Sound Management – ironic, huh?
Pat Heigham
John-John was fairly insistent that I applied for Grams training, as that was a stepping stone to Sound Supervisor, since one got to be familiar with Sound Control rooms etc. I didn’t really want to leave the floor, as that, to me, was where all the show biz action was. However, I did take his advice and never looked back.
Dave Mundy
You can’t promote good operators and expect them to be good managers, each to his own as they say. There are exceptions such as Jeff Baker, even Larry Goodson was learning the trade before being seduced by higher things at TVC, however some people would never make the grade to be respected by their staff and have the confidence to make the right decisions about their careers.
John-John’s crowning glory was ‘Sypher’ which led to the Beeb’s post-production empire, so he deserves credit for that.
Dave Plowman
It always seemed odd to me that a manager should be ‘responsible’ for something like this – John John with Sypher, Sam with his Music Studio. Or did they in fact canvass those who were to use them, and give them what was wanted?
Thames TV, by the way, had electronic audio post rather before Sypher. Using an in house cruder version of time code. Quite an achievement for a smallish company. They soon jumped from that 6 track system to the Studer TLS which was the basis of Sypher – but with a 16 track A80.
Nick Way
I believe their locking system was called Teddington Lock! (joke)
Dave Plowman
Actually, “Medway”.
Nick Ware
And what about Q-lock? Wasn’t that around before Sypher? ISTR that Qu-lock couldn’t run past midnight, which was probably its best attribute!
Dave Plowman
Not sure which came first. But both Studer Tape Lock System and Q-Lock used SMPTE code.
‘We’ also had a Q-Lock at Teddington in the music studio. TLS being reserved for the dubbing suites. Quite liked it – it was the tape op’s tool rather than the SS, as with TLS.
I used to code up tapes starting at 23:58:00 to give 2 minutes for line up. Then 00:00:00 was the start of the real stuff. If it lost code, it could go off in the direction it last remembered, which gave rise to the notion it wouldn’t run over 24:00. What was clever is it didn’t need to read time code all the time (it used the tape machine tach at high speed), so very handy as an auto locater, when not running locked to another machine.
Not without its quirks, of course. Most of which I’ve forgotten – as with so much else. One was that when it got roughly where it wanted to be was to sniff the TC to make sure it was spot on – then stop in lock. And played audio at the same time it sniffed. One learned to mute the audio when this was happening to avoid annoying everyone else.
Auto record could also be useful for a difficult drop in, as you could rehearse it.
Tony Crake
I avoided the 3 stooges as much as possible…
I was supposed to have my annual interview with No1 Sam H.. but each year he was always on holiday. so I got Hugh Barker instead (who was Acting SM). He showed me the personnel file – it seemed to be largely empty, no forms to sign or anything like that. "Oh! Well!" he said "I think its nearly that sort of time already." So we repaired to the bar… the funny thing was that in my time at TVC Hugh and I never ever worked together. Every year we did the same, had a good laugh about it, and went for a beer and I never had an Annual Interview!
SM 2 (JJ) I avoided at all costs… I spent hours listening to Rufus Cartwright! JJ didn’t like his gold lamé trousers (very Carnaby Street ! ) They were a damn site smarter than some of the strange ‘Gardening bags’ some people turned up in !
I received a BBC Memo from SM3 asking me to report to some room in Lime Grove to find out why I had never had an Annual Interview! I toddled over there. It didn’t seem to exist… I spotted a fireman trudging round checking fire extinguishers and asked him if he had any idea where the Room was… after great deliberation he decided it must be a joke! I went to the Entry Hall and asked the BBC Commissionaire. "No," he said, " No Idea."
I think it may have been a joke but to this day I have no idea…
It was so nice to go to OBs at Kendal Av and have a thoroughly nice chap to talk to for your Sound Manager: Colin White
Dave Plowman
Wasn’t it J-J who had a go at people wearing jeans – when working on a rock show?
Brian Curtis
Management …
A woman in a hot air balloon realised she was lost.
She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted: "’Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am".
The man below replied, "You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be a technician." said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the man, "how did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you have told me is probably technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip with your talk."
The man below responded, "You must be in management."
"I am" replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the man "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my **** fault!
Pat Heigham
In spite of ‘management’ there were enough dedicated folks in production concerned enough to ignore restrictions and made brilliant, entertaining and epic programmes, which were great to work on, and 50/60 years on are still looked up to.
However, I am grateful to the BBC for providing a superb training which stood me in great stead when I ventured into the world of film. I had an offer to work on a feature film, which I wanted to take up, as a stepping stone into the film industry. I was supposed, under the terms of my contract, to give so many weeks notice. The film offer was really imminent, and if the Corp could not let me go in time, then it was lost.
Personnel cobbled together all my leave outstanding, plus various DOILS and TOILS (remember them?) and released me.
At my final goodbye interview with HTOTelS, he asked me if I had any questions. I asked him why they hadn’t blocked my resignation through lack of notice. His reply was, that had they done so, they would have had an unhappy employee on their hands, and that would not have done.
I reckon that was a good example of people management.
(and no – I don’t think they just wanted to get rid of me! At my last drink up at the TVC Club, one of the Admin assistants spilt the beans on the final entry to my file – ‘if this employee re-applies to re-join, his application should given the most sympathetic consideration!’ In fact, HTOTelS had said that if in 5 years, had it not worked out, he didn’t see a problem with me coming back in. As it turned out, after 5 years I was building a career in the film industry, which I had always wanted.)
John Henshall
I’ve looked out the (supposedly secret) report from John-John from my personal file wot I got from the middle management orifice just before I left:
“…Henshall’s knowledge of audio terms is average. He needs more experience to become familiar with all of them. His studio work has been very satisfactory, being quick and accurate in carrying out allotted tasks. He show initiative, good physical ability in Boom operating and gets on well socially with other members of the crew. he has no preference for a particular section as yet, but is a suitable person for further training on Sound. (28th February 1962)…”
I had thought that that was somewhat damning but from what I’ve read recently it now seems almost glowing. I would’ve been happy on sound had it not been that I’d noticed that directors bought drinks for cameramen but didn’t seem to know who the sound people were.
I was probably disliked by Bull because I ran Telefex (behind cover) and was the first BBC cameraman in the Guild of Television Cameramen. Bill Vinten told me shortly before he died that he had been told by BBC management to avoid the Guild as it was a nascent union/pressure group. Instead, he welcomed us with open arms.
Most of BBC middle management was …
[Ed: but it is the same in all large organisations!]
Roger Bunce
I quite liked most of the local Craft Managers. At least they USED to do something useful!
