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what's left at the local Studies

(September 2007)

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DE
deejay
noggin posted:
As others have mentioned - Meridian have a main newsroom and three studios for the three subregions all based in a tin-shed at Whiteley. Northam has shut, as has the old Meridian studio and newsroom at New Hythe.

Ironically the Meridian SouthEast Newsroom has moved back to occupy the space at Vintners Park in Maidstone that TVS News used to use as the newsroom for the South East edition of Coast To Coast (though with no major studio or production effort based there)

Not sure whether they've relocated in Newbury, and now that Central South is merged into this region, what has happened to Abingdon.


Newbury is now a solicitors office or something totally non-television based. Abingdon still exists as a newsgathering bureau and (I imagine) some editing capacity, but the old Central News South studio and gallery has AIUI been gutted and is now used for storage.
SO
Steven O
I read on another forum that Border now consists of one studio (for the news) and a remote-controlled camera. All the other studios at Eastern Way - and equipment - are all locked up, out of use.
SO
Steven O
deejay posted:
jrothwell97 posted:
I'm not sure, are Meridian's offices still open?


The broadcasting centre at Northam closed a couple of years ago and sadly remains boarded up and unused. Meridian moved to Whiteley to an industrial unit where there is a newsroom and three small news studios for each of their sub-regions. Don't know how much other office space they have.


The last programmes to be recorded there were an edition of It'll Be Alright on the Night and one of Denis Norden's Laughter Files.
SO
Steven O
623058 posted:
So does Carlisle have anything bar there newsroom?


No. The other studios are all out of use and locked up, along with equipment. All that remains in use there now is the news studio and a remote-controlled camera.
ST
stevek
noggin posted:
stevek posted:
there used to be an Anglia tv office in Northampton, no idea what was in there though


Anglia certainly had a number of regional bureaux with a journalist nominally based in each one. They had inject points back to Norwich, to allow material to be fed. Think initially this was track and rushes in the days Anglia used MII but they may have got laptop DV editors when they switched to a DV format (DVCPro or DVCam - can't remember) Think they had the facilities to do lives from the injects - but can't remember if they had a small studio with a basic backdrop and camera for this or used a crew.

They had a small studio and bureau in Cambridge City Centre for a while in the early 90s - but this closed - and I think the operation was relocated further out (in a larger space)


thanks for that, used to wonder what was in their Northampton office as a child
IS
Inspector Sands
Steven O posted:
I read on another forum that Border now consists of one studio (for the news) and a remote-controlled camera. All the other studios at Eastern Way - and equipment - are all locked up, out of use.


Hardly surprising, what was the last programme to use a studio at Border?

The Krankies or (possibly) The Time The Place
HR
Huddy Refreshed
noggin posted:
AIUI the ITV plc playout operations are now confined to Leeds and London, though UTV, SMG and Channel have their own operations in addition to these (not being part of ITV plc)

The major studio centres are Leeds (YTV), Manchester (Granada) and London (LWT / The London Studios) - these are where most ITV networked shows are made.

Most other ITV plc centres only operate studio for their local programme production commitments - either they've relocated to smaller premises suitable for just news programme production (Meridian, Tyne Tees), mothballed facilities, or in the case of split-centre operations, sold off some of their facilities and consolidated in one operation (Anglia). In some cases they didn't have anything more than they needed anyway (WestCountry) - as when they were awarded their franchise it didn't require a commitment to studio production for the network.

HTV West and HTV Wales are more interesting, as are the non-ITV plc companies.


Your quote about HTV is very incorrect - HTV is part of ITV plc.
ST
Stuart
Huddy Refreshed posted:
noggin posted:
HTV West and HTV Wales are more interesting, as are the non-ITV plc companies.

Your quote about HTV is very incorrect - HTV is part of ITV plc.

I think you need to re-read what noggin actually said. He didn't say that the former HTV Wales/West company was not part of ITV plc.
:-(
A former member
I think this all about the actual Name used for the Franchise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV#Franchise_Details
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Can't remember if it was Westcountry or Meridian but one of them has a non-standard set up for its sub-opts, which are put into circuit locally in a similar way to the BBC network rather than backhauling them to London or Leeds and back.
NG
noggin Founding member
Huddy Refreshed posted:
noggin posted:
HTV West and HTV Wales are more interesting, as are the non-ITV plc companies.


Your quote about HTV is very incorrect - HTV is part of ITV plc.


Err - I said HTV West and HTV Wales are more interesting, as are the non-ITV plc companies.

I didn't say that HTV West and HTV Wales WERE non-ITV plc companies, I know full well that the Bristol and Cardiff franchises are part of the ITV plc operation.

What I was saying is that they are a more interesting part of the operation in studio and premises terms than say, Westcountry or the current Meridian operation, as are UTV, Scottish/Grampian and Channel, for differing reasons.

(I've always had a soft spot for Channel - probably dates back to the days when TVS presentation used to have little "Not in the Channel Islands" or similar tag lines on some of their presentation material that was re-broadcast by Channel when their presentation operation, which used to blanket the TVS presentation material - received on their off-air feed - with their own Channel branded stuff, had closed down for the day?)
IS
Inspector Sands
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Can't remember if it was Westcountry or Meridian but one of them has a non-standard set up for its sub-opts, which are put into circuit locally in a similar way to the BBC network rather than backhauling them to London or Leeds and back.


It'll be Westcountry, which has 4 sub-opts (north, south, east and west) within its main programme.

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