Trade Chat BBC Behind The Scene

@crustytv Ah, the legend that is Hoppo! (Martin Hopkins). I had the pleasure of working with him for many years, right up to his retirement on the Athens Olympics in 2004. Long retired, but still with us.

IIRC the studio stuff was actually at the Grove back then, with recording at TC.

If anyone's wondering what a "TJ" is, it's a slide (either a caption or even a still image) - the name deriving from TeleJector. And it stuck for years, long after they'd moved to solid-state.

A lot of BBC abbreviations here: http://tech-ops.co.uk/next/bbc-abbreviations/

Makes me feel old, a great piece of technical nostalgia. I recognise so much of the kit, was it really that long ago? Cintel & Prowest monitors, how many hours I've worked on them.

David.

I remember Visiting the BBC Television and Radio Transmitters at Holme Moss in the Early 1970's. What surprised me that in the Television Control Room, the only Colour Monitoring Device to Monitor BBC1 and BBC2 transmissions from Emley Moor nearby, Was a 25 Inch Dual Standard Decca CTV receiver. It seemed to me that with the exception of the Decca CTV receiver that no refurbishment of the Control room had taken place since the original installation back in 1951. However, a visit to the ITA/IBA transmitters at Winter Hill and Emley Moor around the same time had new Colour Control Rooms Installed in 1969 in preparation for the start of Colour Transmissions in the November of that Year were more modern and up to date.       

@lyons-denntlworld-com 

Would that not make sense, Holme Moss didn’t transmit either 625 line or colour. They would want to keep the 405 B/W equipment as long as possible.

Winter Hill and Emley Moor would need the newer equipment.

Yes Frank Absolutely, but from a technical and professional point of view, a refurb of the Holme Moss and other BBC transmission sites where only 405 line transmissions were provided, and Colour transmissions of all 3 services were transmitted from the nearby ITA/IBA transmission station to me should have had similar Colour Control Rooms to accommodate the specialised CTV monitoring equipment installed like the ITA removed link Maybe the BBC did not have sufficient funds to carry out the installation of such control rooms at the time.   

@lyons-denntlworld-com the BBC's studios can really be behind the times, the Jimi Hendrix at the BBC recordings mention that a lot of the engineers for his sessions were used to four track but the BBC just had single track mono tape recorders. 

Likewise, when I was interviewed at BBC Radio Newcastle in 2016 I was amazed that the studio still had (unused) record turntables and tape recorders. Yet the BBC Radio Tees studio was incredibly modern and high tech. A friend who started at the BBC in 1998 was still splicing audio tape with a razor blade until the mid 00s.

One bit of BBC jargon was Shibadening for Offline Editing, from the Shibaden made reel to reel video tape machines used in the process.

That was frightening to watch! Bit late coming to this. EMI 2001 Cameras, Ampex VR2000 video recorders, Cintel and Prowest Monitors. EMI vision mixer in the truck, the list goes on. That has made me somewhat ancient! I Started at Television Centre at the end of 1980. Did my BBC training then worked in Tele-Cine (TK) until moved to VT. That was the equipment we used. Rank Bush Murphy monitors where used in TK and VT had the newer Barco CTVM 2's. I jumped ship to ITV Thames Television and enjoyed my time much more there as I am an electronics engineer and that is what I was used for in Vision Maintenance at Euston. Moved to Sky and now battle with UHD HDR. Looking back at this you can do all this on your phone in much better quality. Never imagined that at the time depicted above.