am beginning to think that Sollihul is not going to be such a temporary home after all. I can well believe that the ground rent for the Mailbox is too extortionate (sp?) for the BBC to afford. I say that because the Mailbox is full of all those 'very exclusive' type outlets like designer label clothes shops etc (e.g. Dolce & Gabbana (sp?), and Toni & Guy hairdressers etc)

I'd be interested to know where the webcam with the new view (as posted by someone earlier in this thread) is. I don't think it can be on the Mailbox becuase of how distant the Rotunda is in the view (I don't think the Mailbox is quite all that far from the city centre, but my judgement of distance may be lacking)

The camera is certainly not on their 'temporary' (?) Sollihul home, because - as I've already said - Sollihul is actually a separate town, so B'ham city centre would be even more distant than it is from Pebble Mill.

Anybody got any idea what's going on?
:-(
A former member
And just to clear up any confusion, it's SOLIHULL.

I know, I was born there. It say's so on my passport! Wink
MA
mark Founding member
Not a bad window image at all, that! Looks quite a bit like the sort of skylines you see on US local news (but obviously THEY don't use crappy little tellys like the BBC...)
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
No, but the BBC don't have crappy advert breaks every 5 minutes either!
AN
andyeighteen
i thought that bbc birmingham's network output (eg Doctors) which used studio - are being produced in solihull, while local programs (midlands today, midlands@westminster, midlands report etc) are still done at pebble mill - form the reception of the studios - like pebble mill at one used to - thats why its a long thin set? and BBC WM, bbc english regions HQ, and the offices etc. are still based at pebble mill

i heard that from on this forum - it makes sense to me - though im not saying it has to be right
NG
noggin Founding member
AFAIK The main technical facilities based in Birmingham are still based in Pebble Mill. These are extensive, and along with Manchester include a huge amount of line routing to and from the North of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This is not the sort of thing you would move short-term unless you really HAD to - it is big engineering stuff.

It would not surprise me if some other programmes, such as Doctors, have moved to Solihull as a warehouse type production centre (similar to Casualty and The Bill, Family Affairs), as this is not the sort of production you would shoot in an expensive city centre location like the Mailbox. It would not surprise me if Solihull were a permanent location for this, though editing could take place at PM still.
IT
itsrobert Founding member
So whats this new sting like?
SU
StandUpAndBeSeated
Andrew Wood posted:
And just to clear up any confusion, it's SOLIHULL.

I know, I was born there. It say's so on my passport! Wink


I knew there was a double-L and a single-L, but I wasn't sure which way round!
Apolgies to the people of SOLIHULL for my spelling mistake!


(Edited by StandUpAndBeSeated at 2:33 pm on Oct. 12, 2001)
CN
Central News
I think the window should be a bigger one, this one looks quite messy and the new little weather sheet? what have they done?

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