Dave Buckley
Some photos of TV Training setting up in the Music studio for one of the Elstree open days, where TV Training had a ‘fly like Superman’ display where the public could have their ‘flight’ recorded onto a short VHS tape. It was the most popular exhibit and was setup for the four or so open days that were run at Elstree over the years.
The late Ed Boyce testing out the setup. The camera was routed through a Sony vision mixer for the BG, flying through New York, to be inserted from a local VT.
Wide shot of the setup.
Alan Davies, one of TV Trainings engineers, trying his hand at the ‘read the news’ set-up.
One of my neighbour’s daughters flying, with Dave Buckley just in the right of the picture
[Ed: the following was originally an email exchange between Dave Buckley and David Taylor]
Dave Buckley
[Although nothing] to do with open days I [emailed] David Taylor giving him as much info as I could remember about sound lines routing around the studios,
Could I suggest you read the PDF:
and I will add comments about Elstree in this email to particular pages.
I cover TVT’s move to Elstree from page three to end and would add the following technical notes:
1. For the first open day in 1984, I was asked to rig PA feeds to various areas, being fed from inside Studio C. I put a LS at the top of the stairs outside C’s production control room to cover the studio: in the long corridor outside Studios C and D, I placed two powered LSU1s back-to-back to cover the whole corridor, and in the Music studio I had a Spendor unit on top the covered door into the area from (I think) Studio C. The main problem was getting the power and feeds to the various speakers. Power wasn’t a problem, but finding where sound lines went was. In a number of areas, there was a multi-way plug and socket system which enabled the sockets for that area to be routed back to a central place – for example the music studio could be routed to Studio C or Studio D sound. I think the band room (later Studio E) was on the system as well. (Note that all this took place 40 years ago, and I could be mistaken). The main problem I had was not enough long leads, and it is probable that I brought my own cable reel in which had several very long leads on it.
2. The music studio: as well as being used by TVT for open days, the studio was used in the late 1980s for recordings of one of the BBC orchestras. I think this was during the time that there was rebuilding work going on in BH concert hall. I know that it was very pleasant to walk along the corridor alongside the music studio when sessions were going on, as the door nearest the long corridor was left open and the sound coming out was great. Any musicians that weren’t needed for a time, would come out for a smoke! So far as I know the mixer was in the old sound control room at one end of the studio.
As an aside, I was told by House Services, that a loaded revolver was found in a wall of the music studio: the find was, of course, reported to the police!
3. Band room and vocal booth to Studio D – see page 4 of the PDF: TVT didn’t use this area for what it was designed for and wouldn’t have had any use for it anyway. When we took over the area, it had been the Muppets’ workshop and some props were still there.
It wasn’t long after TVT moved to Elstree that work started on converting the area to another studio. I landed up designing the layout of the combined production gallery, using the units brought from Woodstock Grove. Sadly I didn’t own a camera at that time, so there aren’t any photos, but the sound desk/equipment bay came from the WG sound area, and I attach a photo of the desk when at WG with me at the controls.
This was one of a series of technical area photos taken by a colleague which were displayed around the corridors at WG, but became redundant when we moved to Elstree, which is why I have it hanging on a wall in my den!
In 1995 the whole area was refurbished and a new sound mixer installed in what had been Studio E’s Green Room. The old mixer went to a good home at a Hospital Radio Service in Nottingham! The production control room was upgraded with a new vision mixer.
David Taylor
I was interested to hear of the Elstree set up, which you say was in the music studio. I’ve been writing some ‘sound history’ and have covered the change over to the BBC in 1984/5 after ATV were forced out of Elstree. The ATV ‘band room’ was used for pre-recording the band for the Muppets regularly and it was linked to the Neve in Studio D when doing that.
