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TV Centre gains a 4th HD Studio (temporarily)

(July 2009)

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NW
nwtv2003
JCB posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
An interesting development. Two thoughts though:

1) What will HD bring to the Eggheads format?


What will HD bring to X Factor? Does HD really benefit anything but Drama and Nature programing?. I don't really see the point in HD Karaoke myself.


Wait until you see a Football match on Sky Sports HD/BBC HD/ITV HD, the quality is stunning, same with Films, although I don't have Sky HD, I have invested in Blu-Ray and it is worth every penny.

Although I do agree with you it's a tad pointless to have Eggheads in HD, but the same could be said for 16:9 format in general, is there any need for News programmes to be in that format etc etc, I could go on, but it's just that times change and technology improves, I'm sure in a few years there'll be a few more gameshows in HD.

I think Who Wants to be a Millionnaire would look great in HD.
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
nwtv2003 posted:
I think Who Wants to be a Millionnaire would look great in HD.


Do you? I've met Chris Tarrant. He's got pores so deep you could serve guacamole in them.

SD is just fine, as far as I'm concerned.
MS
Mr-Stabby
Gavin Scott posted:
nwtv2003 posted:
I think Who Wants to be a Millionnaire would look great in HD.


Do you? I've met Chris Tarrant. He's got pores deep enough you could serve guacamole in.

SD is just fine, as far as I'm concerned.


I was eating my lunch when you said that Crying or Very sad

As much as I agree that Chris Tarrant is probably not the most HD friendly person you'd ever meet, the Millionaire set would look great in HD.
GS
Gavin Scott Founding member
Mr-Stabby posted:
As much as I agree that Chris Tarrant is probably not the most HD friendly person you'd ever meet, the Millionaire set would look great in HD.


It's remarkably unimpressive in real life. The part that Chris and the contestant sit on is a glass floor. Underneath is made up of pieces of broken mirror, so on screen it looks like it has lots of depth. Less so when you're standing on it.

I guess like most sets it would need rebuilding to work in HD.
Last edited by Gavin Scott on 25 July 2009 3:50pm
NG
noggin Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
An interesting development. Two thoughts though:

1) What will HD bring to the Eggheads format?



What it brings to any show - improved picture quality.

Moving from SD to HD is like moving from 4:3 to 16:9 or from B&W to Colour. Initially you think that the "new" system is for flagship shows - but eventually, and pretty quickly, it becomes the norm.

The other argument for switching studio shows is that they are cost-effective to make in HD - much more so than switching drama to HD for instance.

Quote:

2) Why are they not permanently equipping TC3? As the studio which traditionally has been used for music performances (because of its accoustic properties) would a lot of the programmes which are produced there not benefit from HD?


I didn't think TC3 had any better acoustic qualities than the other studios - I think at one point it had the most music-friendly sound desk though - so music shows had latterly made it their home.

However the HD studios now have new sound desks (5.1 capable I believe) - so there is less of a requirement to upgrade TC3 for HD. (In fact I suspect it is still a stereo area - as I doubt Egg Heads is 5.1)
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Just checked my source on this... http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/tv%20centre%20history.htm#stage%203

Quote:
Of the larger two original studios, TC3 was earmarked as a drama studio and TC4 for light entertainment. The difference was in the acoustic treatment of the walls - TC3 had a shorter reverberation period so was more suited to speech. I have to say that I have never been aware of this - having worked on many occasions in both studios so possibly any acoustic difference was altered in later years. (Both studios now in any case have new acoustic wall panels following the removal of asbestos - TC4 in 1988 and TC3 in 2007.) Anyway, during the early years at least, TC3 was the preferred studio for drama.
NG
noggin Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Just checked my source on this... http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/tv%20centre%20history.htm#stage%203

Quote:
Of the larger two original studios, TC3 was earmarked as a drama studio and TC4 for light entertainment. The difference was in the acoustic treatment of the walls - TC3 had a shorter reverberation period so was more suited to speech. I have to say that I have never been aware of this - having worked on many occasions in both studios so possibly any acoustic difference was altered in later years. (Both studios now in any case have new acoustic wall panels following the removal of asbestos - TC4 in 1988 and TC3 in 2007.) Anyway, during the early years at least, TC3 was the preferred studio for drama.


Yep - I think that means there isn't really any major difference between the studios these days. When TVC was first built they may have treated different studios differently - but I think these days they are all deemed general purpose.

The days of huge amounts of studio drama coming out of TVC are long gone - probably sit com is the only real scripted "drama" to be still shot multicamera in general purpose studios. Soaps are shot multi-camera (or single camera) in specialised areas these days, and a lot of drama is now shot on location or on film-style sound-stages.

Studios are mainly the province of quiz/game/panel shows, entertainment shows and music shows, along with news, sport and magazine show presentation.

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