The Newsroom

Broadcasting House Studios

(May 2020)

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DO
dosxuk
Inspector Sands posted:
The structure is fairly simple and flexible - above the TV studios, apps rooms and plant in the lower floors it's all open plan.

The radio studios are spread throughout the building because the departments that use them are too. Makes no sense to have the studios for Radio 3 and the studios for Radio 1 in the same place when they're built for very different programming and the production teams work in different parts of the building.


You mean it's actually laid out simply and with thought into who works there, what they need to do and where they need to go, as opposed to how neatly it fits on a grid on Wikipedia?

I don't understand the thinking behind putting the radio 1 & 3 studios together, simply because they're radio studios, when actually putting them in the parts of the building those people are working makes much more sense. Likewise, why shouldn't the world service have their studios near their office space, rather than in the basement with the network studios? Just doesn't make sense.
Inspector Sands and Steve Williams gave kudos
IS
Inspector Sands
The other advantage is that the number of studios they need can increase and decrease easily according to need. If they're all together in one part of the building then adding a couple more for a new service could be tricky whereas at BH they'll just convert space. And vice versa should studios be not needed, they can just take down the walls and return it to office space, or convert to a meeting room
MA
Markymark
JKDerry posted:
dosxuk posted:
I dread to think how much expensive land NBH would take up if it only had two floors.

RTE had the vast expanse of their Donnybrook site to help them compared to the restricted central London location for NBH.


Well, that was the idea in the 1950s building BBC TV Centre where it is. However, BH in W1 remained for radio, and apart for 5 Live and the rest of Radio News moving to TVC at the turn of the century for a few years, that was that.

TVC could have been repurposed to an extent to house radio and TV, by reducing the number of TV studios I suppose. I'm trying to think of any other European 'state' broadcaster that still has a city centre base like NBH ? I've visited quite a few in my time, and they are all out of town 'campus' style (like Donnybrook), although of course all they date from the 50s, and not pre war.
LX
lxflyer
JKDerry posted:
The RTE Radio Centre in Dublin has a better structured way of their studios. Their radio centre is located not far from the RTE Television Centre, meaning radio and television close by. Opened in 1973 and is still the main headquarters of RTE Radio (for the time being at least, we can never be sure with regards to RTE budget plans).

The radio centre has 13 studios, all based underground to ensure better quality sound. Studio 1 is the largest studio and used for radio dramas and concerts etc, with the remaining 12 studios based around Studio 1.

The RTE Radio Centre is only two floors, one about ground and the one below ground - a perfect simple way to have a radio centre, and not the badly mixed bag of studios the New Broadcasting House has in London. Shame when they built the new extension, they never considered simplicity in the form of structure, as it does seems the radio studios are all mixed through in that vast complex.


I think you are way off the mark here.

The radio studios in NBH are exactly where they need to be - they’re located beside where the production teams actually work.

Comparing RTÉ and BBC is a nonsense given the difference in size and output.
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DE
deejay
Yes and the old part of BH is very well designed as a radio production centre - the studios are in a central core, shielded by the office space around it. Very neat - and despite the almost complete rebuilding of OBH, this feature remains to this day.
Inspector Sands and lxflyer gave kudos
JW
JamesWorldNews
How to get from the top floor of NBH to Studio C.



IS
Inspector Sands
Markymark posted:

Well, that was the idea in the 1950s building BBC TV Centre where it is. However, BH in W1 remained for radio, and apart for 5 Live and the rest of Radio News moving to TVC at the turn of the century for a few years, that was that.

TVC could have been repurposed to an extent to house radio and TV, by reducing the number of TV studios I suppose.

I'm pretty sure the original idea behind BBC White City was to move all radio into it. For some reason it all stayed in the centre of town and the White City building became essentially an overflow for TVC.

The rest of the site stayed empty for many years, they never really knew what to do with it. Some is only being built on now by its new owners
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 23 May 2020 8:28am

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