This photo isn’t mine but it may be of historic interest. I understand that the first LG studio production from Studio D was in May 1950 in the shape of Wilfred Pickles. He is obvious in this photo of the studio from above, seated centre right whilst the pianist may well have been Violet Carson.

Mike Jordan

Love the overhead lighting rigs! Dozens of little car headlamp units? One HUGE camera.

And just look at the size of the boom mics.

And of course lots of very smartly dressed staff.

Alan Taylor

I was intrigued by those lights. As it was at a time when there would have been shortages of many materials, could they have been made from war surplus materials? Otherwise they might have been something left over from the days when it was a movie studio.

One of the memorable characters at Kendal Avenue was a vision supervisor called Ralph Parrot. When I knew him, he was close to retirement and occasionally talked about the early days of outside broadcasts. He was a very ingenious man and invented or adapted all manner of devices, often repurposing government surplus equipment. < More about him on a this page … >

Simon Vaughan

These overhead lighting rigs were first used pre-war at Alexandra Palace. They were designed by Desmond “Cam” Campbell and were referred to as “Camolights”.

Here are a few photographs from the Desmond Campbell archive of the lights on their rig in position and lowered to the studio floor.

John Howell

The boom mic in the foreground looks like a Blumlein/EMI HB1 as seen in a number of AP pictures. The mic in the upstage boom could be an early use of the ST&C 4033 which became the work-horse boom mic of the 1950s.

Thanks for the lovely picture.