STLD Cardiff Visit

| By Martin Kempton

Photographs by Paul Middleton

The old BBC Llandaff site on the outskirts of Cardiff was purchased in 1952. The initial development of 6 sound studios, concert hall (later called Studio A), technical block and offices was completed in 1966.

TV Studio C2 (1,500 sq ft) came into service in 1974 and the main production studio C1 opened in December 1979. It was 80 x 62 metric feet within firelanes, making it about 6,500 sq ft overall. So somewhat smaller than the 8,000 sq ft production studios at Television Centre in London but similar in scale to the BBC’s main studios in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow at the time. So, a useful size and fully equipped with all the current technology of its day.

C1 was busy making programmes for Wales of course but was also used to make dramas and comedies shown throughout the UK. From 1980 to 2011 its regular booking was Welsh language soap, Pobol y to a new home in the Hoddinot Hall at the Wales Millennium Centre in January 2009. So that studio was also no longer in regular use. The writing was on the wall and in a bid to divest itself of bricks and mortar, BBC Llandaff was sold to Taylor Wimpey in 2015 to be demolished in due course and replaced with housing.

Cwm. This originally went out on BBC Wales but from 1982 it was transmitted on S4C. The show also used an exterior set, constructed at the back of the Llandaff main building. In March 2012 Pobol y Cwm moved to the new BBC drama studios at Roath Lock in Cardiff Bay. Crimewatch UK became a regular booking in C1 but that was axed in 2017. A few editions of the daytime spin-off Crimewatch Live did continue but the studio was now unused for much of the time. Of course, multicamera drama had ended many years before and music and variety shows tended to be made in much larger venues. Some years ago I lit a couple of shows in C1 – a sitcom called High Hopes and a celebrity music improv show called The Lyrics Game. I found the studio well-equipped and the local staff really friendly and helpful. Studio A had been intended to be used by the BBC Symphony Orchestra of Wales but this moved

Once the decision to move from Llandaff had been made, the BBC did a deal with Cardiff-based Rightacres Property, supported by Cardiff Council. The company would build a new HQ near Cardiff Station to be called BBC Central Square and lease it to the Corporation. This of course meant that the BBC did not have to raise the capital but unfortunately also meant that they didn’t have full control over some of the details of the building’s design, nor have day to day control of what can be installed

or rigged outside of the areas such as the permanent studios. Prior to COVID the entrance foyer and ground floor walkway had been intended to be open as a public area with various events that would allow the workings of the BBC to be seen up close, with the Ground Floor studios having large glazed windows open to the public to view what was going on inside. The logic of that design feature must have been queried at some point, but thanks to COVID there is currently no public access into the building, so it is not so much of an issue, as it might have been.

Unlikely as it might seem, the owners appear to have had in the back of their minds that they might have to convert it into a normal office block if the BBC decided to leave it in a few years’ time. It is roughly half the size of the old BBC Llandaff and is of course very green, with ‘chilled beams, locally sourced and recycled materials, an efficient envelope and rainwater harvesting tanks sufficient to cope with 27,000 flushes’. So that’s all right then. The building was designed by Foster + Partners and not surprisingly has won several awards – it is extremely impressive both inside and out with building costs being around £120 million. The new HQ was taken over by the BBC in April 2018 - its fit-out being completed by Overbury and Sheppard Robson. It is the first BBC building to solely use all IP technology. Specifically this means equipment which supports the SMPTE 2110 protocol standard, which then enables a great deal of flexibility in the use of various parts of the building for programme making. The system uses Livecore image processing and it can be relatively simply upgraded to UHD in the future if required. IP technology also enables people to work on editing and compiling programmes from a computer at a desk in the building or even from home, as happened during the lockdowns. The latest standard SMPTE 2022-7 is also supported which provides protection for video streams against equipment and mechanical cable failures with dual or multiple routes being used to receive and transmit programme material into the building.

Staff began to move in during the autumn of 2019 and it opened for business early in 2020, just in time for the Pandemic. However, this actually gave a breathing space to iron out any glitches and enabled a ‘soft’ launch. There is plenty of available space but of course staffers are expected to ‘hot desk’ rather than have their own desk. Fortunately there is not the problem of availability that is found at New Broadcasting House in London. Also, it was originally anticipated that BBC Studios would occupy part of this building but in fact they are based at Roath Lock, a couple of miles away in Cardiff Bay.

The fully automated news studio.

STLD visitors in the main studio on the ground floor.

BBC Wales Head of Technology Roger Crothers had originally offered the STLD a chance to visit to see the new building two years ago, but for obvious reasons the visit was

unable to happen at that time. Finally on 31st May this year a small, but perfectly formed, group of visitors from the STLD met at the local Wetherspoons next door to the new BBC Cymru Wales New Broadcasting House for lunch with a number of ex-BBC Wales staff attending who were keen to see what had replaced their beloved old HQ at Llandaff. We were then shown round by local BBC staff LD, Jonathan Griffiths. I should make it perfectly clear at this point that any less than enthusiastic comments from now on are entirely my point of view and nothing to do with Jonathan!

First impressions were extremely positive. It is in my opinion a much more attractive building than BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay, with an interesting variety of shapes and textures to lead the eye around it. This is not surprising, given that the architects were Foster + Partners. Like PQ, it has a large central atrium with open plan offices visible on each floor. The atrium has a curved wall that adds interest and the black coating to much of the metalwork contrasts with illuminated blocks in primary colours and some large LED screens displaying programme trails and other information. There is also a calming subdued silence to it - which is surprising, considering all the hard surfaces around. Above are skylight roof panels, letting sunlight into the space, casting interesting shadows from the building’s structure. In any normal office, this of course would be great – but let’s not forget that this huge area is also intended to be used for programme-making. It is apparently not possible to black these skylights out, which clearly poses a lighting challenge during daylight hours.

This large area has already been used for Eisteddfod programmes – which as every self-respecting Englishman knows is what the Welsh get up to on a regular basis. Loads of singing, dancing, music-making, poetry reading… in fact glorious creative activity at an extraordinarily high standard by thousands of local people. I wish we in England had something similar. Anyway, these festivals are held in various places around Wales, often as very professionally staged OBs, but some months ago one was presented in the atrium of this building. A truss rig was installed to light the area but despite how useful it would be to have such a thing as a permanent feature, the building’s management insisted that it had to be removed afterwards. Ho hum.

The atrium has also been used for some editions of the BBC Ten O’clock News, with Huw Edwards anchoring the show in front of the LED screens on the walls. Although this area is clearly a very useful part of the building for programme makers, it is in theory open to the public - which possibly provides Security with a bit of a challenge when a live show is being made.

This might be a good point to cover what the BBC does here. It includes the News for Wales in English and Welsh – the latter going out on S4C. There are also several radio studios, for local news and other programmes. Sport events are often presented from this building – rugby unsurprisingly being popular. Local magazine programme Wales Live is made here – this uses the Betty Campbell Studio: a room about 40 x 30ft with large glass doors opening onto the atrium. Actually, this is not officially a TV studio but was initially intended as a meeting room or to be hired out to companies for conferences. However, it has had a lighting grid installed and can have cameras brought in from another studio, controlled from one of the 3 gallery suites in the building. Good to see the local TV staffers claiming a very useful area for themselves.

The official proper TV studio on the ground floor is studio 0A. (0 being the floor number so nothing to do with a popular Netflix sci-fi series.) This is the direct replacement for Llandaff’s studio A – but unfortunately is far smaller at only about 3,500 sq ft. (NB – BBC Scotland’s HQ which opened in 2007 has a very impressive production studio of 8,400 sq ft so Wales seems to have missed out here.) So no sitcoms, panel shows or gameshows will be made in here. The studio is used for local sport and magazine programmes but is also where Crimewatch Live now comes from.

At one end there is a curved window overlooking the atrium forming a very effective acoustic amplifier just where the presenters’ desk is often located that must make the job of the sound supervisor something of a challenge. The vertical windows also reflect studio lights and other bright objects with the effectiveness that could have been predicted but sadly wasn’t.

| Above: The atrium

Examining the impressive Radio Times collection

DeSisti motorised bars but these are always set at full height. Apparently the grid was initially even lower due to the original installation of aircon ducts – but fortunately these were relocated.

Another challenge to the LD is an area about a third of the way along the studio of approximately 2.5 metres width where there are no lighting bars or any other way of suspending lights. This is due to a dividing door, which was considered to be a useful facility so that two programmes could use the studio at the same time – one in English and the other in Welsh – using different galleries of course.

The old Llandaff Studio C1 had been successfully split into two on a number of occasions using a large (and heavy) temporary lead lined acoustic wall that was rigged across the centre of the studio with twin production sets either side being used to host Election Results programmes simultaneously in English and Welsh and it was felt that having that same type of facility would be useful if it was built into the new Studio OA design. This function has I believe not yet been used but the gap in the rig is clearly a significant challenge. The lighting fixtures are all LED of course, but curiously a mix of daylight and tungsten colour balance.

It’s not all bad of course – in fact, far from it. Connectivity is superb, the IP infrastructure enabling any of the 3 galleries to control the studio. There is a modestly sized room for camera / lighting / props storage and nearby is an internal bay for an OB truck to park, in case this is required to provide additional facilities. Or, it would be but unfortunately it’s not quite large enough for BBC Wales’ current scanner to park inside it.

So, onwards and upwards to the second floor, where we found the two news studios. Studio 2A is I’m guessing about 2,000 sq ft. It is equipped with high-res LED screens on 3 sides, the 4th having windows looking out onto the very large newsroom. The cameras are all remotely controlled with preprogrammed positions, including two that are suspended from above on tracks enabling them to move across the studio at varying heights, like the ones in Sky’s mezzanine news studio. These pose an interesting lighting challenge as the poles that suspend them pass in front of the lighting rig. The solution is to have multiple small softlights so any shadows are minimised. The other cameras are on robotic pedestals but these do not run on tracks – they can move on their own anywhere in the studio. Camera positions are registered using an upward looking camera on each one which sees hundreds of tiny marks on the grid. In this way it can establish its position with great accuracy – but woe betide any unwary studio visitor who gets in the way.

The positions are all preprogrammed into the running order along with screen graphics, VT inserts, music stings, lighting cues and of course the script itself. The system is called Viz Mosart and is also used by the BBC’s London news studios. On our visit we were privileged to watch a programme trail being recorded. The director pressed a button to start the process and counted down the seconds in the presenter’s ear. (There is no floor manager.) The whole thing ran automatically – although the actual sound balance was done by a real live sound supervisor in his separate control room. Hurrah! This of course is essential because any news broadcast will have incoming sound from so many different sources at various levels and timings. You may be aware that a certain TV news channel came a cropper with its completely automated sound when it launched in 2021.

This studio is genuinely really impressive – as is the gallery suite supporting it. The lighting console is an ETC EOS – a fader wing enables keys to be ridden but usually this is not necessary – all the cues are pre-programmed and linked to the camera setups.

The studio is used for both English and Welsh language news programmes. These are normally scheduled to go out at different times but occasionally they clash. That is when studio 2B is used, via another gallery.

2B is a greenscreen studio and is possibly the smallest of its kind I have ever seen. Although a decent length at about 25 feet, the working area is barely 10 feet wide, leaving hardly enough space for 2 manned cameras on peds, let alone a presenter or two. I was extremely impressed with how effectively this was lit – perhaps the ultimate (no pun intended) TV lighting challenge. It is mystifying how such a tiny space was earmarked to be used as such an important studio, when it is next to a vast empty floor of hundreds of square metres. What a shame. There was a lot more that we saw – including an attractive roof garden and an extraordinary collection of every Radio Times ever published – but I hope I have covered the important stuff.

I’m sorry if this has come across as a negative report. There was so much about this building that was beautiful and well-designed but for whatever reason, some of the practical needs of programme makers seem to have been overlooked. With a few tweaks costing nothing, this could have been a world-class broadcasting centre. Instead, the dedicated staff here will spend their time battling against the various obstacles put in their way - nevertheless creating, I’m sure, excellent programmes.

I would like to express my thanks to Paul Middleton for arranging this visit and to Jonathan Griffiths for showing us around so patiently and explaining all about the building in such an interesting way. I must emphasise again that any criticisms are my opinion and not his. He and his colleagues have clearly done their best to create a new facility in the face of many practical obstacles not under their control.