Your favourite BBC NEWS 24/NC set.

Norwich (pre-Forum) used to use the self-op desk in the pres studio for the short 1'00 and 1'15" daytime bulletins, but used the desk with a remote camera in the main studio (or in the annexe studio on some occasions) for the Breakfast opts once VT was introduced. (They self oped prior to VT in Breakfast) The self op panels had buttons for vision and sound sources (some desks had them different shapes - square, circular, hexagonal etc. so that you could find them when you were looking to camera). There was a "Solo Mic" button that you pressed to only hear the main presenter mic, but there was also a mic fader, so you could still be live over other sound sources. The clunks you heard where usually the vision sources or solo mic button being thumped. There was also a timed aston key that you flicked to superimpose an aston for a fixed duration.

Some regions installed a full remote desk panel for the presentation sound and vision mixer in their graphics area - creating a mini-gallery, allowing a director to drive the bulletins from a more conventional location, rather than sitting at a presentation desk and using the self-op panel as if they were a presenter! (On at least one occasion a director cut themselves up in Norwich - rather than the presenter - when a routing error was made before a very late, unrehearsed, Monday 0630 bulletin ISTR)

Which was obviously being controlled from elsewhere as Ian was stood up taking his mic off when he would otherwise be cutting to the end titles and opting back to network

I'd assumed that when Peter Levy had left, the amount of stuff the presenter had to do was reduced as they did seem to have a larger range of presenters presenting from the self-opt studio at that point

Also they can't possibly have been controlling their own autocue as well as pressing buttons surely? Isn't that the equiviilent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach?

I can only think of Ian White, Clare Frisby, Charlotte Leeming and Tom Ingall who got to play with the buttons?

I never thought of that.



Well the autocue can be controlled by a foot pedal, like a sewing machine. I know when I spoke to Amanda Harper a few years back at the News and Sport on Tour she said that it was difficult to not only focus on the presentation, but to also control the autocue with her foot. That therefore means the presenter's foot would be controlling the autocue, their hands doing the mixing etc. all whilst looking at the camera.

It certainly makes the job interesting.

By that time on a Sunday would everything have already been switched to St Peter's Square with the Woodhouse Lane studio being routed there somehow (BBC Leeds' sat-truck?).

Presumably doing the switching over the weekend during the day with no bulletins would have made more sense than doing it overnight on Sunday... or am I talking complete rubbish!?

I saw the desk on a couple of occasions... with lego-type bricks, velcro, etc so you knew which things to press.

I take my hat off to all those who operated it - it was quite some job!