Broadcasting House, Salford Quays & TVC

Here's the listing:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1393371

As it says, the interior of studio 1 isn't listed as none of it is original

The listing in the end was a bit of a fudge. The canteen block should have been listed as should the mosaic and concrete blocks on the upper parts of the donut.

All this rubbish about the studios being analogue and the site not fit for purpose/white elephant is nonsense. It was a short term decision which has cost more than it raised. It certainly wasn't a commercial decision it was political and as owners of the BBC we will all end up paying for that.

On a more positive note what has been refurbished and is the process of being re-equipped will be excellent. The will be the best equipped studios in the UK in 2017. Hopefully the majority of the building work will be completed and the place wont look so sad.

As I've said before, the studios were perfectly fine, (although probably a few too many for what the BBC need now) the problem was the rest of the building. A lot of it was outdated and not fit for purpose because the purpose for which it was built has gone. There were large parts of it empty for years because departments found other more modern buildings and office space better for them - people were always complaining about those doughnut offices!


The age of the large TV factory is no more, not only is the industry more fragmented these days but you just don't need big as many big technical areas any more. The VT area mentioned earlier is a great example - a whole stage of TVC was built for it and it's obsolete. Servers in data centres and desktop editing is how it's done now. Apart from CCA, which was long overdue a refit, the central wedge had been empty for 12 years, because it just wasn't flexible enough.


If the BBC had retained it they would have had to have made big changes to the building, possibly selling parts of the site. One disadvantage TVC had was that unlike some other studios where the site was split and part sold off, the studios weren't in a separate part of the site

If they'd have accommodated what ended up at Broadcasting House they'd have had to have built something new there.


It could be argued that the BBC were quite forward thinking. The next big thing is, apparently, virtualisation - putting all the technology in a data centre and operating it remotely from anywhere. The performers can be in TC1, the director in Scotland, sound mixer at home in Kent and the programme recorded onto a server in Birmingham.

(sorry I added that last paragraph as an edit but it seems to have posted the whole thing again)

....and requiring Cisco accredited engineers to make it all work ( making a fortune in the process !)

While not quite yet virtualization there have been some trials in remote IP broadcasts by VRT producing a concert remotely and the PAC 12 network here in the US where the camera crew are located at the venue while the main control room is back at head quarters.

There is some virtualization going on at ABC where their master control is completely in the cloud using two redundant data centers. The master control operators can control the network remotely or use a typical panel back at headquarters to control the servers. Live programming is piped I believe is piped into the two data centers as JPEG-2000. The output from the cloud is unlinked to the satellite so the affiliates can receive programming normally - like a NBC or CBS station would.

And not forgetting the work BBC R&D did using IP Studio techniques to produce UHD content at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Here's the white paper from BBC R&D concerning the UHD production for the games. I haven't started reading it but it's fairly short at 38 pages.

Plus ViLoR which is rolling out across BBC local radio

One word.......CRIMINAL!
To think BBC Television Centre has been reduced to this 😓

Oh right. The irony of your posting name, and the hole in the ground on Broad St next to the Alpha Tower, isn't lost.

Get a grip. Go back and read what the inspector posted further up this page. You can't keep a multi studio complex going based on history and the ghosts of programmes past still haunting the corridors and scenery docks.

Well, we're all entitled to our own opinions on here.
I HAVE read every post in this thread, thoroughly!

IMO it's criminal that TV Centre was shut.
I just have a passion for heritage!

Just because it's possible to do something, doesn't mean we should.