A look inside the Broadcast Centre

It is often referred to as the Queen's Speech because that's what most people call it. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say 'Hey, the Queen's Christmas Message is coming on in 5 minutes'.

As for the question about whether other countries see the Queen's Speech, then the answer is yes, because BBC World broadcast it too, although not at the same time. Today, it was on at 16.30 GMT.

But wouldn't such a service be a courtesy to viewers? No-one knew when Cliffhanger and Digital Heads would pop up, look at the embarassment they caused.

Oh, and I've just had to restart the DVD recorder twice into Before They Were Famous.

So is that the Broadcast centre that controls all of the BBC TV main output or just BBC One?

Red Bee Media at the Broadcast Centre is responsible for the playout of BBC channels (though BBC presentation staff in the Nations retain editorial and technical control in their respective areas). Red Bee Media also play out all UKTV channels, ESPN European channels, BBC Worldwide channels, the Community Channel and will transmit all Flextech channels from next year.

I take it this is part of the sale of BBC Broadcast. Hence why it all moved out of TVC? or have i got my wires crossed?

Yes, Red Bee Media used to be BBC Broadcast, formerly BBC Broadcasting and Presentation (and previously to that just Presentation). Although they claimed at the time that moving services out of TVC was purely because opf the lack of space for the expansion of the business, it's hard not to smell a big rat.

On the first page of this thread, the scheduling system you see the screengrab of is the original system the Presentation Department comissioned way back in the late 80s/early 90s. It's original brief was not only to provide database functions of all the programmes and trails, but also to provide a scheduling and transmission automation system. The transmission control part wasn't ever reliable enough to be used (arguably it was way ahead of its time) and so transmission has always been handled by 'off the shelf' playout applications. However, the scheduling and databse components of the system are still very much in use for BBC1, BBC2, BBC3. BBC4, CBeebies and CBBC Channel.

ROTFL at the suggestion that the version of the software in use now is an "off-the-shelf" playout application!

The lack of any BBC branding anywhere in the Broadcast Centre was an obvious indication to everyone that BBC Broadcast was going to be sold off, even while management continued to deny it.

Take a walk along Wood Lane today and the most obvious branding on the buildings in the area is that of Tesco and Starbucks.

When do they alternate, though? Can't be yearly, as that would mean the 2003 speech would be ITN as well, and it wasn't (see http://pp.meldrum.co.uk/show.asp?id=7271 ). Every two years?

Pam Masters' first big white elephant. The amount she squandered on it, in the face of opposition from those who knew the BBC Pres operation better than she did (she'd recently arrived from Channel 4 and thought she knew it all) should have brought a halt to her rise in the BBC empire. Sadly it didn't.

Well yes ... none of the systems that have ever automated the transmission of the BBC channels have been unadulterated! They've all had to be butchered into doing the job.

To be fair, the Media Centre (a very similar building in the White City "media village") doesn't have a lot of branding either inside or outside it either. You could even argue that it was an architectural decision.

When the Red Bee name was announced, they went a little crazy with the branding, replacing all the mousemats and mugs in the building, and putting up tons of display stands with the new logo. Just in case you hadn't noticed on your way in.