Talk:Television Centre, London

TVC as output source

'Most BBC national and international TV output comes from Television Centre' - this is surely not true these days, since channel playout has been done from Red Bee up the road for several years now, and only a minority of programmes come from studios within TVC. -SP

I seriously doubted this assertion when first I came across it some months ago, but supposed that whoever had put it there knew what they were talking about. Can someone in a position to confirm or refute please do so, or do we have to ring the press office? Wingspeed (talk) 13:50, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Only two years later I've edited it to more closely reflect reality although there is room for improvement, mentioned and cited is something about broadcast stopping from TVC in 2013, in actually stopped with the commission of the broadcast centre in 2005. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kejoxen (talk • contribs) 12:25, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Shape etc

The building design (from the air) was inspired by the shape of a question mark drawn on a piee of paper. The curved part of the '?' allowed studios to be built at exactly equal distances from the CAR (Central Apparatus Room) before broadcast. These days, thanks to digital signals, exactly identical distances are no longer required, as signals can easily be delayed by fractions of a second in order to achieve good 'mixes'.

Previous comment by User:195.10.45.154 -- please sign with 4 squiggles.

Not sure about that, CAR is behind trhe south hall lifts on the 2nd or 3rd floor, not under the fountain. Any reference? I was told the design of the site (allegedly done on the back of an envelope with the questionmark thing) was to allow heavy lorries to get to every studio, yet have maximum space for studios and other offices. 80.175.189.41 15:06, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Methinks that it's one of several reasons - CAR was roughly mid-point meaning that as each studio needed to be connected to it by equal length cable runs (for timing purposes) you only needed to coil up the spare cable under the floor for the closer studios! If it had been at one end of the chain, then you would have had to "lose" lots more cable somewhere - that's how I understood it anyway. I've also aded a link in the "power cuts" section to the most famous power cut of all - BBC 2 opening night. Zir 23:18, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Nevertheless, this speculation was added by an anonymous user in August 2021. I have removed it. PBUK (talk) 12:55, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

I have removed the statement that the power cut, causing the Today programme to drop off the air, lead to an alert among Britain's nuclear submarines. I think this is sensationalist. A few arguments:

1. The story that a sure sign of nuclear attack is the absence of Radio 4's Today states that it must be several days, not 15 minutes.
2. The story itself is the assertion of one man only and not widely accepted.
3. Sources of this report, e.g. [1] do not seem to have the true facts regarding the operation of the UK's nuclear deterrent straight, so the accuracy of the entire story could be questioned.
4. Regarding the story itself, I doubt that this is the only way a nuke sub. commander can determine if the country is under attack. An ICBM will give a warning of at least three or four minutes, more than enough time for an alert to be broadcast to the submarine on patrol.
5. Again, it is sensationalist.

There must be room for Roy Castle tap-dancing round the fountain (and breaking a world record) in this article. Jooler 18:52, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The submarines (allegedly) monitor 198Khz Longwave for a carrier, not a specific show. The carrier did not fall silent. Any extrapolation of this to "must listen to a certain show" is completely untrue, and its not like most of the UKs submarines anywhere within range of getting Radio 4 on longwave in the first place (it gets flaky on the Irish west coast, let alone Iraq...) --Kiand 17:10, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

It's a funny story though, and amazing that a newspaper would even accept it. So, sub commanders on the other side of the world would listen to Today. How? And if Today goes silent for several days, they can decide to strike at "the enemy" on their own? Which enemy? Would they know? Also, from what I've read, UK nuclear weapons are under the control of the US, i.e. not even if Tony would want to, could he use them without Dubya's consent. Now that's scary... Thomas Blomberg 19:08, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm not going to enter into that kind of discussion or we'll be here all night ;)

But commanders the other side of the world, or even the other side of the med, won't get Radio 4 anyway. Unless they surface and shove up a Worldspace antenna, and I'm not even sure its on Worldspace anymore... Additionally, whats to stop "the enemy" from taking over the 198 transmitter and using "voice doubles" or even the real presenters bribed/forced/whatever... its a nice story and I'm sure it'd have worked in WWII when the subs didn't go too far from home and the BBC had their vaguely insane anti-jamming transmission system, bunker studios, etc, etc. But they don't now; they have a single LW transmitter on 198.

See Letters of last resort. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.29.18.220 (talk) 16:03, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

TC1 "largest television studio in Europe"

Studio 1 is big, but even when it opened in 1964 it was smaller than Rediffusion's studio 5 at Wembley. MMC's studio complex at Cologne has seven studios with usable floor areas larger than the usable 810 m² of TC1, including three studios twice the size, and one even larger with a usable floor area of 2118 m² (studio 30/31). [2]

Changing the claim to read "second largest television studio in Britain". -- Jheald 16:28, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Removal of recent event picture

You say you have had admin clarification, please can you actually post it here please, otherwise I'll assume you're just pushing your own POV.  BRIANTIST  (talk) 14:55, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

No problem, look here. _TheIslander 15:58, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Evolution or Revolution

Think that I prefer the former - so no scrapping please or I'll take my ball home (BBC_Television_centre.JPG that is) seriously tho'....

One or two errors have crept in:

"foundation stone marked 'BBC 1956'.... which commemorates the start of construction" - it doesn't, see [3] as it's under the stairwell and clock in the doughnut - and Stages 1 & 2 were built well before this time.

"concrete doughnut" might just be a Woganism - certainly he popularised the term - you don't hear staff using it.

"at the time of its design (TVC) signal phase was integral to colour images" - excuse me but telly was black and white until the late 1960s - this building was conceived in the late forties - colour didn't enter the design process.

"Recently Television Centre has been home to many programmes not made for the BBC, etc..." - this is just becoming scrappy!

Could go on but I'll stop there as I'm beginning to sound like Mr. Angry! Grrrrr Zir 17:08, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Certainly agree with the last two points you make, Zir, so have removed the offending text. I seriously don't know how I ignored the colour TV contribs - should have noticed the obvious flaw in that logic, and as for the last statement, though the relevant text is correct (ish - I'm fairly sure that the BBC have hired out TVC studios for ages, not just recently), it was very poorly worded. _TheIslander 20:14, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, when John Birt (pah!) created BBC Resources in 1998 the general idea was to hire out facilities to the tv industry.

I've tweaked the "BBC 1956" to read better (or just different) and ref-ed it Zir 00:22, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Use of the term 'filmed'

I've just replaced the use of the term 'filmed' with 'recorded or transmitted' in the studios section, since this is more accurate - extremely rarely where any productions filmed (ie using a film camera) at Television Centre - they were normally either recorded (eg onto videotape), or transmitted live, both using multiple video cameras. Tonys (talk) 16:34, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Why was it abandoned??? Copyedit (minor)

Was it because, after 50 years, the building had become obsolete??? Did the BBC move to a smaller facility and it was more cost effective??? Why???User:JCHeverly 21:16, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

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Trimmed the lead; material may need review

The lead was way too big, so I've summarized and removed the below material.

It looks like most of this is already covered in the "Development" section, but someone may want to review if there are parts worth re-integrating into the body of the article. (Taking this much out didn't break any refs, so there may be unique refs that should be restored.)

==
It was announced on 21 September 2010 that the BBC would cease broadcasting from Television Centre in 2013. On 13 June 2011 the BBC announced that Television Centre was on the market, and that it was "inviting bid proposals from people looking for a conventional, freehold property or those interested in a joint venture", suggesting that it may yet remain connected to the BBC.

In July 2012 it was announced that the complex had been sold to property developers Stanhope plc for around £200 million and that the BBC would retain a continued presence at Television Centre through its commercial subsidiaries BBC Studios and Post Production (BBC Studioworks since 2016) and BBC Worldwide. BBC Studios and Post Production (relocated to Elstree Studios) was due to move back to Television Centre to operate Studio 1, 2 and 3 in 2015, but it was announced in July 2014 that it had agreed with the developers, Stanhope, to move back in 2017, at the same time as other key tenants, to enable the most efficient overall site construction programme to take place. BBC Worldwide moved into office space in the Stage 6 building following extensive refurbishment in 2015.

The radio and television news departments moved to Broadcasting House in central London, the home of BBC Radio, as part of a reorganisation. BBC News moved to new facilities in Broadcasting House on 18 March 2013, but TVC remained in active use with many programmes being taped in the studios until it closed for redevelopment officially on 31 March 2013. BBC TVC was one of the largest such facilities in the world and was the second-oldest operational television studio in the United Kingdom, after Granada Studios where Granada Television was based for many decades.

Stanhope said in April 2014 that the new Television Centre development would "pay homage to the original use of the building" and retain original features of the buildings including the "doughnut", atomic dot wall and Helios statue. The new Television Centre will be opened up to the public and will offer entertainment and leisure facilities, including a new branch of members' club Soho House, offices aimed at the creative sector and approximately 1,000 new homes, together with pedestrian access through the site providing connectivity with the local area, including Hammersmith Park. The refurbished Studios 1, 2 and 3 reopened in September 2017 and, since the closure of ITV's London Studios, have been the studio base for Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women.

--NapoliRoma (talk) 10:25, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

Move to consolidate

Hi all, I'm proposing the redevelopment section of the article is moved and merged with the history section, as it is currently somewhat unhelpful to have the recent history of the building at the opposite end to the modern history with loads of technical information in between. Tvcameraop (talk) 13:24, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

I suppot the proposed change. Senator2029 “Talk” 23:13, 28 July 2020 (UTC)

Senator2029, thanks for the agreement. I've now gone ahead and merged with the history section, alongside additional changes such as consolidation of the external links (some into the body of the article). Tvcameraop (talk) 11:08, 3 August 2020 (UTC)