BBC Studios upgrades a third studio to HD

April 2008: BBC Studios, part of Resources Ltd, is upgrading a third studio to HD, to support its entertainment production customers. Following the successful upgrade of Studio One and Studio Eight to high definition, it is investing nearly 2 million pounds in HD cameras, lenses, vision and monitoring equipment for Studio Four.

With an increasing demand for HD content, both for transmission and archive purposes, the investment will ensure BBC Studios continues to fulfil the requirements of its customers, whose creative and editorial visions are increasingly in HD. It will also help the BBC achieve its HD aspirations, with all production intended to be HD by 2012.

Studio Four comprises 8,000 square feet and is home to ITV’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show, A Question of Sport and the award winning Jonathan Ross Show. BBC Studios is installing a Sony MVS-8000 series vision mixer and 8 Sony HDC-1500 cameras, as successfully used in Studios One and Eight. It is also replacing Studio Four’s gallery and lighting gallery monitor stacks and laying new HD fibre links to the central control area. The upgrade is intended to be complete before autumn 2008.

Richard Philipps, Director BBC Studios, says: “Our customers’ creative and editorial visions are increasingly in HD and Dolby 5.1, so with a third studio upgrading to HD, we can now offer an unrivalled choice of full specification HD studio facilities equipped with the very latest in sound and vision digital technology.”

BBC Studios has supported over 100 series in the last 12 months for a wide range of customers from the independent, corporate and broadcast sectors. It has delivered a raft of HD programmes from its new Studio One and Studio Eight facilities, including Strictly Come Dancing, Any Dream Will Do, That Mitchell & Webb Look and After You’ve Gone. Studio Eight was also the ‘World Hub’ for the HD Live Earth concerts in July 2007, which involved receiving up to six simultaneous HD concerts, editing these on locally installed LSM’s and providing a complete transmission for 16 hours in both 1080/50i, 1080/60i and 625/50i.

HD investment in BBC Studios began in 2005 and has also included upgrades to the studio infrastructure, audio, talkback and comms. Accommodating the time needed for the conversion has proved challenging but has been necessary to maintain customers’ expectations for both standard definition and the migration to high definition.

Tech Specification

The new Studio Four is designed to work in any of the current HD and SD formats, and can produce HD and SD simultaneously. It includes:

• Sony MVS-8000 Series 4ME switcher, with 3ME panel and 1ME second operator panel.
• 288x288 HD Pro-Bel router (1080 50p compatible)
• HD up /down conversion, embedding and glue products by Crystal Vision
• Pro-Bel fibre transmitters and receivers
• Slots for up to 12 HD VTR’s or LSM’s
• 8 new Sony HDC-1500 HD cameras, complete with 4 large lens cradles, new controls and colour CRT viewfinders (studio wired for up to 16 cameras)
• 4 new Fujinon AH27x6.5 HD studio box lenses, 2 Fujinon HA13 wide angle lenses, and 2 Fujinon HA16 lenses
• SMPTE compatible fibre, future proofing the camera installation for 1080 50p working.
• Fully assignable colour monitor stacks with HD monitoring
• Studer Vista 8 sound desk with full 5.1 mixing and monitoring.
• Dolby E encoding
  

BBC Studios is located at Television Centre in London and Elstree, the 18 studios support many of the UK’s favourite TV programmes. The studios, which are famed for being at the forefront of technical innovation, are equipped to the highest standard and staffed by crews with extensive experience. From the latest cameras with HD capability to the provision of ample space for prop storage and scenery, BBC Studios’ facilities enable maximum flexibility and swift set turnaround.

Georgie Hollett, PR and Communications Manager, BBC Resources
Tel: +44 (0)20 8576 2250
Mobile : +44 (0) 783484 5612
Email : georgie.hollett@bbc.co.uk