Indeed - The Music Studio (TMS) was a terrific recording space with a very impressive sound desk - I understand one of only two of its type in the country. After it was closed, Presentation used it for a while to voice and version trails. This was because the Auxiliary Mixing Area where this had been done previously, was in the area where the old manual Network Presentation Control rooms were.
Yes, it was in a little room next to the actual studio, opposite the florist(!). I went into there a couple of times, it was a dreadful hole.
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Pres then moved trails versioning into two new suites in the basement called the VCA (Versioning and Captioning Area !) and the old Music Studio became the virtual reality studio TC0 (making the last series of Record Breakers among a few other things). AIUI what was the Music Studio itself is now used as a four-waller for CBeebies and the old control rooms and voiceover booth was used for Nelly Nut.
It was used for programmes for UK Play for a bit. Most notably for The Chris Moyles Show:
tell me i'm asking a silly question but what does the term four waller mean
I'd guess a
four waller
is referring to a broom-cupboard style room, which has no windows and is just a boxy room for a specfic purpose.
It's a studio that isn't used with a gallery but with standalone cameras as might be used on location. Drama uses this technique on occasion, The Bill and Doctors being examples.
A Question of Sport has moved to the London Studios for the time being, what with the asbestos situation in Manchester. The live final of Stars in Their Eyes will now also be filmed at the London Studios.
wonder if the coronation street set has asbestos in it, were they still using asbestos in 1982?
No, only the Street's exterior was built in 1982, but it has seen several modifications to it, the most obvious being the right hand side of the Street being demolished and rebuilt in 1989 until 1990.
The interior set is rather different, the Street is filmed in a seperate building on the Quay Street premises, which was built in the early 1990's, long after the use of Asbestos was used in Buildings, which was more common to those that were built during the 1950's and 1960's.
Plus if the Street had been affected there would be more uproar about it from ITV and the general Press, all of the other shows can easily be produced elsewhere, where as the Street has to be produced in Manchester. It would be like saying the same thing with Emmerdale and that Yorkshire would have to switch Production to Manchester, it wouldn't work.
thanks for that steve, i wasn't sure when asbestos was banned as a building substance, i remember my high school woodwork room being shut down when they discovered all the workbenches has asbestos tops and that was in the early 80's
be interesting to see if the new building work at granada will allow space for the street set to expand, it sometimes uses the old entrance to the studio tours, the last time being davenports garage, i heared somewhere that this area used to be where the first street set was built
thanks for that steve, i wasn't sure when asbestos was banned as a building substance, i remember my high school woodwork room being shut down when they discovered all the workbenches has asbestos tops and that was in the early 80's
Sorry to continue the asbestos tangent, but what are those heat proof mats that they have in schools to put under bunsen burners? Aren't they asbestos?
thanks for that steve, i wasn't sure when asbestos was banned as a building substance, i remember my high school woodwork room being shut down when they discovered all the workbenches has asbestos tops and that was in the early 80's
Sorry to continue the asbestos tangent, but what are those heat proof mats that they have in schools to put under bunsen burners? Aren't they asbestos?
They are; but there is a more significant risk of particles becoming airborne when you use non-friable asbestos on a work-bench than if you use it on a laboratory heat mat. Consequently the latter is acceptable, while the former is not.
thanks for that steve, i wasn't sure when asbestos was banned as a building substance, i remember my high school woodwork room being shut down when they discovered all the workbenches has asbestos tops and that was in the early 80's
be interesting to see if the new building work at granada will allow space for the street set to expand, it sometimes uses the old entrance to the studio tours, the last time being davenports garage, i heared somewhere that this area used to be where the first street set was built
Thats right - the original outside set from 1968-1982 was situated the other side of the huge warehouse building to where the current set is.
N3 was a very small CSO studio I think and was last used as far as I can remember for See Hear Breakfast News - a slot at 7.15am on BBC2. They basically took the first quarter-hour of Breakfast News (rememnber that in those days 0600-0700 was "Business Breakfast"), recorded it, found a suitable out point and then signed it live, broadcasting it on BBC2 before the CBBC Breakfast Club. This will have been in 1997 I reckon. What happened to N3 after that, I'm not sure.
Yep - N3 was used for signing, and was also the home to the first incarnation of Working Lunch - which was entirely chromakeyed using a small, standard blue BBC desk,. which was there as a backup for N1 and N2? In the 80s, N3's gallery was sometimes used to do complicated sequences that couldn't be done just using N1 or N2's vision gear I believe. (The "flying fish fingers" 9 O'Clock News headlines?)
N3 was also used, minus the backwall, as the "acquarium" studio for the post-flying fish fingers 9 O'Clock News and daytime summaries I believe. It no longer exists.
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There was never an N4 - someone once explained to me why but Icannot remember what the reason was.
I think N4 was used to refer to the BBC Club... (Just like VT8 referred to The Flying Pig in Cambridge)
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You're right in that there'sno N7 to avoid confusion with TC7.
N5 was originally the studio for the World Service Television Arabic news channel which closed in 1996. It wasn't terribly big but was later subdivided and made even smaller. It was most recently used for "Talking Point" on BBC World and BBC World Service, though it's now closed.
Yep - originally there was an N5 gallery and an N5 studio. The gallery and studio were closed in the mid 90s when WSTV Arabic failed. The studio floor re-opened as a production area for BBCi web stuff (and also Talking Point - and even the odd Hardtalk etc.) but this was done by reducing the size of the studio floor and building a small gallery in the space freed up. It was not a great success as a TV production area - the gallery was very limited in some ways, and not designed well for conventional TV operation.
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And finally, yes, News 24 originally launched from N9, which is now the BBC World studio. This was because the News Centre (Stage VI)hadn't been fully completed at the time. Domestic News still came from N2 and BBC World was still coming from N1.
However at this point News 24's studio and gallery were simply referred to as News 24 internally. N9 only really began being used when News 24 moved into the News centre.