NG
noggin
Founding member
This sounds like the beginning of the closure of Meridian's production facilities in Southampton to me - if it goes ahead.
With all three news operations co-sited on a new site in Hampshire what would there be left for Meridian to do in Southampton... I suspect they want to sell off the studio resources and production premises in So'ton - and whether these are bought as a going concern or demolished who knows.
With all three news operations co-sited on a new site in Hampshire what would there be left for Meridian to do in Southampton... I suspect they want to sell off the studio resources and production premises in So'ton - and whether these are bought as a going concern or demolished who knows.
AS
Asa
Admin
Under the smokescreen of the merger and the promise of wizz-bang technology, this announcement has been made. "But we always remain committed to three separate news programmes." - bit harder to do when you're not as local as you once was. I'm not surprised those working at Maidstone are up in arms.
NG
Yep - though Anglia have always based both their regional news programmes in Norwich since they split the East and West of the region - and not many people criticise their regional commitment or coverage. Anglia argued that it was better to invest more money in regional correspondents, bureaux and crews, and save money by co-siting their studio operations.
With modern technology there are fewer technical reasons to site a news operation in the area it covers - where in the past editing (especially film and early VT) had to be on the same site as transmission areas, studios and galleries, this is not really the case anymore. (Hence BBC Oxford coming from BBC Southampton)
Historically TVS set up a full production centre in Maidstone - as part of their regional franchise they had to produce in both their South and South East regions I believe - initially they had a converted theatre (home of Fraggle Rock!) which continued after the full studio centre at Vintners Park opened. As part of the production infrastructure in the South East they were able to co-site their SE news operation - benefiting from a surrounding infrastructure (like engineering, technicians etc.) When Meridian launched they didn't plan any SE production - TVS spun off the SE production facilities as Maidstone Studios via The Family Channel - with Meridian only renting space for their local news until the Meridian New Hythe studios were ready.
However Meridian were then just operating a local news centre in the SE - so although this was a smaller operation it was not subsidised by other production on the site - so was presumably quite expensive to operate for such a small amount of output (presumably similar costs to the BBC regional operations)
Meridian also created their Newbury centre - presumably costing pretty much the same in studio terms (though the Newbury patch is geographically smaller and presumably cheaper to cover in location terms)
With no studio production to speak of at Meridian So'ton, and studios being mothballed there, presumably it was very difficult to argue keeping the Newbury operation going, when there was empty space unused at the So'ton HQ, and with Anglia making a success of their co-sited operation?
Now that even less studio production takes place at So'ton (I here that there is seldom much made there) I guess Granada are looking to sell the site and just run their local news operations as cheaply as possible...
(Out of interest the whole broadcast production landscape may well be changing as technologies develop, not just local news but global production. Quantel have launched a radical new system called Split Remote. In the pilot for this system it allowed an event being recorded in Paris to be edited in Canada - without feeding all of the full quality material to Canada via expensive 24/7 video links. Instead browse quality video was sent to Canada, via low cost, low data rate links, and the Canadian edit decisions sent back to Paris... Then the final edit can be played out from Paris, only requiring an expensive high quality circuit for minutes, not hours, and also not requiring a broadcaster to hire locally, or pay travel, hotels and expenses that would be required by flying their own teams to site. It also allows TV companies to potentially save money by editing in cheap countries. Fox apparently edited Temptation Island in Argentina to save money...)
noggin
Founding member
Asa posted:
Under the smokescreen of the merger and the promise of wizz-bang technology, this announcement has been made. "But we always remain committed to three separate news programmes." - bit harder to do when you're not as local as you once was. I'm not surprised those working at Maidstone are up in arms.
Yep - though Anglia have always based both their regional news programmes in Norwich since they split the East and West of the region - and not many people criticise their regional commitment or coverage. Anglia argued that it was better to invest more money in regional correspondents, bureaux and crews, and save money by co-siting their studio operations.
With modern technology there are fewer technical reasons to site a news operation in the area it covers - where in the past editing (especially film and early VT) had to be on the same site as transmission areas, studios and galleries, this is not really the case anymore. (Hence BBC Oxford coming from BBC Southampton)
Historically TVS set up a full production centre in Maidstone - as part of their regional franchise they had to produce in both their South and South East regions I believe - initially they had a converted theatre (home of Fraggle Rock!) which continued after the full studio centre at Vintners Park opened. As part of the production infrastructure in the South East they were able to co-site their SE news operation - benefiting from a surrounding infrastructure (like engineering, technicians etc.) When Meridian launched they didn't plan any SE production - TVS spun off the SE production facilities as Maidstone Studios via The Family Channel - with Meridian only renting space for their local news until the Meridian New Hythe studios were ready.
However Meridian were then just operating a local news centre in the SE - so although this was a smaller operation it was not subsidised by other production on the site - so was presumably quite expensive to operate for such a small amount of output (presumably similar costs to the BBC regional operations)
Meridian also created their Newbury centre - presumably costing pretty much the same in studio terms (though the Newbury patch is geographically smaller and presumably cheaper to cover in location terms)
With no studio production to speak of at Meridian So'ton, and studios being mothballed there, presumably it was very difficult to argue keeping the Newbury operation going, when there was empty space unused at the So'ton HQ, and with Anglia making a success of their co-sited operation?
Now that even less studio production takes place at So'ton (I here that there is seldom much made there) I guess Granada are looking to sell the site and just run their local news operations as cheaply as possible...
(Out of interest the whole broadcast production landscape may well be changing as technologies develop, not just local news but global production. Quantel have launched a radical new system called Split Remote. In the pilot for this system it allowed an event being recorded in Paris to be edited in Canada - without feeding all of the full quality material to Canada via expensive 24/7 video links. Instead browse quality video was sent to Canada, via low cost, low data rate links, and the Canadian edit decisions sent back to Paris... Then the final edit can be played out from Paris, only requiring an expensive high quality circuit for minutes, not hours, and also not requiring a broadcaster to hire locally, or pay travel, hotels and expenses that would be required by flying their own teams to site. It also allows TV companies to potentially save money by editing in cheap countries. Fox apparently edited Temptation Island in Argentina to save money...)
AS
Asa
Admin
That's a very interesting read. Thanks noggin. Would there be any likelihood of redundancies? I'd guess you wouldn't need
every
single person working on the Maidstone programme to be relocated/replaced in Southampton as some of the existing Southampton staff could take on the work?
As to the Split Remote, I'd have thought that would already be in use? Isn't it the same as sending low quality video over the internet, editing it on the remote machine using appropriate software and simply sending back the edit points (i.e. timings) which are then acted upon automatically by the kit where the event is taking place? (If I had broadband at home I'd like to have my PC check to see if I've given it any instructions from uni, say to load up the capture card, automatically record a particular sequence, and then send over the file via FTP - I'm sure it's possible. Then again, I'd like to ring up my VCR and get it to tape something immediately while I'm away...
)
As to the Split Remote, I'd have thought that would already be in use? Isn't it the same as sending low quality video over the internet, editing it on the remote machine using appropriate software and simply sending back the edit points (i.e. timings) which are then acted upon automatically by the kit where the event is taking place? (If I had broadband at home I'd like to have my PC check to see if I've given it any instructions from uni, say to load up the capture card, automatically record a particular sequence, and then send over the file via FTP - I'm sure it's possible. Then again, I'd like to ring up my VCR and get it to tape something immediately while I'm away...
)
:-(
But even though the programme comes from out of the area, you will always need reporters, newsgathering and camera crews in that locality - that's what makes a local news programe local - not where the presenter is sitting
A former member
Asa posted:
Under the smokescreen of the merger and the promise of wizz-bang technology, this announcement has been made. "But we always remain committed to three separate news programmes." - bit harder to do when you're not as local as you once was. I'm not surprised those working at Maidstone are up in arms.
But even though the programme comes from out of the area, you will always need reporters, newsgathering and camera crews in that locality - that's what makes a local news programe local - not where the presenter is sitting
NG
I would imagine that there are undoubtedly "savings" which is often management-speak for redundancies, early retirement, not replacing staff who leave etc. You require fewer graphics, editing, maintenance etc. staff, and could possibly close canteens, reduce the numbers of cleaners, security guards, receptionists etc. The savings are made in the infrastructure of the studio production, and resources.
You'd probably need the same number of location reporters, camera crews in the field etc. However such radical changes to the studio operation may also be used as a way of introducing more multi-skilling in the field - meaning reporters also shooting stuff themselves, or camera crews also editing.
Split Remote as a concept has been fiddled with for a while in broadcasting - but never really operated operationally on a split-site basis. Offlining on the same site as the on-line is quite common, as it is easy to ensure databases are in sync etc, but putting them on opposite sides of the planet is a bit more radical. What Quantel seem to be doing is running servers on both sites, and getting them to intelligently talk to each other so that browse material is shared, but broadcast material only sent when the edit is finalised.
Sony are also proposing a similar thing with their new optical disc (similar to BluRay) XDCam format - which records DV at 25Mbs or IMX MPEG2 at 50Mbs, whilst also recording browse quality MPEG4 at 1.5Mbs at the same time. It is thus possible either to feed the browse quality very quickly over a broadcast link, or remotely control the XDCam and return the browse video over a 1.5Mbs link. You then only need to send the shots you need (or the conformed edit) at a high quality (possibly via non-real time low data rate cheap links, and compressed via MPEG2 to about 8Mbs on-site)
noggin
Founding member
Asa posted:
That's a very interesting read. Thanks noggin. Would there be any likelihood of redundancies? I'd guess you wouldn't need
every
single person working on the Maidstone programme to be relocated/replaced in Southampton as some of the existing Southampton staff could take on the work?
As to the Split Remote, I'd have thought that would already be in use? Isn't it the same as sending low quality video over the internet, editing it on the remote machine using appropriate software and simply sending back the edit points (i.e. timings) which are then acted upon automatically by the kit where the event is taking place? (If I had broadband at home I'd like to have my PC check to see if I've given it any instructions from uni, say to load up the capture card, automatically record a particular sequence, and then send over the file via FTP - I'm sure it's possible. Then again, I'd like to ring up my VCR and get it to tape something immediately while I'm away... )
As to the Split Remote, I'd have thought that would already be in use? Isn't it the same as sending low quality video over the internet, editing it on the remote machine using appropriate software and simply sending back the edit points (i.e. timings) which are then acted upon automatically by the kit where the event is taking place? (If I had broadband at home I'd like to have my PC check to see if I've given it any instructions from uni, say to load up the capture card, automatically record a particular sequence, and then send over the file via FTP - I'm sure it's possible. Then again, I'd like to ring up my VCR and get it to tape something immediately while I'm away...
)
I would imagine that there are undoubtedly "savings" which is often management-speak for redundancies, early retirement, not replacing staff who leave etc. You require fewer graphics, editing, maintenance etc. staff, and could possibly close canteens, reduce the numbers of cleaners, security guards, receptionists etc. The savings are made in the infrastructure of the studio production, and resources.
You'd probably need the same number of location reporters, camera crews in the field etc. However such radical changes to the studio operation may also be used as a way of introducing more multi-skilling in the field - meaning reporters also shooting stuff themselves, or camera crews also editing.
Split Remote as a concept has been fiddled with for a while in broadcasting - but never really operated operationally on a split-site basis. Offlining on the same site as the on-line is quite common, as it is easy to ensure databases are in sync etc, but putting them on opposite sides of the planet is a bit more radical. What Quantel seem to be doing is running servers on both sites, and getting them to intelligently talk to each other so that browse material is shared, but broadcast material only sent when the edit is finalised.
Sony are also proposing a similar thing with their new optical disc (similar to BluRay) XDCam format - which records DV at 25Mbs or IMX MPEG2 at 50Mbs, whilst also recording browse quality MPEG4 at 1.5Mbs at the same time. It is thus possible either to feed the browse quality very quickly over a broadcast link, or remotely control the XDCam and return the browse video over a 1.5Mbs link. You then only need to send the shots you need (or the conformed edit) at a high quality (possibly via non-real time low data rate cheap links, and compressed via MPEG2 to about 8Mbs on-site)
NG
But even though the programme comes from out of the area, you will always need reporters, newsgathering and camera crews in that locality - that's what makes a local news programe local - not where the presenter is sitting
Yep - as Anglia and BBC Oxford have been demonstrating for a while! Most viewers would never consider that Anglia West came from outside the region. The only real limiting factor at being based outside the patch is that it makes it difficult to interview guests on-set (as most guests are likely to be in the region and won't want to travel from Luton to Norwich, or Folkestone to somewhere in Hampshire, for a studio interview)
In BBC speak it partially goes against the grain of being based in the community you broadcast to - though a network of bureaux across the region means this isn't always the case.
noggin
Founding member
Larry Scutta posted:
Asa posted:
Under the smokescreen of the merger and the promise of wizz-bang technology, this announcement has been made. "But we always remain committed to three separate news programmes." - bit harder to do when you're not as local as you once was. I'm not surprised those working at Maidstone are up in arms.
But even though the programme comes from out of the area, you will always need reporters, newsgathering and camera crews in that locality - that's what makes a local news programe local - not where the presenter is sitting
Yep - as Anglia and BBC Oxford have been demonstrating for a while! Most viewers would never consider that Anglia West came from outside the region. The only real limiting factor at being based outside the patch is that it makes it difficult to interview guests on-set (as most guests are likely to be in the region and won't want to travel from Luton to Norwich, or Folkestone to somewhere in Hampshire, for a studio interview)
In BBC speak it partially goes against the grain of being based in the community you broadcast to - though a network of bureaux across the region means this isn't always the case.
:-(
A former member
Can someone just confirm what I think is the CURRENT situation at Meridian News.
Southampton is home to Meridian South and Meridian West...
Newbury is home to Meridian South-East....
So Newbury would close down and join West and South's studios at the Meridian Studios in Southampton.
Southampton is home to Meridian South and Meridian West...
Newbury is home to Meridian South-East....
So Newbury would close down and join West and South's studios at the Meridian Studios in Southampton.
:-(
Yes, with a small newsroom in Newbury for the West service
Newbury is home to Meridian South-East....
No, New Hythe in Kent is home to Meridian East..... Newbury is in Berkshire
So Newbury would close down and join West and South's studios at the Meridian Studios in Southampton.
No, Maidstone would close down (probably be slimmed down into a small news room) and the programme would come from Southampton (or a new Meridian HQ just outside)
A former member
Quantel Leap posted:
Can someone just confirm what I think is the CURRENT situation at Meridian News.
Southampton is home to Meridian South and Meridian West...
Southampton is home to Meridian South and Meridian West...
Yes, with a small newsroom in Newbury for the West service
Quote:
Newbury is home to Meridian South-East....
No, New Hythe in Kent is home to Meridian East..... Newbury is in Berkshire
Quote:
So Newbury would close down and join West and South's studios at the Meridian Studios in Southampton.
No, Maidstone would close down (probably be slimmed down into a small news room) and the programme would come from Southampton (or a new Meridian HQ just outside)
NG
No.
Meridian Newbury was closed last year or this, and both the Southampton (South) and Newbury (North or West?) come from separate studios in Southampton.
Meridian South East (from New Hythe) is still separate and based in the SE region in studio terms.
The proposal is to shut the SE studio operation and move the existing two Southampton based studios to a new studio centre in Hampshire that would co-site all three services.
This, reading between the lines, would also allow them to shut the Southampton centre at Northam, leaving them with a tin-shed on an industrial estate doing the local news, and not much else. (The So'ton studio complex is large, expensive to run, and seldom used for anything but local news, the odd Question Time for the BBC and It'll Be Alright On The Night links... Granada have large production studios in Southampton, London, Norwich, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle etc. They can't be using them all to capacity...)
noggin
Founding member
Quantel Leap posted:
Can someone just confirm what I think is the CURRENT situation at Meridian News.
Southampton is home to Meridian South and Meridian West...
Newbury is home to Meridian South-East....
So Newbury would close down and join West and South's studios at the Meridian Studios in Southampton.
Southampton is home to Meridian South and Meridian West...
Newbury is home to Meridian South-East....
So Newbury would close down and join West and South's studios at the Meridian Studios in Southampton.
No.
Meridian Newbury was closed last year or this, and both the Southampton (South) and Newbury (North or West?) come from separate studios in Southampton.
Meridian South East (from New Hythe) is still separate and based in the SE region in studio terms.
The proposal is to shut the SE studio operation and move the existing two Southampton based studios to a new studio centre in Hampshire that would co-site all three services.
This, reading between the lines, would also allow them to shut the Southampton centre at Northam, leaving them with a tin-shed on an industrial estate doing the local news, and not much else. (The So'ton studio complex is large, expensive to run, and seldom used for anything but local news, the odd Question Time for the BBC and It'll Be Alright On The Night links... Granada have large production studios in Southampton, London, Norwich, Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle etc. They can't be using them all to capacity...)