Ever wondered how  works behind the scenes? 主播大秀 Studioworks provides full studio and post production services for the annual live fundraising extravaganza and facilitates multiple pre-recorded specials: find out more in this blog, first published on the .

主播大秀 Studioworks is providing studio facilities and full post production services from Elstree for the annual 主播大秀 Children in Need Appeal Show for the fifth consecutive year.

The annual charity fundraiser will transmit live from Studioworks’ 11,800 square foot Studio D today, Friday 17 November, in front of a studio audience of 500. Taking up presenting duties, Tess Daly, Graham Norton, Mel Giedroyc, Ade Adepitan and Rochelle and Marvin Humes will guide viewers through a night of dazzling entertainment and aim to raise millions of pounds for grants and projects in the UK which focus on disadvantaged children.

The night will feature an array of stars and show-stopping performances, including Katie Melua, The Vamps, Rita Ora and Craig Revel Horwood as Miss Hannigan from the West End musical Annie.

Setting the studio

Set assembly in Studio D began on Friday 10 November, as the colossal all-singing-all-dancing stage required 60 hours of building and technical rigging from Studioworks’ crew (watch a time-lapse film of the set up above). Controlled by six lighting desks, more than 170 pieces of lighting equipment have been fitted to illuminate the set and a ten camera set-up has been configured to capture all the action, including Sony 2500 and 1500 cameras, a Technocrane, a jib and hand-held cameras.

Studio D’s Sound Gallery will be the backbone of the Appeal Show’s audio set-up, with a Riedel intercoms system allowing for seamless backstage communication between the crew and a Studer mixing console will capture contributions from both presenter’s and guest’s microphones.

Pudsey Glitter Ball Trophy, EastEnders and the return of Anne Robinson

In addition to the live action in Studio D, a number of one-off specials of popular programmes will be screened. Studioworks’ George Lucas Stage 2 at Elstree was utilised for a Strictly Come Dancing special. Recorded in early November, six legendary Blue Peter presenters from the past 60 years entered the glitz and glamour of the ballroom in a bid to win the Pudsey Glitter Ball Trophy.

Studioworks also facilitated a special celebrity edition of the Weakest Link in Stage 8 at Elstree with seven brave celebrities facing the wrath of Anne Robinson in a bid to win £15,000 for the children’s charity.

EastEnders’ yearly contribution to the Appeal Show has also been pre-recorded by Studioworks. The cast have performed a selection of the most famous songs and dances from the classic musical Oliver!.

Perfecting the Post

On the night of the Appeal Show live feeds from multiple UK locations featuring fundraising and regional stories will be managed in the multiplexer, a bespoke build in Studioworks’ Elstree Post Production Village, that will intercut with performances from the studio. EVS XT3 servers will record this content onto a new Avid Nexis system. All Fundraising, Thank You and Appeal Film VT content will be played into the studio from the Multiplexer during transmission. Highlights montages will also be cut for inclusion into the live programme.

However, not all the post production action takes place on the night of the Appeal Show. Activities began in late October and will run up to the live show, as Studioworks’ Avid Symphony suites cut material for multiple live show features, with Avid Pro Tools used for dubbing and voiceovers. This includes the Strictly Come Dancing special, as well as EastEnders’ performance of Oliver!.

Once the live show ends, Studioworks will continue editing into the night with the turnaround of a 75-minute highlights programme for delivery and broadcast on 主播大秀 One on Sunday 19 November.

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“You come in to the field with a plan, but ultimately you do what nature tells you.”

Ted Giffords, Cameraman

“You come in to the field with a plan,” says cameraman Ted Giffords, “but ultimately you do what nature tells you.”

The plan, for a key sequence in the 主播大秀’s forthcoming Blue Planet II, was to try and film an amazing new behaviour. It’s one of countless new behaviours that viewers will see on Blue Planet II, not least because, as series Executive Producer James Honeyborne says, the science has moved on.

“New discoveries have given us a completely fresh perspective on life beneath the waves. What you’ll see across the series are new stories featuring new species, new places, new behaviours, all filmed in new ways. Our USP is very much newness.”

This particular piece of newness consisted of a marine double act featuring both Killer whales and Humpback Whales. More than a decade ago Blue Planet, the 主播大秀’s last landmark story of the seas, filmed Orca working Herring. ‘Working’ means corralling the fish, bamboozling them, wrangling them in to a tight ball like a border collie with a flock of sheep. Then the Orca stuns one or two with a flap of its tail and ends up with a meal floating deadweight in front of it.

What scientists have observed in recent years - is that Humpback Whales, all 30+ tonnes of them, have started to get in on the act. Humpback Whales are thought to react to the commotion of the Orcas corralling the Herring. Swooping in and opening up their vast mouths, the Humpbacks swim through the buffet that the Orcas have so generously laid on for them, and gobbling up dozens of fish in a single pass. It’s a smash and grab run of epic proportions.

The plan sounded simple: film this behaviour happening. But in order to locate the whales on the infinite fjords of northern Norway, the crew need to do what nature is telling them.

Nature’s message is relayed by seagulls. The footballer Eric Cantona was mocked when he talked about seagulls following trawlers in the hope of finding fish, but his rationale was sound. The seagulls do indeed follow the trawlers when there are Herring to be had, and it is herring that the Orca, and hence the Humpbacks, will follow.

Today is day 10 of a two week shoot, but it’s also the culmination of two years’ work. Producer Jonathan Smith has been following the herring, and thence the Orca and the Humpbacks, for two years for this sequence. He has done stints underwater, diving with a rebreather (to avoid bubbles on camera) in near freezing temperatures. He has tracked the Herring from out in the open Arctic in to the fjords, where for reasons we still don’t quite fathom they have moved just this last year. The whales have followed. They may not be here next year; they weren’t here when Blue Planet I was filmed. This is Smith’s last shoot. He has yet to see a Humpback pull off its heist.

We are so far north, inside the Arctic Circle, stationed on the remote island of Vengsoya, that the days are hopelessly short. It is deep in to November and every day the sun comes up 20 minutes later. Light is at a premium - it’s workable from about 11am today and it will expire at about 2.30pm. And so a converted fishing boat is readied before sunrise and we head out on to the fjords in the mizzle.

Natural history work takes you to remote places but it is rarely a solitary pursuit. As we run north towards the open ocean Smith is messaging a network of contacts - scientists from the Norwegian Orca Survey, fishermen, guides - all of whom are out on boats of their own already. Cameraman Ted Giffords has his own assistance, in the form of a 1,000 millimetres long lens on a giro-stabilised boom arm, handy for spotting gatherings of gulls at several kilometres. He’s glued to his screen, on look out. And Skipper Torre has an app, naturally, for monitoring marine traffic. It tells him where the boats are, what they are and if they’re fishing. Cantona Theory dictates that boats + seagulls = Herring, and Herring = Orcas. Humpbacks are the final variable in the calculus. You need all of the elements, plus the light and a dab of luck, to be in with a chance of a shot. So far they haven’t got any decent footage of the Humpback bursting through with its mouth open - the money shot - in ten days on the water.

Jonathan Smith promises an abundance of Orcas and so inevitably we start off finding none. There is a slight tension as phones are checked, charts scanned and far off, shadowy surface ripples turn out to be everything but whales. There’s not much time.

The sun, when it does rise, barely makes it above the horizon, a pink bedspread laid on the skyline. But as it does, at around 10.30am, a tip-off comes in, and Smith orders the boat to be turned around. We head to Kaldfjorden. It’s a 300 metre deep, 10 mile-long inlet that cuts south and then south-east between stark snow-topped peaks. We motor there to find trawlers and gulls at the far end and still we see… nothing. Smith remains positive - a requirement of the job, I suspect - “These seas contain the most amazing biomass of animals in the ocean,” he says. “Normally we’d have seen loads of Orcas by now.’”

You have to be prepared. Ted Giffords is in charge of the Cineflex camera that will get us the shot, if only the sea life would oblige. The Cineflex allows the boat to be bobbing all over the place while the shot remains still and composed. There are between five and ten Cineflexs of this type in the world - they’re hard to track down because they were originally designed for the American military and they can’t be moved from country to country without specific security clearance. This one has a 4K camera inside its sealed, counter-weighted housing and it can shoot in slow-motion; previous series like The Hunt couldn’t, and they weren’t filmed in such high definition. But higher definition requires more light. Giffords notices that his technical explanations are losing me:

“Basically it’s harder to do but the end result is better. People will notice a difference.”

You can’t not notice an Orca, especially in these flat, calm waters - their dorsal fins can be up to 6ft high on a male, and they travel in pods, usually five or more. Their stately silhouette is unique. Smith and his crew are seasoned spotters, and a tap on the shoulder alerts me to our first sighting, with one, two, then three spouts as the Orcas blow, several hundred metres away. We chug in their direction and on the way spot our other cast members - Humpback ‘blows’ are bushier and more spread out, I’m told. The sight of the Humpbacks’ magnificent tails rising, fluking and slipping away has me excited, but the crew are unmoved: they’re just ‘logging’ or relaxing, not feeding.

Suddenly there are Orca wherever you look down the Kaldfjorden, carving elongated Ms through the surface, while humpbacks rise and dive in tandem. With the sun now up and the mountains glistening it is an awesome spectacle – but it’s a distraction, and I fail to notice what’s happening on our other side, right up by the shore. It’s a group of Orcas, swimming back and forth in formation, so close to the water’s edge it’s as if they’re on watch. Smith is excited. “They’re definitely working fish. This could be about to kick off.”

And then it kicks off.

“Halve the distance between here and the shore,” Smith calls to skipper as he grabs his binoculars. “Pick them up at one o’clock so we can keep the view… Humpbacks at 10.’

It sounds like he’s expecting the animals to arrive on a pre-arranged schedule, until I realise that the hands of a clock are the shorthand amongst captain, producer and cameraman for target location.

The Orca swim away but there’s a shadow visible beneath the surface, heading directly towards where they were. Smith tells Giffords to bring the camera to three or four, Giffords thinks they need to be on the other side, but Smith tells him there’s no time, something is going to happen now, and right on cue small fish start leaping out of the water, churning it up like it’s coming to a fierce boil. The sound makes me spin round just in time to catch sight of 36 tonnes of Humpback whale arcing out and then back down through the surface. I cannot believe what I have just seen.

But the team know instantly that they have not seen enough: Smith and Giffords take a look at what they just filmed, and even though it’s all there in stunning close-up the humpback’s immense mouth only occupies the left of the picture.

“To get that magic it needs to be full frame,” says Smith.

The captain turns the boat around. They know by now that a hungry Humpback will take several passes at a hearty fish supper, and even better, the Orca are back, pushing the Herring even closer to the shore, driving the fish in to the shallows where they can’t escape. With a silvery slick of fish at the surface, the Humpback must surface too. We wait, but not for long. The Cineflex camera hangs over the edge of the boat, and again the whale’s shadow ghosts towards us. This time Giffords is ready and the spectacle is centre stage: as the whale surfaces the water becomes pockmarked and froths with fleeing fish. And then the whale breaks the surface, mouth gaping open, an epic parabola of baleen-plate teeth, humped back, small dorsal and disappearing fluke, before a colossal crash; the vast shadow recedes quietly in to the deep.

The crew holler and celebrate. “We have one!” says Ted Giffords as Smith congratulates his men. It is the first major behaviour shot they have got on this stint, the culmination of a new piece of scientific observation that it’s hard to credit as real until it’s been filmed and shown. And yet still the light remains the most precious commodity, and so minutes later we’re off again in search of another piece of ‘magic'. The ocean is boundless and there’s always more to see. The Blue Planet film crew just have to find it.

“It’s a cliché,” says Jonathan Smith, still with binoculars in hand, “but the only time you don’t get something is when you stop looking."

And that’s a theme that goes not only for this shoot but for the whole Blue Planet II series.

“We’ve completed 125 expeditions to 38 countries around the world, and our camera teams have worked in every continent and across every ocean,” says James Honeyborne, back in the UK. “One of the things that has really fascinated me during the making of this series is the extent to which we’re on the front line: we’re not just reporting these scientific stories, we’re actually help uncovering new scientific stories. So much so that at least 15 scientific papers are being written on behaviours we’ve filmed. That’s the levels of newness we’re at, that is the great opportunity of being in the sea, and that’s the great excitement for us.”

Blue Planet II starts Sunday 29 October at 8pm on 主播大秀 One. To find out more about the series read the or watch now.

John Morton, writer and director of Twenty Twelve and W1A discusses how he came to set his sights on the 主播大秀 for the hit series, and how he tried to avoid writing a follow-up to Twenty Twelve.

It’s Autumn 2012. Perhaps not surprisingly Twenty Twelve, a show about the organisation of the London Olympics, has come to an end and I’m cycling across London (on a fold up bike bought from the set) on my way to a meeting to discuss any ideas I might have for taking the show or the characters further.

Of course I haven’t got any ideas. I’d said from the outset that unusually for a television show Twenty Twelve had its own end built into it from the start: once the Olympics had come and gone it was dead. The clue was in the title. ‘Yes but will you at least come and talk about possibilities’ was the gnomic and in retrospect very W1A response. Of course I was too weak to say no.

Looking back now I realise that if anything is going to clear the mind and liberate the creative juices in unexpected ways, an hour’s pedalling through central London traffic on a child sized bike isn’t it. But at the time I didn’t know that and I arrive at the appointed Italian restaurant with nothing .

Over fizzy water and some sort of pesto affair Jon Plowman (Twenty Twelve Exec Producer) and Mark Freeman (the 主播大秀’s then Head of something) do their best to prod me gently in various benign ways. Was there somehow a way of transplanting the characters lock stock and barrel to a new situation somewhere else? That’s an easy one. No, there wasn’t. Could they believably be recruited one by one to help with next Olympics in Rio perhaps? Again I was ahead of them. No they couldn’t.

This was going better than I thought. I seemed to have got involved in a sort of anti-pitch process and was beginning to be think that if I stuck to my principles for once I was probably capable of making it out of the building without any kind of commission at all. And the thing is I nearly made it, but then over coffee I made a really basic mistake.

At some point during the life of Twenty Twelve I remember saying, again under intense questioning, that the only kind of future life for the show might be to take Hugh Bonnevilles’s character Ian Fletcher, drop him somewhere else, and start all over again with all the other characters. I’d briefly thought about the 主播大秀 as a possible place to drop him and for some reason I reminded them of this now.

I thought it was safe to mention it. With the 主播大秀 having just gone through a really tough time, this was surely an even worse idea now than it had been at the time. But it was already was too late. I should never have had the pudding. They’d played the long game and they’d won.

By the time I’d managed to unfold the bike on the pavement outside the restaurant the course of the next four years of my life were set. But really I shouldn’t complain.

When I was first trying to get started as a writer I had a Post It note stuck to my computer screen: Nothing worthwhile is easy. I can’t remember who said it now, but it’s helped me ever since. Back then when rejections came - regularly, often, in fact always for a few years - it was a reminder that no one said this was going to be easy, that most people who are trying to get going probably end up folding at some point, and that not folding was about the only part of the process that was within my control.

These days it’s even more applicable. Confronted with the prospect of writing a third and probably final series of W1A at the start of last year my first thoughts are all to do with the familiar weight of responsibility I feel to the actors, the viewers, the 主播大秀, to the characters themselves who don’t even exist for Christ’s sake. In the attempt to make these six new half hours a bit the same, at the same time different, and crucially better than everything that’s gone before, the daily battle with the writer’s (for me) natural feelings of inadequacy are in some ways even harder to win than they ever were. To remind yourself that it’s never been easy, it’s not supposed to be easy, and that if you were finding it easy the chances are it wouldn’t be any good is an essential part of the process.

Is it all worthwhile? It’s not for the writer to judge ultimately and in the case of W1A it’s too late now anyway, it’s out there.

As Siobhan Sharpe herself would say and in fact has said in the past - "We are where we are with this guys. And that’s never a good place to be."

Judge for yourself whether it was all worthwhile or not as begins at 10pm on Monday 18 September on 主播大秀 Two.

Back in July 2013 主播大秀 Studios’ Documentary Unit gained unprecedented access to The Metropolitan Police - Britain’s largest busiest police service. It was the first time they'd let the cameras in to make an observational documentary series. Now, in its second series the team take another look at the scale of different police units across London. Filmed over a year, the team go behind the scenes of police work, giving viewers an in-depth look at how the Met works.

follows officers of Britain’s biggest and busiest police service as they deal with life, death, crime and its victims, all across the capital. We wanted to make a second series, as there were many areas of The Met and London that we hadn’t seen in the first one. It had been a huge success for 主播大秀 One, both critically and as a ratings hit. Feedback from our audience showed that they felt they’d had an opportunity to see this massive and sometimes hard to penetrate organisation in a more human way.

Although we had done it once, it didn’t make it any easier to make a second series! We wanted to replicate the feeling of breadth and scale, capturing the enormity of what the police do every day across the city, but it was important to try and look at some different areas of policing and London. So access conversations had to start from scratch again so we could meet new officers and take our audience to other parts of London we hadn’t been in before.

We were very lucky to have an incredibly committed production team who worked for over a year and a half to make this series.

A big part of police work is responding to the thousands of 999 calls they receive a day. This time, we followed officers from Newham, Hackney and Westminster as they dealt with anything from multiple stabbings to an argument over a car parking space. Part of the challenge for the police and us, was never knowing what you were going to find, until you turned up at the scene of the call. Seeing officers dealing with people in a crisis or just trying to establish what was going on was always interesting and sometimes darkly funny.

One of the new units we worked with for this series was the Sexual Offences Unit, who deal with and serious sexual assault. It was important for us to include these crimes as they are incredibly serious and the victims have to live with the ordeal and humiliation for the rest of their lives. They’re also very difficult and sensitive crimes for the detectives to deal with and conviction rates are low.

We also looked at London’s busiest custody suite in Brixton. The team spent countless nightshifts in the unpredictable and at times, chaotic environment to capture the relationship between custody sergeants and their detainees.

On one hand, filming was easier as the police understood what we were trying to achieve and we had support from people who’d been involved in the first series. But at times it was still difficult to find people on the ground, who wanted to be filmed. The terror threat means many police officers don’t want to draw attention to themselves by appearing on television.

One of the most astounding stories we covered was a case that can’t be shown in the series, due to reporting restrictions. It involved a child who hadn’t been seen for 10 years and his remains were found in a shed in his mother’s garden. His mother was arrested and we followed Homicide detective who worked for days to try and understand what had happened.

We were shocked at the number of teenagers and young adults carrying knives and how everyday it is for police to attend to stabbings in some boroughs. We found it depressing at times at the lack of cooperation between the police and the victims, due to fear of reprisals and a lack of faith in the justice system.

We were also with Firearms Officers when they carried out an armed stop, a controversial tactic used as a final attempt to stop a car when they think there’s a gun in it. It’s a tactic that’s gone wrong in the past and a cause of much distrust between the police and some communities.

Making any police series means you have to work within the constraints and timescales of the justice system and sometimes this can mean that your stories don’t make it to air in time. Frustratingly, we lost some of our favorite and most important stories because of this.

The stories of crime may be ones that tap into our deepest fears and at times show the worst of humanity, but there are social issues at the heart of most of them and we hope these narratives have the power to change things for the better.

Shona Thompson is the series producer of 'The Met - Policing London'.

• is broadcast on Wednesdays at 9pm on 主播大秀 One with previous episodes available to watch on 主播大秀 iPlayer

‘Three Girls’ is the true story of the 2012 Rochdale Grooming case, in which 9 men were successfully prosecuted for offences including rape, trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.

It was the first case of its kind to come to national attention and the first successful prosecution for sex trafficking within the UK. The story has been widely covered in the press, most notably by Andrew Norfolk in The Times, and there exists a huge amount of information in the public domain.

As we were researching the story grew in national significance as other arrests were made and it became clear that there were many cases throughout the country with thousands of victims. It’s a story that has shocked the nation and changed the way that social services and police think about and handle cases of child sexual exploitation.

If so much is known and has been covered already by the media why tell this story again as a drama? What could possibly be more powerful than the documentary truth? It’s a good question and one that’s not always easy to answer.

There are many true stories that an audience might be interested in reliving through drama but the ones that really resonate and arguably deserve to be made are those which can change an audience’s perception of the victims because, for all the media noise, their true voices haven’t yet been heard.

The way in which Jimmy McGovern’s ‘Hillsborough’ changed the perception of the behaviour of Liverpool football fans is a good example. Or the way in which the audience was put into the shoes of the girls hunted down by the Ipswich serial killer in ‘Five Daughters’.

Similarly the voices of the children abused and exploited in Rochdale had not been heard. Who were these young girls, why were they out on their own day and night, how did they get to know these men in the first place and how could they have been raped repeatedly without anyone in authority putting a stop to it? Crucially how did they feel while all this was happening to them and how do they feel now?

The team behind ‘Three Girls’ has an impressive track record in producing powerful factual drama.

Executive Producer Sue Hogg, producer Simon Lewis and director Philippa Lowthorpe were also responsible for ‘Five Daughters’. Writer Nicole Taylor wrote the screenplay to ‘The C Word’ which Sue and Simon also produced.

This was a close knit team that had the commitment to stay the course over the four year period it took to research, write and produce the three hour series. Gaining the trust of the three girls that the drama focuses on was of course key.

Simon, Nicole and later Philippa carried out multiple interviews with the girls and their families in an effort to get to know them and relive with them their experiences from four years previously. The pace and timing of the interviews had to be dictated by the girls themselves for whom talking about what happened was both painful and cathartic.

At the same time for Nicole and Philippa it was important for the veracity of the drama that they retained some distance on what they were being told. Every experience described by the girls needed to be backed up by at least one other source.

As well as the volume of information in the public domain especially from the trial itself the team also had invaluable input from the two whistle-blowers at the heart of the story; Sara Rowbotham who worked for the NHS as a sexual health worker and Maggie Oliver, a police constable with Greater Manchester Police. These two women worked tirelessly to change the perception of these young girls in the eyes of the authorities just as we have tried to do for audiences through the drama.

A perception that the girls were simply displaying a lifestyle choice and didn’t need or want protection. Never mind that they were 13, 14, 15 years old at the time and had such low self-esteem that free chips and alcohol would turn a grubby room at the back of a kebab shop into the equivalent of a clubhouse.

Sara and Maggie have remained close to the girls and were key in helping us gain their trust and support them emotionally at every stage. The real girls and their families, and our other contributors, were involved throughout the process from beginning to end, including being on hand during filming and post production for their advice. We couldn’t possibly have done it without them.

Hilary Salmon is 主播大秀 Studios’ Head of Drama, England

• Three Girls will be available to watch on from Saturday 16 December, 2017
•  Three Girls at 9pm on Tuesday 16 May 2017 on 主播大秀 One
• Three Girls is a 主播大秀 Studios production in association with Studio Lambert

Just before Christmas I attended a screening of the first episode of Let It Shine, 'hot out of the edit suite'. 主播大秀 Studios’ Controller of Entertainment Commissioning, Kate Phillips introduced the programme as irreverent, funny and emotional and that if the show were a stick of rock, it would have 主播大秀 running through it.

Having watched it, I can quite happily agree with Phillips’ introduction. The dry humour that presenters Graham Norton and Mel Giedroyc bring gives respite from the nerves and anticipation of the auditions. The family-friendly entertainment combined with the chemistry between the judges and presenters makes Let It Shine a real ensemble piece.

Applicants are treated with respect, with each performer given feedback and encouragement, whether they were chosen to go through to the next stage or not. The show is refreshingly self-aware and respectful of the talent it is unearthing, as Barlow notes: “It’s the one thing, when we’re planning a show like this, what we can’t anticipate is the talent…now we’ve seen those performances, all of a sudden the show has come to life… with these programmes it is all about the talent”.

Presenters and judges (minus Amber Riley, due to some small matter of a press night for Dreamgirls) participated in a Q and A at the end of the press conference. I confess to being easily starstruck, and although I am very much a 'grunge' girl at heart, the thought of being in the same room as bona fide popstars Kemp, Minogue and Barlow was highly exciting, but the real treat was seeing Mel Giedroyc having been a huge fan of Mel (and Sue) since their Light Lunch days. The camaraderie between Giedroyc and co-host Graham Norton is a beautiful thing. Listen to their experiences working on the show, in the clip below:

Oh yes, and Kate’s introduction mentioned the show was emotional. Now, I’m not the least cynical of people but I definitely welled up watching episode one. At least twice. In a good way.

Be prepared for a goosebumpy ride.

Jen Macro is Digital Content Producer for About the 主播大秀.

• begins on Saturday 7 January at 7pm, on 主播大秀 One.
• Read more about Let It Shine on the .

After hearing about the central role that Birmingham will play in the 主播大秀’s Shakespeare season in 2016, we had a bit of a cultural change of pace and finished the day at the huge 主播大秀 Music Awards at Birmingham’s NEC – screaming along with the teenage girls as One Direction took the stage in a massive production from 主播大秀 Entertainment and Events.

The story of 主播大秀 Studios in Birmingham is one of entrepreneurialism – teams finding ways to get things done against the odds and outside the traditional means - stuff we will need aplenty in the new world. It’s also part of the case for a uniquely distributed in-house production – one that doesn’t just make programmes all around the country but is truly woven into the fabric of British places and British life, reflecting all our stories to the nation and the world. But we can’t take this for granted – these local ties are often delicate, and without the regeneration that 主播大秀 Studios will bring, the whole enterprise could unravel. 

主播大秀 Studios is more than the sum of its parts, but every part is precious – and every part will be spreading a bit of festive joy across the UK this Christmas: Mrs Brown’s Boys from Glasgow, the Christmas Big Sing from Salford, Still Open All Hours from Doncaster and London, as well as Doctor Who and the epic War and Peace, from 主播大秀 Wales - the latter launching in the new year, a masterpiece in period drama.

Linear or digital, serious or light-hearted, local, regional, national or global – I hope there's no box big enough to contain the creative ambition for 主播大秀 Studios. And as we head towards our launch in 2016, that’s something to celebrate. 

Peter Salmon is Director, 主播大秀 Studios.

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For 27 years my mother was a newsagent in the town where we lived. Every day after the end of school, I鈥檇 wait in the back office watching the comings and goings until Mum shut the shop and we could go home. I listened in on the moans and groans of the town as the last customers of the day paid for their magazines and newspapers. It was busy, noisy and I loved being a part of it.

When my parents announced they were not only keen but going to sell the business, I felt an impending sense of loss. I was to be denied access to what I saw as my second home. They hadn鈥檛 consulted me about what I wanted. I was left to pick up the pieces. In my own (almost certainly self-indulgent) way, I mourned the sale of it. I denied the necessary post-sale handover of keys and convinced myself that the shop鈥檚 new owners were brusque and unfeeling as they moved into the space which hitherto had been mine.

I was thinking about my Mum鈥檚 newsagents in the final weeks 主播大秀 staff were . I was prepared for it for this time. I was thorough: I set about 鈥榮aying goodbye鈥� to the building, using any spare hour I had available to stroll around the site. I shot some video along the way too.

The repeat visits around the newsroom, 鈥楧oughnut鈥�, Drama building and East Tower reminded me of just how big the really was. I must have lost half a stone in the weeks I鈥檇 wandered around there getting footage and saying goodbye. Painful though that goodbye seemed, the site鈥檚 sheer scale made it also appear anachronistic and unsustainable in comparison to my day to day working experience. That insight alone suddenly made the goodbyes seem a whole lot easier.

鈥淚t was basically a small town,鈥� says facilities manager Mike Eaton as me and a colleague toured the building late last week. 鈥淵ou could spend days on the 主播大秀 site and not even venture out. Everything was provided here.鈥�

Mike explains this in one of the studios currently used for storage of the . Row upon row of servers, PCs and other IT equipment - itself an unhappy reminder of my own IT support career past - illustrates Mike鈥檚 point: I鈥檝e never seen quite so much IT equipment all in one room before. Television Centre was a considerable site with an equally large footprint both geographically and technologically. It was its own ecosystem. As technology gets smaller, so the need for space decreases and the cost of maintaining it increases. With total savings achieved by 主播大秀鈥檚 sale of TVC estimated at more than 拢600m (the sale alone raised 拢200m and occupancy costs of at least 拢30m per annum are being saved from 2015 onwards), the sale of the site has an entirely different context. 听

I鈥檝e charged Mike with giving us a tour of the building one last time ahead of last weekend - four hundred tickets were sold 鈥渏ust like that,鈥� says Mike as he snaps his fingers. We spend time in the Doughnut where he points to the Studios 1, 2 and 3 the former and future home of , the 主播大秀鈥檚 commercial studios, post production and digital media services company. Here demolition and infrastructure works have started - early building work is due to begin next year, ahead of the company鈥檚 return in 2017.

It seems like such a long way off, until I realise that with all the other building work going on on site to meet the vision for the new Television Centre, TV programme makers would definitely prefer to wait until the builders have completed their work. We swing round and look behind us to what was Television Centre reception and 主播大秀 News. 鈥淪tage 6 remains 鈥� 主播大秀 Worldwide will move back in there in 2015. Stage 5 behind it will be rebuilt more in the style of the main Television Centre.鈥�

There鈥檚 a sense of excitement in Mike鈥檚 voice. This is almost certainly his style of delivery combined with his well-practised patter. But that excitement is infectious. Being back on-site after eighteen months with familiar sights still functioning- like the automatic swing doors at reception and the familiar whirring sound whenever they鈥檙e activated 鈥搒tir happy memories and a longing for the past in the way I thought it might. However, a protective spirit stirs, as though we鈥檙e looking at a distant relative recovering from rather aggressive treatment. TVC seems vulnerable to me. I鈥檓 eager to see its full 鈥榬ecovery鈥�.听 Not only that, 听I鈥檓 also reminded once again of its immense scale in comparison with the significantly smaller space I鈥檝e now become accustomed to working at Broadcasting House in central London. Stripped of its industry, equipment and people, Television Centre's size is even more striking.

That excitement for the refurbishment to be completed as quickly as possible is fuelled no doubt by and master-plans detailing how the site should look after work is completed. So too, the progress photography on the refurbished offices for 主播大秀 Worldwide鈥檚 HQ 鈥� a milestone in the development of the building and a suitable home with an iconic backdrop for a business selling the 主播大秀鈥檚 brand to the world. I鈥檓 surprised (and perhaps a little relieved) at myself about how eager I am for other people to benefit from the site 鈥� those who鈥檒l stay in the 40 room hotel, move into the 950 new residences created or just walk through the eventual public spaces. It appears I have found a way of moving away from home.

Elsewhere on our visit, Mike takes us to the Drama Building. Eighteen months ago I saw an old Blue Peter set, a Dalek and Andrew Marr鈥檚 set. Eighteen months later, there鈥檚 just equipment 鈥� monitors, server cabinets 鈥� destined for the final auction of equipment next month. 鈥淔ollow me,鈥� says Mike excitedly, 鈥淚鈥檝e got something to show you I鈥檓 sure you haven鈥檛 seen.鈥�

He鈥檚 right. During my wandering around TVC in March 2013, there were some doors in the Drama Building which were disappointingly locked, mysterious spaces behind doors I couldn鈥檛 open. Up a narrow set of stairs and through an equally narrow (now unlocked) door and we鈥檙e inside a high roofed room, standing on a suspended floor with a flight of stairs disappearing away from us. It feels like a stage. It could easily be the TARDIS set I wanted my Dad to build me as a kid (but he didn鈥檛 because the local wood store 鈥榓pparently鈥� didn鈥檛 have enough material available). Here was my own special TV set where I could for a moment or two, in my head at least, play out my own imaginary TV drama.

Mike explains that this is the scenery dock. The paint on the wall is from a time when scenery painters created backdrops for various TV programmes. 鈥淲hen they鈥檇 finished painting one part of the backdrop and needed to get a bit higher up, they鈥檇 use this lever here.鈥� 听Powered up, there鈥檚 a sudden whirr and the frames hanging at either 听side听 start moving up and down. If the TARDIS really was real, this would be it. And I was in it.

The sense of sadness didn鈥檛 kick in here either. Instead I stand there trying to work out when we last made painted backdrops for sets? Wasn鈥檛 that years ago? And why did we stop making them? Something to do with TV dramas largely being made on location, technology making it possible for realistic locations to be used in TV production. Suddenly the impact of technological advances on 鈥榯raditional鈥� crafts 鈥� the greater sensitivity of cameras, freeing directors from the constraints of a controlled studio environment and the need for sets, for example 鈥� is plain to see. The scenery dock is no longer a destination for nostalgia lovers, but a place where the impact of technological advances on traditional crafts is apparent . And how such advances suddenly make such locations anachronistic. More than any听 other location on the Television Centre site, this feels like a real goodbye. Timely. Necessary. Healthy.

Eager to test out my transformed thinking, I ask Mike if we can squeeze in one extra destination. On the way to theold 主播大秀 club鈥� now missing all of the familiar furniture, covered in builders dust and the balcony sporting weeds that have grown in between the patio slabs 鈥� we stop off at Room 4099, the one office I worked in whilst I was based at Television Centre. Bottles labelled 鈥淔ake Tan鈥� have been left on the shelf from the time Strictly Come Dancing had offices here in Entertainment Production. My time goes back to Any Dream Will Do, and the night of Eurovision pre-selection when Andy Abraham was selected to represent the country.

Standing in the office now remembering those memories, I鈥檓 reminded how distant this office was from proceedings we were covering online during the live broadcast four floors below. How the distance seems unfathomable now in comparison to proximity of studios and programme making in nearly every other 主播大秀 building I鈥檝e been in since. Scale has reduced dramatically. Things can be done in less space in closer proximity to production space. It takes returning to a former home to realise just how much things have changed and how much they needed to change too. 听

Our visit has gone on longer than I realise. My colleague looks at his phone saying he is already ten minutes late for his 11 o鈥檆lock. We walk at speed along the 4th听floor corridor in search of a working lift (there are only one or two in the building 鈥榮witched on鈥� now) and head for the audience foyer 鈥� now a canteen and office for the builders working onsite. The buzz remains in this part of the building just as it was shortly before it was finally vacated. It鈥檚 the sound of the buzz that casts me back. Memories stir. A dangerous moment. I grab my bag and coat from the office and make for the barriers.

is Editor, About the 主播大秀 website and blog

• Facilities Manager Mike Eaton's blog detailing progress on the Television Centre refurbishment published earlier this week.听
• Discover more about the iconic Television Centre on the .

A significant milestone will be reached at the end of this month when the 主播大秀 formally hands over the iconic Television Centre site to its new owners, Stanhope plc, six months ahead of schedule.

Since July 2012, when the 主播大秀 sold the site for 拢200 million, we have been working in partnership with Stanhope to ensure that Television Centre emerges as a great public space for people to live, work and visit, which pays homage to its past, whilst securing its future as a key destination in West London.

Once described as the Taj Mahal of television, Television Centre stands on what was part of the 1908 Great Exhibition.听The 主播大秀 acquired the site in 1949, and it became home to the 主播大秀 when it opened in 1960. Designed by Graham Dawbarn, it was the world鈥檚 first purpose-built centre for television production.听In its heyday, half of all 主播大秀 television transmitted was made at Television Centre.

I have spent the past 37 years at the 主播大秀 working predominantly as part of the Duty Facilities Management team at Television Centre and as such, have been privy to many of the stories that make up its great past. I remember the time, for instance, when the rapper 50 Cent arrived for his appearance on Top of the Pops with an entourage of 13 people carriers. And then there were the unusual demands made by the stars. One time we had to install a fridge just to house Lady Gaga鈥檚 wigs. On another occasion, when Madonna requested a life-size picture of the Pope for her dressing-room, the 主播大秀 Studios team managed to obtain his waxwork model from Madame Tussauds. These requests often posed their own set of problems.听When Janet Jackson asked for 50 lit candles in her dressing-room, we had to position a fire officer outside her door!

This weekend, Television Centre was on show to the public for the last time under the 主播大秀鈥檚 possession, as part of this year鈥檚 . Some 400 people booked onto one of the 13 tours with Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, the lead architects for the for one last chance to look around the White City site before it is transformed into a mixed-use development that combines office and studio and post production space for the 主播大秀鈥檚 commercial operations, with a range of other uses including entertainment and leisure facilities, a public open space, a new hub for creative industries and new businesses, 950 new homes, and a new boutique hotel.听When complete, the iconic listed buildings, including the famous forecourt and fa莽ade, Studio 1 and the central Helios Plaza will be preserved and opened up to the public for the first time.

If you missed out on getting tickets for the Open House tour, there is still a chance to own a bit of 主播大秀 TV history as the gets underway next month.听Some 4,000 items are being auctioned, including memorabilia from 主播大秀 TV shows, a range of IT and broadcast technology equipment, posters and signage.

So what does the future hold for this much-loved building? 听The masterplan prepared by the 主播大秀/Stanhope partnership ensures that the long history of creativity and programme-making at Television Centre continues long into the future.听

So remember, when the latest iteration of the 主播大秀 logo that has adorned the flank wall of Studio 1 for the last 50 years finally comes down later this month, it is simply an intermission; the 主播大秀 will be returning and be very much a part of this vibrant and unique new media site.听With the return of in 2017, and 主播大秀 Worldwide鈥檚 move to its new headquarters at the site early next year, we can look forward to having a presence at Television Centre for many years to come.

Mike Eaton is a Project Manager at Television Centre, 主播大秀 Commercial Projects

is a commercial subsidiary of the 主播大秀 which provides studios, post production and digital media services to the broadcast industry. In this post, technical development manager Danny Popkin writes about his work on one of the biggest projects he鈥檚 been involved with at 主播大秀 S&PP.

I am in charge of studio technology projects at 主播大秀 S&PP, including technology upgrades or moves. In this post, I wanted to explain how we've gone about moving equipment and services from Television Centre to Elstree, and give a sense of what's on offer to the 主播大秀 and other production companies and broadcasters at our new base.

Why we refurbish studios

First though, it's worth explaining some things about our work which may come as a surprise to some. Television studios don't maintain themselves and given that they are a part of a fast-moving technological environment, they're frequently in need of refurbishment and technical upgrades. This was the case at Television Centre where we were refreshing, on average, one studio every year. Across 8 studios it was about a 7-year cycle of partial or complete refurbishment. On top of that were standard upgrades and change of technology - for example, the movement from tape to disc-based technology or the move to different IT systems. Over the 30 years I've been involved in TV, we've moved from 4:3 to 'widescreen', standard definition to HD for example. Originally everything captured in a TV studio could be sent easily down half a mile of copper wire. As we've moved to digital and now HD, the capacity of those copper cable links have got shorter and shorter. We can't send it down the same length and expect it to come out the other end. So even that core element 鈥� the copper 鈥榳ire鈥� has had to be upgraded to something which is fit for purpose.

For many years the 主播大秀 had to develop its own technology and the 主播大秀 used to have departments that would build and test things. The expansion of the media market and the consumerisation of goods has meant the 主播大秀 doesn't have to do that anymore. Commercial organisations are developing new technology all the time. All we have to do is buy the equipment based on our need and what鈥檚 best for us. In that way, we have to follow fairly rapidly the movements of manufacturers because the organisation wants to get the benefits of efficiencies the industry can provide us with. 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production has been recognised as being at the forefront of that for the 主播大秀 over many years 鈥� it鈥檚 an important part of our work for our clients.

Moving to Elstree

Last year when 主播大秀 Television Centre was closed for redevelopment, and our longer-term return to a refurbished TVC, to re-open Studios 1-3.

We already had a base at 主播大秀 Elstree - it鈥檚 where we provide studios and post production services for EastEnders and operate our Elstree Studio D, similar in size to Studio 1 at Television Centre and home to shows like Sky鈥檚 A League of their Own, which we make for CPL Productions.

Whilst Television Centre is being redeveloped, we needed to find new studio spaces to offer our production customers, so we approached Elstree Studios across the road and it was agreed that we would run Stage 8, Stage 9 and at times the enormous George Lucas stages. Stage 8 and Stage 9 were effectively film stages, built in the 1960s and they had barely had anything done to them since, so would require considerable work to get them ready for our TV clients.

Fast refurbishment 鈥� turning film stages into TV studios

I was heavily involved in the move from TVC to Elstree and the upgrade of our new site.听 It was the single biggest project I've been involved in, one which was completed relatively cheaply and really quite fast. But it was a project which came with some unusual demands. For example, we didn't get formal confirmation that TVC was closing until about nine months before it actually shut. Although we'd done some preliminary work on plans for the move, we couldn't get cracking on the rest of it until we knew for sure that we were leaving and when that would be. Once we knew, we started in earnest in August 2012. The budgets were roughly set very quickly and we were underway.

Unfurnished film stages (like Stage 8 and Stage 9 that we were moving into) are effectively just empty boxes and have nothing in them. They also tend to have wooden floors. We needed to upgrade the floors so TV cameras could run smoothly over the top. Lights and hoists needed fitting out too (film stages tend to light scenes from the floor up, whereas TV studios light from the ceiling down), so we needed to install what we call a 鈥榮aturated lighting grid鈥�. We decided to make use of a monopole hoist system (this helps us easily flex the lighting arrangement, and turn studios around faster in between productions) but that in itself meant that hardware needed sourcing to kit out the studio. Additionally and very importantly we needed to install TV production galleries (film stages don鈥檛 have these installed!).

We worked in partnership with , who co-funded the works, which also included improving facilities for production teams and talent 鈥� for example refurbishing dressing rooms, green rooms and production office space.

At the same time as the Elstree Studios refurbishment works, we also upgraded our own 主播大秀 Elstree Studio D to support large live event shows such as and most recently 主播大秀 News election 2014 coverage.

How we鈥檝e re-used equipment

In terms of equipment we decided to basically lift and shift production galleries and technical kit from TVC to Elstree.听 Most of the equipment was moved apart from our ageing glass monitors and SD kit, so that made us entirely flat screen and fully HD, bringing the spec of the equipment production staff could use really up to date. We re-used equipment wherever possible - we brought a number of gallery desks with us for example and reassembled them at Elstree and we even brought across make-up mirrors and the dressing room key fob system! We also used the move as an opportunity to enhance the systems as well, standardising our system layouts and configurations making it easier to move staff between stages, and simpler for freelance staff to understand. All of our sound galleries now boast the same Studer Vista 8 desks, upgraded to the latest hardware and OS, utilising stageboxes to minimise studio box wiring.

For me, one of the most impressive elements about the project was the speed at which we worked. We had confirmation that the move would go ahead in summer 2012 and 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production was fully up and running in Elstree by March 2013 at the same time as maintaining studio services at Television Centre right up until it closed, making shows like Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, When Miranda Met Bruce and Madness Live: Goodbye Television Centre. We sometimes take these things for granted, but in short, that鈥檚 running three different studio sites, with a limited staff base, while two of them are going through significant refurbishment and the other is gradually closing down. No easy feat!

A few months after we were up and running at Elstree Studios, we also installed new HD production galleries alongside the George Lucas Stage 1 and 2 鈥� making it the biggest studio space in Europe with permanent HD galleries. It鈥檚 since successfully hosted big entertainment shows like Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice.

With all of the refurbishment works, by using our own in-house technical and engineering expertise we were able to repurpose and reuse technology and equipment from Television Centre and save on cost.

What programme makers say

Moving to Elstree was unlike anything else we鈥檇 delivered in my time at the 主播大秀. What was essential was lots of planning and a pragmatic approach in order to carry it through. This resourcefulness is something Anna picked up in her blog post in Christmas of last year.

It鈥檚 been a big success though. Since we started operating here, we have supported over 45 different programme titles, including shows like Pointless, Children in Need, ITV鈥檚 The Chase and even Channel 4鈥檚 Winter Paralympics coverage, which amounted to nearly 80 hours!

You can hear from Pointless Series Producer John Ryan about his experiences at Elstree in this short video.

Returning to Television Centre

Looking ahead, we鈥檒l be going back to three studios at Television Centre and I鈥檓 looking after the technical fit out for that.

The priority that remains for us is to install equipment which is, as far as we possibly can make it, future-proofed. So, another important part of my work is to look carefully at the industry and see where the trends are going and what's going to get bigger - for example, 4K (or correctly Ultra High Definition TV). Future generations of TVs will be considerably 'more' than the current 4K, offering the viewer a far better experience than just more pixels, with better colour rendition, higher dynamic range and higher frame rates as well as smart TV features. So anything we buy in will need to take into account that increased consumer need. We鈥檒l also need to think about how we鈥檒l deliver UHDTV in the future. The industry hasn鈥檛 as yet settled on a solution for that yet, but when it has 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production will be there, making sure we鈥檙e making the very best available for our clients and for the audience.

Danny Popkin is Technical Development Manager, 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production.

听

For more information please visit the .

Since I last wrote on the back in March of this year,听has had a busy time of it听at its new base here in Elstree. Now at the end of 2013, I wanted to use this post to explain what we've been up to, give some听insight into how we've made our migration out of Television Centre work and take a peek into plans for our听return.听

But first, an explanation of what 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production is and does:

主播大秀 S&PP is a 主播大秀-owned commercial company, providing facilities to make programmes and manage media. Very simply we听operate studios - 'the boxes' - where TV programmes are made. We carry out post production, making sure the content 'comes together' in the right way. Our also听do quality checking and prepare and deliver content for transmission or distribution. Very often programmes have another life after broadcast and they also take听material from deep in a broadcaster's archive and help re-purpose it for a future digital life.听In short, 主播大秀 S&PP is involved in nearly all of the TV production process - following the entire lifecycle of the media asset, from creation to archive.

Working with independent media companies and other broadcasters

As well as providing studios and post production for some of the 主播大秀鈥檚 flagship shows such as , and , we also work with a range of independent production companies making programmes for other broadcasters 鈥� for example CPL Production鈥檚 for Sky and ITV鈥檚 - and with content owners 鈥� like , helping them preserve and maximise the value of their material.

We're听based听at 主播大秀 Elstree, where we help make EastEnders and have our Elstree Studio D (larger than Studio 1 at Television Centre), and at Elstree Film & TV Studios, where we've worked hand in hand with Hertsmere Council, who own the business, to transform the site.听We鈥檙e also in Bristol at The Bottle Yard Studios, where we help Endemol make for Channel 4 and our Digital Media Services team are in South Ruislip in West London. This blog focuses on what we鈥檝e been up to at Elstree.听听

Working hard to make something brilliant

At Elstree, there's a real sense that we're at the heart of making television: there is an air of glamour about the place听with EastEnders recording 50 weeks of the year, plus a constant stream of other shows in production. [At the time of penning this post, C主播大秀's is shooting its Christmas special in the same studio episodes of That Puppet Game Show was recorded, (pictured above) is in Stage 8, is in Stage 9 (pictured below) and Strictly is in the George Lucas Stage].

In November when the live Children in Need show came from 主播大秀 Elstree the whole site came alive: there was a听huge buzz, lots of creativity, lots of celebrities, lots of concerts, lots of humour and lots of teams working听together to really pull the whole thing off. For me, that is the reality of television: lots of听people coming together and working hard to make something brilliant. 听听

Migrating to Elstree and transforming the site

Even though we were of course sad to leave Television Centre back in March (we've already started听planning our return to the site in 2015), what 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production has achieved on the听Elstree site is impressive.听Working closely with Hertsmere council, we've turned two medium size stages into professional TV studios with laser-levelled floors and purpose built galleries, we've installed production galleries alongside the supersize George Lucas Stages and refurbished all the dressing rooms, green rooms, make up and wardrobe areas.听We've really made it work for creating television here, bringing big shows previously听produced at Television Centre and transferring them to an entirely different site and in many cases,听improving facilities for production teams. And what's听inspiring听for me is that every day of every week I听see this site come more alive and be more energised because we're here doing what we do.听

Over the next few weeks, you'll be able to read in more detail about what we've done at Elstree and how听we're preparing for our return to Television Centre from Technical Development Manager Danny Popkin. But in this post I wanted to introduce how we've made the move听to Elstree work.听

The project for 'migrating' to Elstree started a year ago. Moving a business that had been in Television Centre for 30 years was a massive undertaking and it wasn't until quite late on that we knew the details of when and how we were going to听move. The move happened while we were still operating TVC studios and doing big shows like Strictly, Later with Jools Holland and Goodbye Television Centre right up to the last minute. The organisation was also going through听a restructure (necessitated by leaving TVC) so there was a lot going on.听

So, in setting up services here at Elstree there was a large degree of pragmatism. People听came together and said to one another, 'this is where we are: a lot of us are sad to be leaving Television听Centre for a bit but we're up for the challenge of Elstree; we're up for creating something really good听here.听And that is reflected in our solutions: the way some of the technology has been听refurbished and repurposed; how equipment originally installed at Television Centre has been moved to听Elstree and used with other existing equipment and made to work at a new location. And it's not just what听you see in the studio, it鈥檚 what you see 'at the back' - wiring, technology and facilities.听It was an extremely complex thing to deliver and is testament to the creativity and ingenuity of听the teams that work at 主播大秀 S&PP. They're passionate about what they do. And that work was completed on time听and on budget too.

听

Making Strictly in Elstree

From day one of the migration planning phase we were thinking about Strictly Come Dancing. It's one of those productions听we've had the privilege to work on for many years. It galvanises everyone within 主播大秀 S&PP. So front of mind听was the need to really deliver for the Strictly production. Strictly is not a programme where you want听there to be any risks taken at all. As well as making the stage look wonderful for the cameras, we also听had to consider all the backstage facilities and the technical provision for production teams. There's听been a huge amount of planning which has gone into that to make sure that all of those elements are in听place. We spent some time with members of the Strictly production team in the last few weeks of the 2013听run. You can see what Executive Producer Louise Rainbow and Lighting Director Mark Kenyon made of their Elstree experience in the video below.

Many of these considerations are the kind of thing TV audiences wouldn't necessarily see or think about听when they watch the programme, like the state of the dressing rooms or creating TV galleries听for what is now the largest studio in Europe with permanent TV galleries. But they are crucial to a well-run show and a quality end product.听We were constantly thinking, 'how can we make this sing' in terms听of production facilities? Being at Elstree Film & TV Studios gave us an opportunity to think听about how we could offer the very best facilities and when Strictly is on there's a palpable sense of听vibrancy and an energy there now. I really do think that since we've been here we've brought something to听the site working very collaboratively with the other organisations based here.听

Returning to Television Centre in 2015

Beyond 2013 and 2014, we are returning to Television Centre. Planning is already underway and we're getting excited听about what the refurbished site is going to be like. It will, of course, be very different from how we left听it. It will be a multi-use site which in itself brings opportunities and challenges in equal measure.听We started the planning work on this months ago, working very collaboratively听with the new owners Stanhope, the 主播大秀 and 主播大秀听Worldwide to ensure what we go back to is going to be fantastic.听

, we'll be going back to Studios 1, 2 and 3, but what we're having to do is听completely re-imagine how that section of Television Centre is going to work. Before we had a broader听footprint across the entire site. Now, everything is听going to be part of our 'zone' - all the areas around听those studios. So we're having to spend a lot of time thinking about how we can optimise those areas of听the building to include dressing rooms, production offices, TV galleries and audience areas, all the time听making sure there's a real sense of 'flow' on the site. Most importantly we want to make sure that when听people come back they feel they're returning to something great rather than coming back to something听where we've just closed the door and opened it again. It's also an opportunity to really take forward the听Television Centre site. We'll be putting new technical equipment into the galleries and听also refurbishing a lot of the other 'ancillary' production areas.

The galleries will be upgraded: right now we're thinking about what the future TV standards are going to听be and how we can create facilities with that flexibility for the future. You should see very flexible,听configurable galleries bringing together existing equipment we already have and supplementing that with听new technology.听

An inspiring place to work

Even when the studios are quiet or there aren鈥檛 high-profile shows being made, there鈥檚 an air of excitement along my route into the office, down the corridor which lines the many studios here.

It鈥檚 then I see all the pictures on the wall of all the films and TV programmes that have been made here 鈥� the heritage of Elstree. A place associated with the greats of both media. For me, that听brings a little glamour to my day.

主播大秀 Studios and Post Production is a fantastic company staffed by a group of people with huge energy and a听real 'can-do' attitude, who have grown up with the 主播大秀 and care passionately about all our customers. I feel privileged to work听with people who really care about what they do. That is really inspiring.

is CEO, 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production听听

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