TV Home Forum

Fountain Studios To Close

Home of X Factor may soon be no more (January 2016)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
NG
noggin Founding member
LCL92 posted:
deejay posted:
If it moves into more frequent television production though, I wouldn't have thought it would break the bank, or be structurally impossible to fit more permanent television lighting grid equipment. This could be the start of a new television studio facility, and lets face it, there's a distinct shortage of them in London at the moment!


True, I feel it's just a shame it's so far out of central London.


Eh? It's in Park Royal. It's not massively further out than TV Centre or Fountain were. Certainly a lot closer than Elstree and Maidstone, Pinewood or Shepperton.
FB
FBC
Park Royal is in zone 3, so that actually makes it more central that Fountain (which is/was in zone 4).
BL
bluecortina
Didely Squit! posted:
LCL92 posted:
bluecortina posted:

I'm not sure, but I suspect a lot of the major items of Fountain kit are probably on a lease arrangement, although I don't know if that would prevent it from being sold off? I wonder how much of it is even current products. Perhaps the studio lamps might be worth a bit.


Fountain's parent company also owns Presteigne, a major broadcast hire company. They supply the studio with all of their kit. Fountain only owns a minimal amount of kit - almost all of the stuff used on XF & BGT has to be brought in.


The Voice and X Factor are from LH2 next year. BGT from Elstree.

Fountain own all their own kit - it's a 'fully-equipped' television studio. Some additional pieces are hired in from Presteigne.

Presteigne are no longer owned by Avesco, there was a management buyout about a month ago. Avesco themselves have just been acquired by NEP as of last week.


I have a dim recollection that when Fountain bought their first HD cameras (the hdc1000/1500) there was an industry announcement from Sony that they had been bought them through a finance arrangement. That's a very common way to buy expensive capital kit in the tv industry. Maybe the cameras have been subsequently replaced, I wouldn't know, although when I see inadvertent shots of the cameras nowadays they appear to have colour viewfinders which the originals didn't as Sony had not yet then released them for sale.
MA
Markymark
bluecortina posted:


I have a dim recollection that when Fountain bought their first HD cameras (the hdc1000/1500) there was an industry announcement from Sony that they had been bought them through a finance arrangement. That's a very common way to buy expensive capital kit in the tv industry. Maybe the cameras have been subsequently replaced, I wouldn't know, although when I see inadvertent shots of the cameras nowadays they appear to have colour viewfinders which the originals didn't as Sony had not yet then released them for sale.


The CRT viewfinders for the HDCs were awful, in 2010 OLED versions were released, I can't imagine any of the CRTs not now being in landfill !
NG
noggin Founding member
Markymark posted:
bluecortina posted:


I have a dim recollection that when Fountain bought their first HD cameras (the hdc1000/1500) there was an industry announcement from Sony that they had been bought them through a finance arrangement. That's a very common way to buy expensive capital kit in the tv industry. Maybe the cameras have been subsequently replaced, I wouldn't know, although when I see inadvertent shots of the cameras nowadays they appear to have colour viewfinders which the originals didn't as Sony had not yet then released them for sale.


The CRT viewfinders for the HDCs were awful, in 2010 OLED versions were released, I can't imagine any of the CRTs not now being in landfill !


The monochrome CRTs for the HSC300s (and I imagine the HDCs?) were a LOT better than the god awful colour LCDs... The 7" OLEDS were (and are) the best solution.

(ISTR that at early HD Wimbledons - the second time around (!) - the LCDs lasted about a day before CRTs appeared...)
BL
bluecortina
noggin posted:
Markymark posted:
bluecortina posted:


I have a dim recollection that when Fountain bought their first HD cameras (the hdc1000/1500) there was an industry announcement from Sony that they had been bought them through a finance arrangement. That's a very common way to buy expensive capital kit in the tv industry. Maybe the cameras have been subsequently replaced, I wouldn't know, although when I see inadvertent shots of the cameras nowadays they appear to have colour viewfinders which the originals didn't as Sony had not yet then released them for sale.


The CRT viewfinders for the HDCs were awful, in 2010 OLED versions were released, I can't imagine any of the CRTs not now being in landfill !


The monochrome CRTs for the HSC300s (and I imagine the HDCs?) were a LOT better than the god awful colour LCDs... The 7" OLEDS were (and are) the best solution.

(ISTR that at early HD Wimbledons - the second time around (!) - the LCDs lasted about a day before CRTs appeared...)


The OLED's for the HDC were, I thought, 11" but that does sound a bit big I have to say - Markymark?

I do know that they were £15k each. I'll repeat that -£15k - each, as in each. But they are rather fab.
NG
noggin Founding member
bluecortina posted:
noggin posted:
Markymark posted:

The CRT viewfinders for the HDCs were awful, in 2010 OLED versions were released, I can't imagine any of the CRTs not now being in landfill !


The monochrome CRTs for the HSC300s (and I imagine the HDCs?) were a LOT better than the god awful colour LCDs... The 7" OLEDS were (and are) the best solution.

(ISTR that at early HD Wimbledons - the second time around (!) - the LCDs lasted about a day before CRTs appeared...)


The OLED's for the HDC were, I thought, 11" but that does sound a bit big I have to say - Markymark?

I do know that they were £15k each. I'll repeat that -£15k - each, as in each. But they are rather fab.


The 11" OLEDs were the first gen OLED option, and the only OLED viewfinder available at one point. They were too big and too expensive for most sport and studio applications - though great for critical focus (say where you are tracking on-shot in drama - like EastEnders - who bought a couple).

B&W CRTs were usually operator choice over the 11" OLED (which were just too big or too expensive) or the smaller LCDs (which were universally reviled as they were soft, laggy and just generally quite nasty) for HDC 1500s and HSC 300s c. 2009/10ish.

Once the 7" OLED arrived 2012/13ish that instantly became the de facto standard.
MA
Markymark
noggin posted:
bluecortina posted:
noggin posted:

The monochrome CRTs for the HSC300s (and I imagine the HDCs?) were a LOT better than the god awful colour LCDs... The 7" OLEDS were (and are) the best solution.

(ISTR that at early HD Wimbledons - the second time around (!) - the LCDs lasted about a day before CRTs appeared...)


The OLED's for the HDC were, I thought, 11" but that does sound a bit big I have to say - Markymark?

I do know that they were £15k each. I'll repeat that -£15k - each, as in each. But they are rather fab.


The 11" OLEDs were the first gen OLED option, and the only OLED viewfinder available at one point. They were too big and too expensive for most sport and studio applications - though great for critical focus (say where you are tracking on-shot in drama - like EastEnders - who bought a couple).

B&W CRTs were usually operator choice over the big OLED (which were just too big) or the 7" LCDs (which were universally reviled as they were soft, laggy and just generally quite nasty) for HDC 1500s and HSC 300s c. 2009/10ish.

Once the 7" OLED arrived 2012/13ish that instantly became the de facto standard.


Checking my records, the 7 inch model became available around the end of 2010/beginning of 2011.
List price (then) was about 10k Euros Cool
BL
bluecortina
Given the timing I can only assume they were the 11" oled viewfinders. That was a major selling point with the camera department. No-one else could offer it, in fact I don't think ikegami were even quite able to offer production cameras, they wanted absolute perfection out of their kit and demonstrated a camera with a lower signal/noise ratio than was theoretically possible and they wanted to wait and fully develop it before offering a camera to the market. So that was a lost order for a dozen+ or so complete camera channels including those very expensive viewfinders. All bought 'on the knock' so's to speak.

Edited to add, and of course Sony also immediately offered to get their cameras into the hire market so that purchasers would be able to hire additional channels asap if needed.
Last edited by bluecortina on 23 November 2016 11:23pm - 3 times in total
NG
noggin Founding member
Markymark posted:
noggin posted:
bluecortina posted:

The OLED's for the HDC were, I thought, 11" but that does sound a bit big I have to say - Markymark?

I do know that they were £15k each. I'll repeat that -£15k - each, as in each. But they are rather fab.


The 11" OLEDs were the first gen OLED option, and the only OLED viewfinder available at one point. They were too big and too expensive for most sport and studio applications - though great for critical focus (say where you are tracking on-shot in drama - like EastEnders - who bought a couple).

B&W CRTs were usually operator choice over the big OLED (which were just too big) or the 7" LCDs (which were universally reviled as they were soft, laggy and just generally quite nasty) for HDC 1500s and HSC 300s c. 2009/10ish.

Once the 7" OLED arrived 2012/13ish that instantly became the de facto standard.


Checking my records, the 7 inch model became available around the end of 2010/beginning of 2011.
List price (then) was about 10k Euros Cool


Earlier than I thought... Could be that I only became aware of it as a possibility when the price dropped a bit.
NG
noggin Founding member
bluecortina posted:
Given the timing I can only assume they were the 11" oled viewfinders. That was a major selling point with the camera department. No-one else could offer it, in fact I don't think ikegami were even quite able to offer production cameras, they wanted absolute perfection out of their kit and demonstrated a camera with a lower signal/noise ratio than was theoretically possible and they wanted to wait and fully develop it before offering a camera to the market. So that was a lost order for a dozen+ or so complete camera channels including those very expensive viewfinders. All bought 'on the knock' so's to speak.

Edited to add, and of course Sony also immediately offered to get their cameras into the hire market so that purchasers would be able to hire additional channels asap if needed.


Ikegami totally lost their way in the move to HD... They seem to have pretty much disappeared in Europe in camera terms... The Alexa-live hybrid camera was a nice idea - but Sony have effectively killed it with the F55 Live it seems.
MA
Markymark
noggin posted:
Markymark posted:
noggin posted:

The 11" OLEDs were the first gen OLED option, and the only OLED viewfinder available at one point. They were too big and too expensive for most sport and studio applications - though great for critical focus (say where you are tracking on-shot in drama - like EastEnders - who bought a couple).

B&W CRTs were usually operator choice over the big OLED (which were just too big) or the 7" LCDs (which were universally reviled as they were soft, laggy and just generally quite nasty) for HDC 1500s and HSC 300s c. 2009/10ish.

Once the 7" OLED arrived 2012/13ish that instantly became the de facto standard.


Checking my records, the 7 inch model became available around the end of 2010/beginning of 2011.
List price (then) was about 10k Euros Cool


Earlier than I thought... Could be that I only became aware of it as a possibility when the price dropped a bit.


Yes, they were very pricey. I was involved at the time with a number of new OB trucks, all with 20+ camera
channels, none of them were equipped initially with more than about half a dozen OLED VFs

Newer posts