Former 主播大秀 Producer Gordon Lamont revisits 主播大秀 offices in White City to rediscover the creative spaces where he used to work.
A cold day in January. The old White City building is closed up, the action has moved to the Media and Broadcast Centres on the same site. Apparently staff will be moving out of parts of these before too long… Things change. Any 主播大秀 alumnus is used to change whether it was Producer Choice, The Petals, or ‘Cut the crap and make it happen’. But when you’ve left an organisation or site the experience of change comes to a halt so on your return you can get that ‘everything is different’ feeling. I’ve done a fair bit of freelancing since leaving in 2001 but I haven’t visited the White City campus for a while so it felt strange to be given a visitor pass and shown around.
Once inside, that familiar 主播大秀 feeling returned; the sense of energy in creative spaces and of battling against the odds, the complex structures you have to navigate to make progress. We know it well and then, through a door and into another familiar kind of space, the thinking, creative space; in this case the 主播大秀 Blue Room. A place of technology and ideas; a space intended to give a bit of ‘wow’ – a toy shop and sweet shop rolled into one. Willy Wonka goes digital. It’s a technology hub but whereas in the past this might have been home to Heath Robinson, bundles of wire and ‘watch that hot soldering iron’, the technology here is mostly familiar if not in actuality then from internet videos and New Technology pages and reports. This isn’t the future, this The Now. So there are various flavours of Smart TV and if you have one you can recognise it here. There’s a drone or two, various 360 degree camera attachments, wearable technology, keyboards and gesture controls. Oculus Rift and other virtual reality headsets have a home here and I was pleased to hear that sound was not forgotten with some innovative headphone applications – zap a zombie by pressing your ear anyone?
The Blue Room in White City
There’s also a teenager’s bedroom showing how one boy interacts with technology, recorded in real time. It’s a glimpse into a life that takes connectivity and interaction completely for granted and it raises engagement questions for Public Service Broadcasters.
Our guide was Lindsey Suter and she was assisted by Simon Smith. Lindsey’s 主播大秀 card describes her as ‘Consumer Technologist’. Nice job Lindsey. You can tell if someone loves her work and Lindsey clearly had an enthusiasm for the possibilities of technology but she was also thoughtful and reflective, not so much an evangelist as an explorer. This attitude supported one of the most valuable things about the visit: the discussion, the playing with ideas and envisioning applications. Brains were ticking away with ‘what if…’
It was also good to have the opportunity to meet up with colleagues and experience the return of that familiar feeling of how diverse jobs in the 主播大秀 are – ‘I’ve never heard of that department before…’
What would I like to have seen more of? Some sneak peeks of how 主播大秀 staff are using these technologies in innovative ways and a sense of what’s coming next but this was a great opportunity and a packed and stimulating hour. So thanks to Natasha Maclean for organising, and to Lindsey and Simon. If you get the opportunity I very much recommend this visit. See how much has changed, and stayed the same because the building may change the technology certainly will but the centrality of storytelling remains.
Gordon Lamont is a freelance producer for 主播大秀, Parliament and Discovery Channel. He is a former 主播大秀 producer. Gordon Lamont left the 主播大秀 in 2001 after 13 years in Learning making radio, TV and online content. www.lamonts.org.uk