Is this a real BBC service broadcasting from, what looks like, someone's kitchen or something!? There are strip lights above the desk! And talking of the desk, why's it got a bit of plywood on top?
(Incidentally, whereabouts in the building is it? I've not been there for a few years - did they add in some space for it when rebuilding the link corridor?)
'Studio G' is built in what was the old Operational Assistant Office and Gaelic Tape Library in the 1986 Studio Block. The two rooms were knocked into one to created 'Studio G' which has led to the slightly strange studio set up, in that the room is actually an L Shape. Hence the awkwardness of lights and camera angles. The ceiling could not be raised by 2 foot so they had to box in the joists to create voids to hang lighting in.
The Gallery is built in what was formerly the office of the Head of Radio Scotland - Jeff Zycinski and PA and was used as a temporary Radio Editing Suite during the building works over the past 12 months.
The Link Corridor which was bulldozed, the 1860 Extension, housed the Engineering Offices, some distribution and Workshop. The new Link Building now houses the An La Production Team, Radio Nan Gaidheal Presenters and Radio Highland Staff.
Far from it - The Contribution Studio (Studio H is it's nickname now, H for Highland) will still be in regular use alongside Studio G - Indeed it is set to be used even more but they havent updated the blinds at all!
As for Stornoway, they are due to get a replica Self Op TV Studio as well (Studio S)
Theoretically, if there is a catastrophic failure of Studio G, then Studio H can be used as it also uses a back up Analogue circuit to Glasgow.
Moz, you might be surprised to know the pair of lights at the top of the set have compact fluorescent tubes in them. Fluorescent stage lights have become really popular over the last couple of years as they are more reliable than conventional lamps, and produce almost no heat - something very important in a small studio with a low ceiling.
Quite a few of the newer BBC TV studios are being equipped with those very fittings. The models shown in the BBC Alba studio have two compact flourescent tubes in them, models with four tubes are also available which make great fill lights. They're dimmable, DMX512 controllable and have pole adjust, so work surprisingly well in office conversion tv studios where air-con might not be up to the job of cooling more traditional (and hot) lumieres. BBC Norwich has a number of these flourescents I believe, as does Oxford, though in both studios they're used as back and fill lights, with traditional tungsten fresnel lens lumieres providing the keys.
They're dimmable, but not smooth enough to do those nice fades we used to see at the end of news shows. Their colour temperature doesn't stay consistent on dimming - but other than that they're definitely the way forward for newsroom lighting.
There are other solutions.
Mechanically dimmable DMX driven discharge lights are also a solution for cool lighting. They operate by having a lamp running at a constant brightness - and thus constant colour temperature, but have a DMX driven motorised mechanical shutter that allows the light path to be reduced. This does mean that their throw alters slightly - but it also means that they can be dimmed entirely under direct DMX control (no dimmers required) and stay a constant colour temperature. (Though if you have a lot of them be prepared to be deafened when they are switched on and reset themselves!)
At the risk of letting everyone in the World Service know who I am who have not worked it out already, I worked for many years as a freelance lighting director around the big concert venues in London before I opted for the quiet life fixing computers.
Noggin is correct, in a 'real' studio (or venue) you would have lights based around mercury discharge (MSD) lamps that stay illuminated constantly, and have a mechanical shutter system that restricts the light output according to the DMX commands from the lighting desk. They may even do more cool things depending on the fixture, google for Mac 600 or Studio Colour 575 if you are interested in what typical examples these lights can do.
In a 'newsroom' type studio these are less desirable, as they generate a shed load of heat becuase they are always on and the lamps tend to object to being switched on for 20 minutes at a time that a typical short interview session will take. The Flourescent lights stand up so much better to this pattern of (ab)use. The white light they produce is far from the perfect broadband white you can get from MSD fittlings, but it does the job.
If you played me a tape of an interview shot under flourescent fittings and an interview shot under tungsten or MSD then I doubt I could tell the difference - and would be very surprised if anyone else could.
At the risk of letting everyone in the World Service know who I am who have not worked it out already, I worked for many years as a freelance lighting director around the big concert venues in London before I opted for the quiet life fixing computers.
And for many years I might have been the one who rented or sold you the luminaires.
When I said, "the way forward" I was basing that on newsroom (read: office) studio setups.
The video report on a proposed new English language TV station for Scotland has some shots of 'BBC An La'
So is 'Gaelic' pronounced 'ga-lic' as he says in the video or 'gay-lic' as I've always pronounced it?! Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever actually heard the word being said by someone before so perhaps I created my own pronunciation!
The video report on a proposed new English language TV station for Scotland has some shots of 'BBC An La'
So is 'Gaelic' pronounced 'ga-lic' as he says in the video or 'gay-lic' as I've always pronounced it?! Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever actually heard the word being said by someone before so perhaps I created my own pronunciation!
"Gah-lic" in Scotland, "Gay-lic" in Ireland. They are similar, but different, languages.
