GMTV

Before they moved that webcam(http://www.webviews.co.uk/affiliates/gmtv/liveimages/studio.jpg)
into the studio, it used to be in the gallery.

The studio did look quite old, although it wasn't a great picture obviously. The monitor stack was a wooden frame, and on several occasions there were large bundles of cables hanging from ducts in the ceiling.

The old vision mixer was a grass valley one (no idea what model, but it had what looked like a floppy disk slot on the left) - and they had several computers lined up along the main desks (CRT monitors, not flatscreen or anything).

I'm intrigued why

(a) the studio was so old when GMTV goes out nationally seven days a week
(b) this studio is *only* used for GMTV, when BBC do all sorts of programmes from TC7.

What else comes from London studios?

William

I believe that ITV Sport also use the GMTV gallery (and possibly studio).

CRT screens and GVG mixers which still work, still work! If they aren't unreliable (which they aren't on the whole if they are maintained well) then why replace them until you need to - for example to move to digital widescreen working. The pictures don't get better if the vision mixer is replaced with a new one (unless it is a move from analogue to digital - which it was in this case ) and programmes don't get better cos the PCs have flat screens instead of CRTs (though if they are used for long periods flat screens are better for operators' eyes)

As for London Studios - it does LOADS of shows! It is the home of London Weekend Television - so is the home of Blind Date and many other LWT studio shows. It is also used by independent companies - I think 'So Graham Norton' is made there. It is also used for 'This Morning' as well as lots of corporate events, and also LWT sitcoms etc.

I think it is quite a busy place!

LNN and LSN are also based there - so it is the home of London Today/Tonight and London Weekend Tonight (if that still exists) as well as local sports production.

This morning on GMTV at around 8.15 they were doing a report on a guy who put barbed wire around his mothers house to prevent it getting broken into. Suddenly a static widescreen picture of the GMTV logo appeared. Underneath was a caption which wasn't in there normal font.
'We apologise for the loss of programme normal service will resume as soon as possible'
I thought it was a breakdown so I started the video. But a couple of seconds later it was back. But I don't think they just lost the feed because the clock and web address had gone. Did anyone notice. Was this a problem with there new technology or was it just someone at STV who pressed the wrong button?

There's a policy of putting 'Recorded at: The London Studios' into program credits. It's the home for loads of things like Blind Date, You Bet!, Slap Bang, Lilly Savage Live, Surprise Surprise!, Don't Try This At Home, An Audience With and Oblivious to name but a few.

I went to have a look a few weeks ago and it looked very busy - couldn't get in though Does anyone know how many studios there are? Certainly the main one can hold an audience of about 500 but are there any more of a similar size?

I think most of the answers you are looking for can be found at:

The London Studios - Studio Guide

gav

I went to a recording of Sky One's Smash Hits TV at London Studios a few months back, so it's not just ITV1 shows that are made there...

BTW, as nobody on this thread has said so yet, I will point out that the London Tonight studio consists of more than just the newsdesk area... there is also the 'lounge' area, which can be separated off for use by other programmes or used as part of the LT set. This 'lounge' area was most notably used by daily lifestyle show 'After 5' which ran on Carlton weekdays at 5.10pm from 1994-1996/97, hosted by Caron Keating amongst others. It is this 'lounge' area which was used when GMTV were in the LT studio. The use of the newsdesk area for LT's regular output need not have been affected...
BTW, the newsdesk set was actually introduced for LWT News back when Thames and LWT produced seperate news shows...

For those that are interested here are some points regarding this somewhat lengthy GMTV revamp thread:

GMTV were have been having a technical revamp and moved back into their gallery having been working from a truck outside The London Studios for the last few months.

While they moved back in they used London News Network's studio (London Studio's Studio Seven) for four days.

LNN continued to broadcast it's main shows from Studio 7 after GMTV had finished every morning and then reset the studio for GMTV after the 23:30 news.

During GMTV the local news for London came from LNN's second studio (Studio 9) also in The London Studios.

On their first day back in the new gallery GMTV had to reboot the server at least twice. Thats why all of the 8am news was all in vision.

The 'LIVE' webcam is very weird. On the GMTV website and the link on this page, bot say they are experincing technical difficulties. I was wondering are they?