BBC Television Centre vs ITV London Studios

And plans are already afoot - Woodlands' days are numbered, and R&D look likely to move into parts of TVC and/or the Perimeter Buildings next to the Media Centre.

Give it a year or two and TVC will have a massive shopping centre right on its front doorstep.

I agree about Television Centre being iconic and therefore should be saved

Looking on the BBC's website, they've got loads of buildings

Broadcasting House
Bush House
Maida Vale
Marylebone High Street
Television Centre
Western House
White City Media Village
Woodlands
Yalding House

They could close half of them and move the departments into TVC

Excuse my igonrance but where is Woodlands and what do the BBC currently have there?

Also do you remember when they said awhile back that they'd announce the future plans for TVC after the redevelopment of Broadcasting House? Does anybody know anymore about that?

Yes, they have a lot of property, but a lot of it is well-used. Western House is home to Radio 2 and 6 Music, and has recently had a big studio refit - likewise with Yalding, which is Radio 1 and 1 Xtra's studios. BH is mid-development, and once it's done should be able to accommodate the World Service (currently in Bush House until the lease runs out).

Marylebone High Street is (arguably) an extravagance - you could possibly rationalise BBC London in with the rest of the News centre, and the Trust and Training don't necessarily need such expensive offices.

Woodlands is just a little further up Wood Lane, on the other side of the A40. It's a fairly big site, where you'll find BBC Worldwide, a creche for children of BBC staff, and a big gym owned by the BBC club.

They've not announced anything at all so far - though there are rumours that TVC could be sold along with BBC Studios, with the BBC retaining a lease on office space inside it.

Item in Media Guardian today (not online) that Jeremy Vine's sections on last week's local election coverage came from ITN studios - because only ITN had the capability to do the VR graphics. I didn't think the graphic design was nearly as good as ITN election programmes though, so presumably the design was still done in-house at the Beeb.

I suspect it was cheaper to use ITN's VR facilities than build a temporary set-up in one of the BBC studios. A number of BBC studios have the required targets in the ceiling that allow the use of camera tracking technology - but there isn't a permanent installation, as there is at ITN.

Any graphics used will have been based on BBC designs - even if done at ITN - as the show was for the BBC. Neither the BBC nor ITV would have wanted the BBC graphics to have looked like ITV's!

Of course - TV Centre has one major selling point that London Studios doesn't... High definition.

Two of the studios at BBC TV Centre are now HD equipped. TC1 - which is usually the home of the large saturday night LE shows like Maria, Joseph, Strictly etc. and TC8 are both now equipped with HD facilities.

AIUI The London Studios is still standard definition only.

Joseph and Strictly Come Dancing both looked cracking in HD - Joseph looks particularly great, even on standard def tellies.

I did a programme in TC8 recently. What I saw on the floor monitors looked amazingly crisp, but I couldn't say that it was HD.

Would the facilities be switchable to SD if it wasn't an HD production, or would the show be mastered in HD for down-conversion later?

Surely ITV will have to have TLS kitted up for HD very soon though?

Yes and it depends.

HD studios can operate in SD - the cameras and mixers are switchable usually. This would be the most sensible way of working if you are shooting a show with lots of ISO recordings you want in SD.

However you could also shoot in HD and downconvert to SD - and also keep an HD copy - if you want to future proof your production.

Both have merit in different situations.

Certainly a lot of HD OB trucks spend a lot of time working in SD - with the cameras and mixer switched to SD mode!

If their equipment is approaching end of life, then replacing with HD gear is a no-brainer. However if they don't need to re-equip yet - then unless a LOT of clients are asking for HD - why would they?

ITV, C4 and Five still don't have HD outlets (ITV HD stopped on cable and the London terrestrial trial for ITV/C4/Five in December I believe)

The BBC studios were equipped with early 16:9/4:3 switchable cameras dating back to 1996/1997ish - and were approaching the end of their life. They replaced some with Sony SD cameras - but it became clear that there WAS a demand for BBC HD production facilities, tied in with BBC HD, and to NOT upgrade at least some studios to HD when they were upgrading first generation 16:9 SD gear would be a potential mistake.

They're ( TLS) certainly 'shopping around' for HD kit at the moment.