BT Tower

A short video regarding the role of the BT Tower for national and international TV distribution 1960s/70s/80s

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/secrets-of-the-bt-tower-the-14th-floor-91364188580170?playlistVideoId=5468020831001

And here's one about what happens there today:

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/bt-tower-take-an-exclusive-behind-the-scenes-look-91364182487423#

Ah, very good. If you freeze the action at 3:03 to the left of the tower is the original small tower on the roof of the Museum Exchange, that had the SHF dishes looking south west (for the link to Southampton) and north west

There's a very brief bit about the Tower and it's function in TV distribution in this Noel Edmonds Christmas morning show from the top of the tower at 1h2m14s



(although UKI-1's trip to the Sudan later in the programme is probably of more interest)

Viewer Advisory: contains The Krankies at 1h45 or so.

And gentle bits of product placement throughout. I'd forgotten about the great Feargal Sharkey foldback disaster too.

I’d love to work at BT Tower imagine having access to all the sport feeds, studio feeds from anywhere in the world

It's not quite as glamorous as all that. The OB Room get to see what's coming in from all of the events which are using BT MPLS connectivity (Premier League grounds, racecourses, Scottish football OBs, and Premiership Rugby, amongst others), but the facility lines (aka local ends) from various studios across London don't all end up on a monitor stack - they're only monitored on demand. So if you wanted to see something interesting, you'd need to know where to go looking for it. (You could see the same from many an MCR around the country.)

I think a better perk of the job would be access to a fantastic view whenever you fancy it. Floors 33 & 34 are the two hospitality floors, and bringing folk round usually means making sure that you're not going to clash with corporate visitors - but the OB Room team have access to the OB platform on the level above, which also has some open-air sections, which is good for RF reception, and also taking reflection-free photos...

Sounds like the perfect job for me monitoring premier league feeds and enjoying fantastic views of London, what would this job be called out of interest?

When you say facility lines does that mean you could see an empty studio E at BBC News sort of like the feed seen somewhere out in Australia or even the pundits rehearsing at IMG studios?

Do the lines and the operators actually work in the tower or nearby?

I’m asking given the security implications these days. The tower is a big target in London and them publicizing how it’s a hub for global connectivity may not be the best idea. Sure there’s a backup but having the primary site in a non descript building would be safest like The Switch is in NYC or Encompass, Vvyx.

Broadcast Engineer! It does take a wee bit of training - they're not just doing the switching (indeed, a lot of it is automated), but there's maintenance work and fault-finding and having to think on your feet when things aren't quite going to plan.



It depends what the other MCR has switched out. If another broadcaster has requested a clean feed of Studio E for whatever reason, then the BBC will have it switched out to an outgoing line, and the other end would be able to book across it. And the folk in Tower could monitor it if they needed to.

Earlier today I was getting a clean feed of Network Ten - including the bits between the ad breaks on The Project - because we're taking the programme on after it. That's really the exception to the rule; a lot of the time you'll just get colour bars until the thing you're after starts.


Yup, they're in the building. But it's pretty secure building to access, and the apparatus rooms aren't near external walls, and much of it can be operated remotely. There's a DR site too.

It's been a terrorist target in the past - the IRA detonated a bomb on one of the observation floors in the 1970s - so they do take security seriously!

You mean you don't just get to sit there watching TV all day?