Tag: Outside Broadcast

CM2

 

 

CM 2

Leigh Sinclair in CM2

Photos by Ben Peissell and Tim Savage, no reproduction without permission.

The lower photo shows VT Editor, Leigh Sinclair in CM2.

CM2 was an outside broadcast truck based at BBC Pebble Mill.  It normally had two cameras controlled from it, and was used to record programmes like ‘Gardeners’ World’, before portable single cameras became the norm in the mid 1980s.

Mike Bloore was a VT editor who worked on CM2:

‘There was no edit controller on CM2’s VTR’s. There was only a button to start both machines at the same time and trust to luck! On ‘Gardeners World’ we often did “roll back and mix” which involved playing back the last shot of the previously recorded sequence through the vision mixer allowing the vision mixer(the person) to mix through to the live camera of the next sequence to be shot while recording the whole event on the other VTR. This enabled mixes on location to be possible with only 2 VTR’s. Then someone invented pre-read but thats another story!’

Mike Bloore

Communications Centre – Brian Johnson

Photos copyright of Brian Johnson, taken in 1973.  Most of the photos are of the Comms Centre, with two probably being of Studio B Vision and Studio B Sound.

The Communications Centre was situated immediately above the Foyer with large windows facing on to Pebble Mill Road.

In brief it was the technical hub of the building and the liaison point with British Telecom, responsible for routing all the internal vision and sound circuits between the Studios, VTR, Telecine and the various external TV and Radio Networks.  BBC 1 and BBC 2 passed through the Communications Centre from London and were routed to our own regional transmitters and one to Manchester for further distribution northwards.

It was also a reception point for Radio and Television Outside Broadcasts via our own Radio Links or B.T. and for incoming contribution circuits from the North and East that were either required in Birmingham or routed through to Bristol or London.