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#233186 - 11/09/2004 22:47 BBC R&D open day Sunday 12th September 2004
andy
carpal tunnel

Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
If any one is in the Surrey area today and fancys having a nose at the BBC's R&D department at Kingswood Warren then you are in luck. They have having an open weekend this weekend, I went on Saturday and they are open again from 10:00-16:00 again on Sunday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/heritage2004/index.shtml

The R&D department is house in an old mansion, looks like a very unusual place to work. You don't get to see much of where the actual work goes on, mostly you get to see the downstairs reception rooms of the house. You do get to see a demo of their free-d virtual studio setup, which was intesting (lots of SGI horsepower and a funky blue screen that wasn't blue):




Yes, they even have their own croquet lawn.










Those odd black and white targets on the ceiling are so the camera can tell where it is and where it is pointing (the camera has another small camera on the top of it to look at the ceiling).


That is the funky blue screen, it appears grey until you shine blue LEDs at it. The cloth has lots of tiny glass beads so it reflects the blue light from the LEDs on the camera back at the camera. In those two pictures of the screen, in both cases the blue LEDs are on, but in one picture the screen isn't blue because my camera was off axis compared to where the camera with the LEDs on it was pointing.






I'm amazed the BBC have never been forced to sell off this site. It sits in the middle of a large, exclusive, private estate. The 100 acres of land it sits on must be worth at least 80 million UK pounds...

P.S. when you were out of the bright lights that studio was very dark, thank goodness for 3200 ISO/ASA
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#233187 - 12/09/2004 05:20 Re: BBC R&D open day Sunday 12th September 2004 [Re: andy]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1913
Loc: London
Quote:
I'm amazed the BBC have never been forced to sell off this site. It sits in the middle of a large, exclusive, private estate. The 100 acres of land it sits on must be worth at least 80 million UK pounds...



Good on them, wonder if Dyke & Yentob ever faced off on the crochet lawn, celebrity croquet death match style, those mallets look like they could do some damage...

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#233188 - 12/09/2004 15:13 Re: BBC R&D open day Sunday 12th September 2004 [Re: tahir]
andym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
Quote:
I'm amazed the BBC have never been forced to sell off this site. It sits in the middle of a large, exclusive, private estate. The 100 acres of land it sits on must be worth at least 80 million UK pounds...



The BBC have sold off the majority of their property to Land Securities Trillium which they are now leasing back. The BBC is now going full-tilt into asset stripping mode. I'll be surprised if there's an R&D department in a couple of years time, they've already tried to sell it once.

Trust me, the really interesting stuff is hidden away.
_________________________
Cheers,

Andy M

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#233189 - 12/09/2004 17:28 Re: BBC R&D open day Sunday 12th September 2004 [Re: andym]
andy
carpal tunnel

Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
Yeah, I looked in the BBC annual accounts to see if the Kingswood Warren site was valued. It wasn't, but I spotted that they had leased the whole of Television Center to Trillium (whoever they are) and had leased it back from them.
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday

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#233190 - 12/09/2004 17:40 Re: BBC R&D open day Sunday 12th September 2004 [Re: andy]
andym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
The new broadcast center is LST owned and they also outsourced the all the building services, ID and FOH departments around the UK to LST too.

It sucks to be in BBC at the moment.
_________________________
Cheers,

Andy M

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#233191 - 13/09/2004 08:55 Re: BBC R&D open day Sunday 12th September 2004 [Re: andym]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1913
Loc: London
Quote:
It sucks to be in BBC at the moment.


Good luck, I wish I could buy the beeb, give it some decent management and loads of money. Still the best broadcaster by a mile though

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#233192 - 13/09/2004 09:35 Re: BBC R&D open day Sunday 12th September 2004 [Re: tahir]
andym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
Thanks for the sentiment. Maybe I'm being a little pessimistic. Siemens seem to be bending over backwards to accomodate us. I suppose only time will tell wether it turns out to be a good move.
_________________________
Cheers,

Andy M

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