noggin's posts, page 261

Broadcasting House, Salford Quays & TVC

Yes - BBC Elstree (not to be confused with BBC Studioworks at Elstree Film Studios) is a BBC owned and operated site. Studio D is the only real studio on the BBC Elstree site, which is otherwise dedicated to making EastEnders (a 4 day a week soap) and Holby City (a weekly hospital drama). Studio D is operated by BBC Studioworks. For years it was largely ignored in favour of the studios at TV Centre, but it has always had the scope to be a decent studio. And now it is getting a lot of work, quite rightly.

Even more confusingly, BBC Elstree was formerly an ITV studio centre (The Muppet Show was made there). When ITV re-organised, and ATV (which ran the site - even though, by then, it was no longer in the ATV region) sold the site, the BBC bought it in the early 80s. Prior to the ITV contractor running it as TV studios, it was also a film studio site.

The film stages that the BBC have converted to TV studios at Elstree Film (at least Stage 8 and 9) have had proper studio floors fitted, and reasonable TV facilities installed (though they are a little unusual...) The lighting grids leave a lot to be desired - so the studios are really best suited to long-term 'set standing' productions - like game shows. Which is why Pointless and The Chase are long term bookings there.

Britain's Got Talent 2017

The Voice and X Factor are using LH2 - but BGT is using Elstree. (AIUI The Voice used a scanner, but X Factor will have a gallery there. How fly-packy it is... I don't know...)

Britain's Got Talent 2017

Yes - I believe it's coming from the BBC Studioworks operation at Elstree Film studios, and is using the George Lucas stage. (The same stage and facilities that Strictly uses)

BBC Store to close on 1 November

Yes. It's a real pity the BBC doesn't offer (or isn't allowed to offer) more open access to its archive. SVT's Öppet Arkiv site is a treasure trove of old shows, made available free for streaming in the same way as new shows are on SVT Play.

Broadcasting House, Salford Quays & TVC

There are plenty of site maps - but I don't think they break them down into the stages, as really only Stage IV (Spur), Stage V, and Stage VI were ever known by their stage names day-to-day (and to honest Stage IV was really known as Spur most of the time).

Stages I-III weren't ever really used day-to-day as operational descriptions of the site.



No - the doughnut offices were 'inside' the ring created by the studios, and more above the dressing rooms, make-up areas, tea-bars etc. The lower areas of the doughnut contained the control rooms and apparatus rooms in some cases, with the upper floors being offices. The studios themselves were on the outside of the office doughnut- between it and the ring road.

BBC Store to close on 1 November

I see the point of downloads from subscription services like Netflix, Amazon, and also from DRM-ed but non-pay services like All4 and iPlayer, a they let you watch in areas you don't have access to a decent network connection (planes, trains, tubes etc.).

However - like others here - I'm wary about purchasing content outright if it is DRMed. You have no guarantee that playback will continue to work on future platforms and OSs. At least with a Blu-ray or DVD you are likely to be able to continue to play those for a time to come yet.

Having an iTunes or Ultraviolet (though they aren't great) download that comes with a DVD or Blu-ray purchase is probably optimum - as you get the convenience of being able to watch on tablet/phone/PC/Mac - but also the guarantee of a high quality disc to play at home on your TV.

My major bugbear with the BBC Store was that iPlayer quality is just 'meh'. It's not Blu-ray...

BBC Store to close on 1 November

Yep - the whole premise of the BBC Store was, wherever possible, to use the iPlayer version of the show. Effectively you were buying the ability to watch the iPlayer version indefinitely.

Usually the iPlayer version is pre-encoded from the TX masters (clean in and out and no credit VO/squeeze) prior to broadcast, but in some cases a provisional version is taken from the off-air broadcast (and in the case of live broadcasts this is often the only version published) Sometimes this version is not replaced. (I imagine the iPlayer file is archived. ISTR that since the BBC went to their new workflow - as detailed in a couple of blog posts - a single file is created containing all the various resolutions required for various platforms and variable bitrate streaming solutions?)

ISTR that BBC Store was heavily integrated into iPlayer (to reduce running costs), so I guess this explains it?

UK General Election

[quote:0882716331="Rkolsen" pid="1062088"][quote:0882716331="JKDerry" pid="1061991"]You do not get anywhere in this life by sitting on your ass doing nothing. It does no harm in emailing and seeing what comes of it. I have had plenty of replies from production companies over the years when I have asked for details. So, if you don't ask, you don't get. No harm done.[/quote:0882716331]
One trick I've learned when inquiring about something or complaining about customer service is to find the email format. You then BCC any and everyone you might think be involved. I had a serious issue with Comcast about ten years ago, sent it to almost every board member, and anyone else I could guess. Within a few hours I got a response and a tech was out the next day. Plus I got three large tins of luxury popcorn and gift certificates.[/quote:0882716331]

Though some corporations have got wise to that, and have different email address formats for people in public-facing posts, with the standard email boxes often also still present, but monitored by others in the corporation (and avoiding a bounce back).

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Yes - he did a Friday a couple of weeks ago. He's a restaurant critic who has frequently appeared on Masterchef, and a former editor of the Independent as well.

Manchester Terror Attack

I'm guessing you mean US governmental sources (rather than UK). There are strong suggestions these leaks may not have come from official US sources... (The two main areas of suspicion for the leaks being discussed in the UK press are the White House and US law enforcement, rather than US intelligence, as these two areas may not be as experienced in intelligence sharing. The US President appeared to have released confidential third party intelligence to the Russians recently...)


Well there wouldn't be - this is a leak, not a press release...

Yes - once something is in the public domain, it's in the public domain. Unless there are legal restrictions on reporting it, of course it will be picked up.

The point is that some intelligence is shared within the US / UK intelligence community based on it remaining totally confidential and NOT being leaked to the press. It underpins the essence of intelligence sharing. It isn't made public for good reason... Twice over the past week intelligence shared in this manner has been leaked within the US. It casts very heavy suspicion on the security of the agencies that the UK has shared this intelligence with.

It's very serious and not at all good...

BBC Store to close on 1 November

Well the BBC will have a millstone around its neck keeping the DRM licence servers (to let people continue to watch content they've bought) running for a service no longer generating any revenue won't they?

Either that or they'll have to refund or offer DRM-free or differently DRM-ed replacements?

BBC TV Centre & elections (off-topic)

Not sure that's the case. BBC Worldwide, BBC Studioworks and BBC Studios are - I believe - separate commercial operations. I don't think BBC Studioworks is under the BBC Worldwide umbrella.