Regional Pres Desks

Or W.H. Smiths...

Oh jeez, that reminds me of a sad-case 11 year old self creating a "mock" of a VT clock on my ZX Spectrum (in assembler, no less) and attaching it to the front of my camcorder efforts

Very poor indeed. I'd be the one making crap mocks and putting them on Youtube if I were a kid now

Ditto but it was an acorn electron with an old tube camera. The ghostly afterglow of each number made it unreadable.

Resurrecting this thread, a video has been posted on YouTube from the fascinating unhban's channel showing the last regional closedown sequence from Manchester which was from the old Studio P, a self-op pres studio in the Old Broadcasting House in Piccadilly, above what is now the back entrance to Primark.

http://www.youtube.com/user/unhban#p/a/u/2/91INexy73YQ







Their pres desk looks to be a lot more similar to the NC1 Con (Broomcupboard) desk which I recall reading retained the unconventional sound desk style faders because they were easier to use in a self-op situation.


(from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrYfoemnErs)

I guess this style of desk was replaced by the style seen in the pics from Pebble Mill because it would have to be a bespoke build for the BBC rather than off the shelf?

What a fantastic clip, and shows the sort of ITV'esque relationship John Munday had with the audience.

That user has some utterly fascinating clips on his channel. I'd recommend the Nationwide rehearsal and insert - you see Manchester setting up for an item on Worm Charming, but also Wilf Lunn in Leeds with his latest insane invention - a seagull scarer. Because in those days (and until quite recently) Leeds was routed to London through Manchester, Nationwide could only see Leeds when Manchester were free to route it on to them. I think it's also why Nationwide go Manchester, Southampton then Leeds to allow Manchester to clear their insert and switch to Leeds. You can hear the Manchester director and the Nationwide director in Studio-E (Lime Grove) quite clearly on the soundtrack.

http://www.youtube.com/user/unhban#p/a/u/0/L5aZI3iBL5o

By the way - you hear the Manchester director talk about the 'Mandala' a fair amount - this was the NW logo keyed onto regional inserts into the national programme. A 'dog' in modern terminology. I think the Mandala was the orange/yellow circular NW logo...

Wasn't it an LO-BM-MR chain?

Here's a question.

Who goes via who?

I guess the BBC Local Radio Station insert studios go via the nearest regional TV centre, eg Brighton, when used on the NC, goes via Tunbridge Wells, then onto London?

It was this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Nationwide_mandala.jpg

I think things are very different now as they've moved to an IP based network but traditionally, yes that's essentially how it worked

There were contribution lines between the centres for example London-Norwich, London-Southampton, London to Bristol, London to Manchester, and London to Birmingham. Normally there would be 1 in each direction, sometimes 2

So to book a line from, say, Truro to London you'd have to book Truro-> Plymouth -> Bristol -> London.

I remember having problems booking lines to Southampton to London during party conference times because they were all booked for OBs from Bournemouth which were all routed via Southampton

How did Glasgow, Newcastle & Belfast work? All via Manchester like Leeds?