A BBC training tape from 1987. Including VT playouts of Top Of The Pop's and Tomorrow's World. Featuring the Wood Norton training centre and TVC VT department
@Darren Tipple With the BBC and the rest of the industry only really employing technical staff on freelance contracts (where therefore job security is non-existent) it will have been better in the 80s.
@@stickytapenrust6869 Yes it was by 1989 the number of in house staff had seriously reduced in just 5 years and as we moved into the 1990s under 'Producer Choice' this continued as the number of people working in house reduced further as external production companies were starting to massively undercut the price of the work/activity being done by people employed within.
@@Robert_Manners The opinion I have built up of John Birt by people like yourselves is that he was an absolute Thatcherite shitfuck. Apparently his colleagues at LWT and Granada TV before that thought him an arsehole too.
@@stickytapenrust6869 It's fair to say he was not very popular and was often referred to as been somewhat 'Strange' in his temperament. As the efficiency savings or redundancy levels began to rise in the mid 1990s his popularity reduced a lot more.
I've just come across this again, many years after I left the VT department. I remember and worked with most of the people in the video. Great times in a great organisation.
Just came across this. I was extremely lucky to become an operator in the early 90's and got the tail end of this hayday. I even got to work there in tvc stage 5 and the basement as a vt op. I have worked in many places and roles in the last 29 years, but that time in tvc was absolutely the best.
I was in the VT Dept at this time. I left when Birt started breaking everything and the ITV franchises were heading south in a similar way . The extensive training (Both at Wood Norton and in London), the people and the superb working conditions were simply amazing. I was so lucky to be a part of something special.
Fascinating programme, thanks for posting. It just shows what a tense job it was when any little glitch and 10000000 people would be on your case! Yes this was a time when you got your moneys worth out of the BBC fee, compared to the tripe thats on there now.
I joined the TV industry a couple years after this, in the rival satellite tv sector. No long elaborate training, just learning on the job. No massive support network, as the Transmission controller and assistant covered most of these tasks.. on the plus side we had much up to date equipment and the freedom to make decisions on the spot, ourselves. Plus we would be doing a 12 hour shift. By the nineties, at MTV & Discovery I was broadcasting (alone, with an engineer to handle equipment failures) to 20 million plus viewers, across Europe handling multiple channels, with subtitles and multiple language audio. I had various BBC guys in for training (they were moonlighting) and the were always nervous at how much one person was responsible for... no big support network. I miss it all (but only occasionally)!
I wish I still had that shirt... Great to see this again. I remember Dave, Graham, Roland and Jane making it. Excellent souvenir of bits of TK and VT. All the familiar faces!
@@andrewsmith2757 I know that some of the surviving 2" Quad tapes that were transferred to Panasonic D1 & D3 cassette were donated to the BFI and have been since used again as the early digital copies made were felt to be not of adequate quality to be used for DVD 📀 releases.
@@Robert_Manners - I've since read that a lot of them get offered to the BFI. I think the BFI choose the ones they want to keep and decided to keep mainly the very historical ones. Thanks for the reply.
@Andrew Smith - Thank you for asking and I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to reply to your question - this is the first time I’ve read these comments for a long time! Although I left the BBC in 1989, I understand they have since digitised most if not all of their videotape archive, some of which is now kept in temperature and humidity controlled vaults at the BFI National Archive (where I now work, incidentally!).
Thanks for finding this footage, I was on VT shift two and left that department one year after this film was made. Love the pictures of Telecine that I’d forgotten about, and Wendy Webb Presenting, just gold dust. It’s nearly 30 years on and I’m still freelance editing but now at NBH amongst other locations. Thanks again for sharing this video - Keith Palmer
BBC also organized similar 10 week intensive courses around the world. I attended one in '98. Although the focus was on the news, we pretty much had to go through everything, from news reporting, to operating cameras, editing, presenting, graphics, even marketing. It included a complete production of an evening news bulletin. There were two groups, TV and radio, with about 10 students in each group. Accommodation was covered and we had an allowance for food that was close to an average national salary at the time (about 200 pounds a month). Unforgettable experience!!!
what did you do with that experience? i'm considering doing it but at the same time i can't afford to leave a full time job for a 6 week course. did you get work straight afterwards?
That even goes back to my 1972 Ampex Type-A VPR5800 with a video editor. (Still have it, still runs). Always thought the intention was to make sure each reel was rewound correctly.
I grew up and still live in a wee village near the Isle of Skye. I still remember seeing a camera crew for the news for the first time on the pier at Kyle of Lochalsh. I was born in the late 70s and everything has changed so much.😊
I graduated high school in the U.S. (Kentucky) the year this was produced in 1987. I actually lived at RAF Sculthorpe the first 4 years of my life as my father was a sergeant in the USAF and grew up watching BBC Television programs like Doctor Who and Monty Python. I truly wanted to back to England to get into a Beeb technical training program but figured out pretty quick that is difficult if not next to impossible for a non national...too bad I wasn't born in country like my younger sister (at RAF Lakenheath). I considered pursuing a degree program in film or television but ended up going into theater which I didn't complete at the university level. I really enjoyed seeing this program as it gave me a good idea on what I might have experienced if I could have gotten into the VR training program. Thanks for uploading it here on RUclips!
Fred. Bless him. I think I was there maning the stage V control room, when Bob and himself were getting the bad news. Two of the best managers I ever had.
I was at Wood Norton as a TA not long after the Bredon Wing (and what was under that) was built. TAs and TOs did the A Course in parallel. After the A, B and C Courses I did some time On Station, but was ultimately arm-twisted (double the salary) to join EMI and became a Senior Project Engineer. I seem to remember that the Manager at the Evesham Club was the brother of Harry Corbett - Sooty and Sweep? Ahh, that green BBC Bus taking us from Wood Norton into Evesham!
My career could have taken a very different path if I had gone for a job like this with the BBC. I had all the right interests and electronics qualifications in 1987. But alas the BBC in Plymouth were not recruiting and I didn't want to move to London. So I worked for Plessey (like the chap at 17:19) and had a career in semiconductors. Only about 15 years ago did I finally get back to audio and video equipment.
It's pretty weird to think all the best shows and my most beloved shows (Dad's Army, Doctor Who etc.) all come from here. Sadly these people didn't think to keep all the video tapes for future generations that's why so many are lost forever.
CBC like BBC .... is not the same friendly, neutral environment to work in !!!! Those golden television production times .... are gone, a long time ago :o(
@@bluebellbeatnik4945 Those public stations in their PEAK, they served very well national interest that time !!! Not like these days they are bending to the site of so - called "political correctness" at all the time, for any possible way !! It's NOT right !!!!
Takes me back, I was there in the late 80's, even remember some of my ex colleagues in the video. Still in TV, although the processes are very different now. Only 3 of us here in the station would remember 1"C format machines, never mind 2" quads.
This was probably the peak of TV. Fun, great sound, great digital effects simple to use, workers were like a team, not like today when the TV is boring, dark, compressed sound, with even such powerful computers no good looking effects, workers are a team only with computer, and people are watching signal breaking and blocky picture of this digital TV.
And Telecine Area was at 2nd floor of Central Wedge between TC3 and TC4, just before transfer began to Stage 5. Later this area made as control room for BBC One and BBC Two. (before transfer to BBC Broadcast Centre, in White City Village)
P.S. Telecine at Stage 5 didn't last so long, it was again transferred to Stage 6, then former telecine area converted to News accommodation (Studio N6, News Suites 1-12, Studio N10)
And how lucky budding creators are today..... Second hand HD Video Camera with SD Card, PC with Sony Vegas, and RUclips to be your Station....and thy sky's the limit... :) ....actually even easier really... Stream Live to your RUclips channel with smart phone... from the street !
Take a housepoint Christian! The kit here is close to the end of the analogue era and the hands-on element is a joy to behold. I worked in Tel-Rec a few years before this was shot. To see the Ampex VPR2's and Cintel TK's in use is great. Good Job!
That Irish guy used to cut some of my trails. With the inevitable move to server technology, meaning they don't have to spend millions on expensive equipment requiring constant TLC, what did they do with the savings? Ah yes, Danny Cohen's salary, and Alan Yentob's, and a host of others, plus their private medical insurance, their bonuses etc.
I would've LOVED a gig at this right out of high school back in 1983; however I was living in the suburbs of Philadelphia PA and I knew NOTHING of this being a job opportunity...
I hadn't realised that the Cintel Mk. 2 TK was still being used in the days when C format video had already replaced Quad. The Mk 2 has some similarities to the look of later (1950s) Kalee projectors. Of course, Rank owned both Kalee and Cintel at one time.
My first job in TV was operating the CIntel machines at Lime Grove, TK3, which often carried the majority of an evening's transmissions. At that time a good 35mm print on TK3 produced some of the best quality pictures possible on 405 lines. We worked in either TK or VT, never both. Exciting and stimulating times, and the beginning of a long career in TV. I was also surprised to find the Mk 2 still being used intensively in 1987.
How come Maggie Philbin didn't call me back on the telly? Perhaps I should have gone to Visionhire rather than Radio Rentals! I would have loved this job back then.....
I was trained in College on all that analogue equipment and, by the time I was trying to advance a career in the industry, they were replacing all that with digital suites. Not funny having to learn your job twice.
Whata hell !!!! I was going through the three systems "conversions" in the television broadcast industry in my life .... real-to-real, U-matic & Beta SP / Beta SX-digital / File Management System recording & playback .... and I had to finally give up on the last, fully digital one in 2010. It was enough of it for the engineer video tape operator getting older faster then normally !!!! :o)
5:43 I totally feel Sally's anxiety, even now when I have to work a live show, especially now since 90% of everything is run by me on my own when I direct. At least I don't have to physically wind the media to do inserts. Also, I don't think I've ever directed a show with even a fraction of the audience that Tomorrow's World would have gotten in 1987.
Those machines were very expensive so they had to be used a lot to make them pay their way. Generally 12-15 hours a day 7 days a week. Plus very early morning maintenance before the first shift.
it was the training center, not the BBC studios. So more of a formation place for students rather than a workplace. On the other hand there's another video of tape editing in the BBC also from the 80s and some dude is smoking there. That's 100000000x more gross than them shorts 😂😂😂
Probably all digitised now and archived on huge servers Tape degrades over the years so needs to be converted before it's too late (also the machines that used to play them are quite rare (especially working) old TOTP are being played on BBC 4 currently (not from tape though 😉)
3:33 - 3:46 I spotted Sammy singing 'Nothings gonna stop me now', did I miss something or is that from that weeks TOTP? If so, is there anything more from that recording or a link to the full program?
9:17 'I've been working here for six months now and... I'm about to start in videotape.' To think there was a time when we were taught film before videotape. He's been there six months and he has yet to learn about the lesser of the two broadcast media which will eventually entirely replace the better version he has already learned in the first six months. There is great significance to this sentence in terms of how it illustrates the changes for the worse that occurred through the late 80s/early 90s in particular. Remember Star Trek: The Next Generation? Do you know why you can't get a widescreen blu-ray of that series? Because it was shot on shitty video in 4:3, whereas the original series (from the 1960s) you can.
Worked both in analogue broadcast and digital. Star Trek: The Next Generation was shot on 35mm film and transferred to videotape via a telecine process (3:2 pulldown), not on videotape. The original series was also shot on film and later transferred to videotape in a telecine process. The 35mm film frame is naturally closer to a 4:3 aspect ratio being a square, while wider aspect ratios on 35mm film is optically squeezed with an anamorphic lens. The picture quality is actually optically reduced slightly in widescreen when shot with an anamorphic lens. However, the originally 35mm elements would need to be rescanned in HD and both re-composited as well as reframed as the composition would be quite different. Additionally, commercially available videotape based broadcast systems in the 80s and 90s were interlaced -- in the UK, 25fps and in North America 29.97. Film would have been running at 24fps with a distinct motion cadence that could not be replicated in video at that time period, hence the 3:2 pulldown. The reason you can't get a "widescreen Blu-Ray" is because the series was storyboarded and framed for 4:3. In order to get 16:9 you would have to crop the image. As some of the visual compositions would look strange, the optical elements would need to be recomposited. Rescanning the 35mm elements and recompositing is a very expensive process. It could be done and the quality would be quite high, but it comes down to cost. CBS/Paramount would have to archive all the original 35mm elements, telecine/re-scan, then recomposite for final output.
2:49 Why the two reels of the video tape on the VTR run in the opposite direction? In my mind they should run in the same direction or it is not possible for the tape to go from a reel to another reel.
The C format machines shown had a large rotating drum that the video playback heads sat on - the contra-rotating reels are just a consequence of the tape wrap needed to get good tape contact and tension control. Google VPR20 if you want to see a wild tape spool layout......
That's because on an Ampex VPR2 (the model these machines are), the tape comes off and arrives on the left sides of both reels. So the feed reel will therefore be spinning anti-clockwise, the takeup reel clockwise. Most models, though had the tape coming off and going on to the two reels on opposite sides, so if it comes off the left side of the feed reel and is wrapped up on the right side of the takeup reel, the two reels would therefore have to turn in the same direction.
@@graemeconnelly8849 Because today they only have a small fraction of the staff they employed in those days. Digital has made almost everything you see in this video obsolete.
@@graemeconnelly8849 A friend of mine worked as a sound engineer for German television in the 80s. He lost his job in 2012 and now has his own little recording studio.
How the Tv presenters achieve the inflated salaries that they do is ridiculous as the hard skilled work is done by these gifted people whereas most presenting jobs can be done by any joe blogs who would not know how to even press pause on a tape recorder
I remember that a telecine went wrong when a film snapped which was Star Trek film. Lol very funny but scary at the time! And they must had a hard job doing vt!
@@curiousorange7723 A splice had come apart. Because Star Trek was American all the US commercial breaks had to be cut out, This would have been done in the 60s using a cement joining compound which sometimes didn't age well, the operator would have quickly rejoined with the more reliable sticky tape method, and now old prints are always checked for old cement joins and replaced.
@@Witheredgoogie Bit late here! Apparently the BBC didnt show the cold opening, it was edited in after the credits. That's what failed apparently. I remember watching Star Trek as it was originally shown,looked strange!lol.
@@martinhughes2549 Hi Martin. I thought the 70s showings were well slick, all the padding had been cut out and the BBC globe use to dissolve into "space the final frontier".It was when they repeated much later the studio had sent them the show on VT, these looked terrible (obviously converted to Pal etc) and the sound was somewhat slurred. So I think they went back to their old prints but as you say they had to re-instate what they had originally cut out.
This would never fly in a highly unionized broadcast facility. I had worked at the 4th network until it was purchased by Metromedia. We were an IATSE shop. Tape operators were tape operators, not audio, camera, lighting, technical directors etc. As a tape operator yoy got paid to know tape, inside and out. You were not allowed to perform any maintenance either, as that was performed by a different type of person. We had an dedicated tape maint person whos job it was to keep the machine fully operational. A tape operator could never be called upon to operate a camera aa the union would scream about that. Some people that came into tape wanted to edit right away. Thats not how it worked. You were assigned a position that day in the tape room. From playback inserts into a recorded show to on air playback. Once the supervisor was satisfied in your knowledge, u moved onto recording. Once the supervisor was satisfied with your in depth knowledge how the machine records, you may ne asked to edit. You begin by editing inserts fir the news. You are not responsible for creative content, thats what directors are for. They are creative, you are technical. Each has a job to do and each are very different
*Hello Ms. Sally Wade @ BBC (in 80's of XX-th Century).* You were such a nice British chick ... junior VTR operator at that time, when this film was made (1987). I have to admit it here, just because you were such a good looking young chick in 1987 !!!! I am presuming, that U R not working anymore, because I am not working, too. I started my profession, working for the Polish National Television Network (TVP) in 1977. Later on at the end of 90's I worked in a couple of the Canadian Televisions also, performing duties as a TV cameraman and also being digital VTR operator, working usually that time on Beta & Beta SX digital format machines. All my professional life I loved television, even if it was not an easy piece of bread, giving me so much stress and frustration, sometimes. I hope, that you are still in a good health even these days, and enjoying the rest of your personal life, eh ????
I agree with comments about the US - I no way would any US network or TV station attempt to get new employees - Seems I was born in the wrong time and maybe the wrong country
Hi Katie. Many people in the video and many who we didn't see there continued to work for the BBC throughout its many changes and challenges which followed. Others moved on at various times to work for other broadcasters and independent facilities companies, including me. After 26 years of doing that job in various places, I'm now a sound engineer at the BFI digitally remastering, restoring and archiving British film soundtracks for cinema, internet and blu-ray/DVD.
I should also say that many staff there were made redundant. Very sad indeed when there was so much talent and dedication there. I hope most of them were able to find a place somewhere else doing what they loved and were extremely good at.
+UncleFeedle Well everyone else in the video didn't have a mullet or huge specs, It wasn't a horrible either My cousin in the 80's that had to wear glasses by 1985 he wore contacts
That's the way of the world, kid, not just the BBC. And he'll only be guaranteed the work if he actually signs an employment contract. If there's no employment contract, then there's nothing to guarantee.
Наука
I bet the BBC was a good place to work back in the 80s....not now
@Darren Tipple With the BBC and the rest of the industry only really employing technical staff on freelance contracts (where therefore job security is non-existent) it will have been better in the 80s.
@@stickytapenrust6869 Yes it was by 1989 the number of in house staff had seriously reduced in just 5 years and as we moved into the 1990s under 'Producer Choice' this continued as the number of people working in house reduced further as external production companies were starting to massively undercut the price of the work/activity being done by people employed within.
@@Robert_Manners The opinion I have built up of John Birt by people like yourselves is that he was an absolute Thatcherite shitfuck.
Apparently his colleagues at LWT and Granada TV before that thought him an arsehole too.
@@stickytapenrust6869 It's fair to say he was not very popular and was often referred to as been somewhat 'Strange' in his temperament. As the efficiency savings or redundancy levels began to rise in the mid 1990s his popularity reduced a lot more.
Nah, it would still be a great place to work now.
I've just come across this again, many years after I left the VT department. I remember and worked with most of the people in the video. Great times in a great organisation.
Just came across this. I was extremely lucky to become an operator in the early 90's and got the tail end of this hayday. I even got to work there in tvc stage 5 and the basement as a vt op. I have worked in many places and roles in the last 29 years, but that time in tvc was absolutely the best.
Same as you Matt ... Shift 2 here ... TK/Basement and a bit of Stage 5 :)
I was in the VT Dept at this time. I left when Birt started breaking everything and the ITV franchises were heading south in a similar way . The extensive training (Both at Wood Norton and in London), the people and the superb working conditions were simply amazing. I was so lucky to be a part of something special.
Do you know why they scrapped so many archives in the early 1990s, after promising it wouldn't happen again in the late 1970s?
I feel like WN is exactly the same now as it was back then. I was there in 2019 and it felt trapped in time
Really goid to see this again, I was in VT Current Ops from 1983 to 1989, the best working days of my life.
Brendan Mallon is still working for the BBC, 36 years later.
It is so much better talking about this than actually doing it ever was. I am deeply proud that I did. This was shot about a decade after I joined.
Fascinating programme, thanks for posting. It just shows what a tense job it was when any little glitch and 10000000 people would be on your case! Yes this was a time when you got your moneys worth out of the BBC fee, compared to the tripe thats on there now.
An old hand in the lighting department once said "if it goes wrong, the worst that can happen is that a few thousand people won't get entertained"
I joined the TV industry a couple years after this, in the rival satellite tv sector. No long elaborate training, just learning on the job. No massive support network, as the Transmission controller and assistant covered most of these tasks.. on the plus side we had much up to date equipment and the freedom to make decisions on the spot, ourselves. Plus we would be doing a 12 hour shift. By the nineties, at MTV & Discovery I was broadcasting (alone, with an engineer to handle equipment failures) to 20 million plus viewers, across Europe handling multiple channels, with subtitles and multiple language audio. I had various BBC guys in for training (they were moonlighting) and the were always nervous at how much one person was responsible for... no big support network. I miss it all (but only occasionally)!
OF course this couldn't be complete without Jarre's music.
I wish I still had that shirt... Great to see this again. I remember Dave, Graham, Roland and Jane making it. Excellent souvenir of bits of TK and VT. All the familiar faces!
Mike Kohler Now that everything in the BBC archive has been digitally backed-up, do the BBC still keep the original tapes just for safety?
Ah, but that was shift two... I was shift one !
Same kit though.
@@andrewsmith2757 I know that some of the surviving 2" Quad tapes that were transferred to Panasonic D1 & D3 cassette were donated to the BFI and have been since used again as the early digital copies made were felt to be not of adequate quality to be used for DVD 📀 releases.
@@Robert_Manners - I've since read that a lot of them get offered to the BFI. I think the BFI choose the ones they want to keep and decided to keep mainly the very historical ones. Thanks for the reply.
@Andrew Smith - Thank you for asking and I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to reply to your question - this is the first time I’ve read these comments for a long time! Although I left the BBC in 1989, I understand they have since digitised most if not all of their videotape archive, some of which is now kept in temperature and humidity controlled vaults at the BFI National Archive (where I now work, incidentally!).
Thanks for finding this footage, I was on VT shift two and left that department one year after this film was made. Love the pictures of Telecine that I’d forgotten about, and Wendy Webb Presenting, just gold dust. It’s nearly 30 years on and I’m still freelance editing but now at NBH amongst other locations. Thanks again for sharing this video - Keith Palmer
Hey
I have a question for you please?
BBC also organized similar 10 week intensive courses around the world. I attended one in '98. Although the focus was on the news, we pretty much had to go through everything, from news reporting, to operating cameras, editing, presenting, graphics, even marketing. It included a complete production of an evening news bulletin. There were two groups, TV and radio, with about 10 students in each group. Accommodation was covered and we had an allowance for food that was close to an average national salary at the time (about 200 pounds a month). Unforgettable experience!!!
Wished I went to one!
what did you do with that experience? i'm considering doing it but at the same time i can't afford to leave a full time job for a 6 week course. did you get work straight afterwards?
I've probably watched this too many times. There's just something about the tech of the time and the people interviewed. Thanks so much for sharing!
My pleasure
I was always intrigued by the contra-rotating reels on those Type-C VTRs.
...like the Ampex VPR-2 VTR that's seen in this one.
That even goes back to my 1972 Ampex Type-A VPR5800 with a video editor. (Still have it, still runs). Always thought the intention was to make sure each reel was rewound correctly.
Happy days - for me starting in 1969. I learned more at Wood Norton than at any other time of my life. Then spent four happy years at BBC Scotland.
I grew up and still live in a wee village near the Isle of Skye. I still remember seeing a camera crew for the news for the first time on the pier at Kyle of Lochalsh. I was born in the late 70s and everything has changed so much.😊
Still Game!!!! Love it.
Wow I made this film in 1987 where on earth did you get it from!!!?
Jean Michel Jarre lives...
Dave Rixon ~ Grindelwald Productions
Yep - loved the choice of tune, Dave!
Was working at Editworks years ago and Paul Richmond (in the video) had a copy on Digi betacam ,so made a file version and uploaded
Gawd we are old now... good times though, VT was still on the up. Cheers Chris! ~ Uncle Dave
@@daddychrispips What?!? Digital freaking Betacam?!? How?
@@northernplacecorporation I'm guessing the original master was on 1 inch or beta sp ,but the tape I converted to this file was a digi
Ah working amongst this and sharing the excitement with your co-worker Sally Wade must have been heaven on Earth.
I graduated high school in the U.S. (Kentucky) the year this was produced in 1987. I actually lived at RAF Sculthorpe the first 4 years of my life as my father was a sergeant in the USAF and grew up watching BBC Television programs like Doctor Who and Monty Python. I truly wanted to back to England to get into a Beeb technical training program but figured out pretty quick that is difficult if not next to impossible for a non national...too bad I wasn't born in country like my younger sister (at RAF Lakenheath). I considered pursuing a degree program in film or television but ended up going into theater which I didn't complete at the university level. I really enjoyed seeing this program as it gave me a good idea on what I might have experienced if I could have gotten into the VR training program. Thanks for uploading it here on RUclips!
More likely on Thursday, April 30 of that year.
Back when the BBC actually had integrity and was relevant. 😮
Fred. Bless him. I think I was there maning the stage V control room, when Bob and himself were getting the bad news. Two of the best managers I ever had.
I was at Wood Norton as a TA not long after the Bredon Wing (and what was under that) was built. TAs and TOs did the A Course in parallel. After the A, B and C Courses I did some time On Station, but was ultimately arm-twisted (double the salary) to join EMI and became a Senior Project Engineer. I seem to remember that the Manager at the Evesham Club was the brother of Harry Corbett - Sooty and Sweep? Ahh, that green BBC Bus taking us from Wood Norton into Evesham!
Thank you so much for uploading this to RUclips according to my research this is from Thursday 30th April 1987.
I will never complain about video editing again.
I'm sure that you all remember the 1979 Christmas Tape!
I worked there from 88-90, then moved to Thames TV for over double the salary. It was an unpleasant place to work generally.
I love this, real experts and engineers rather than just software (I say this as a software engineer).
My career could have taken a very different path if I had gone for a job like this with the BBC. I had all the right interests and electronics qualifications in 1987. But alas the BBC in Plymouth were not recruiting and I didn't want to move to London. So I worked for Plessey (like the chap at 17:19) and had a career in semiconductors. Only about 15 years ago did I finally get back to audio and video equipment.
I definitely agree with you, Colin.
If someone from the TV screen was asking me to join their team, i would agree immediately without any hesitation!
It's pretty weird to think all the best shows and my most beloved shows (Dad's Army, Doctor Who etc.) all come from here. Sadly these people didn't think to keep all the video tapes for future generations that's why so many are lost forever.
These people did not get much choice in their day to day activities. You did as you were told to by the management or internal production process.
There is nothing I like more than an 80s BBC training video soundtrack. Thanks for posting, real treasures,
CBC like BBC .... is not the same friendly, neutral environment to work in !!!! Those golden television production times .... are gone, a long time ago :o(
They are sure gone but I'm glad I was there!
@@steveh1388 < Me too bro ... me too :o)
@@dasboot5903 'friendly' and 'neutral' for whom? guys? seems like a boys club.
@@bluebellbeatnik4945 Those public stations in their PEAK, they served very well national interest that time !!! Not like these days they are bending to the site of so - called "political correctness" at all the time, for any possible way !! It's NOT right !!!!
Takes me back, I was there in the late 80's, even remember some of my ex colleagues in the video. Still in TV, although the processes are very different now. Only 3 of us here in the station would remember 1"C format machines, never mind 2" quads.
Haha I worked on every machine AMPEX made. Beginning from the VR-1000. I used to cut quad tape foe edits
This was probably the peak of TV. Fun, great sound, great digital effects simple to use, workers were like a team, not like today when the TV is boring, dark, compressed sound, with even such powerful computers no good looking effects, workers are a team only with computer, and people are watching signal breaking and blocky picture of this digital TV.
Digital TV is either CRAP (SD) or EXCELLENT (4K) - Mostly it's CRAP!
BBC vt at that time located at Basement of Main Building, just before Stage 5 was built.
And Telecine Area was at 2nd floor of Central Wedge between TC3 and TC4, just before transfer began to Stage 5. Later this area made as control room for BBC One and BBC Two. (before transfer to BBC Broadcast Centre, in White City Village)
P.S. Telecine at Stage 5 didn't last so long, it was again transferred to Stage 6, then former telecine area converted to News accommodation (Studio N6, News Suites 1-12, Studio N10)
And how lucky budding creators are today..... Second hand HD Video Camera with SD Card, PC with Sony Vegas, and RUclips to be your Station....and thy sky's the limit... :) ....actually even easier really... Stream Live to your RUclips channel with smart phone... from the street !
Maggie Philbin is now my Linked In friend!! I love this and great to see what the BBC does with training video.operators!
10:30 handsome man!
Yep, all to be replaced by computers probably a few years after this was filmed. I would have loved to have that job back then if I wasn't a baby lol
Hi Dave I got it when I was at Editworks last year , Paul Richmond (in the video) had a copy on file, so that's how it got here...
Take a housepoint Christian! The kit here is close to the end of the analogue era and the hands-on element is a joy to behold. I worked in Tel-Rec a few years before this was shot. To see the Ampex VPR2's and Cintel TK's in use is great. Good Job!
That Irish guy used to cut some of my trails. With the inevitable move to server technology, meaning they don't have to spend millions on expensive equipment requiring constant TLC, what did they do with the savings? Ah yes, Danny Cohen's salary, and Alan Yentob's, and a host of others, plus their private medical insurance, their bonuses etc.
I know it was silly 'Producer Choice' savings been spent on all the wrong things.
Most of the savings went to make daytime dross to fill up all the new channels.
So you read the radio times to find out when your going home
“oh crap the last programme don’t finish till 1am oh crap “ 😆
I would've LOVED a gig at this right out of high school back in 1983; however I was living in the suburbs of Philadelphia PA and I knew NOTHING of this being a job opportunity...
Thanks so much for this upload this is absolutely fascinating
My pleasure
@@daddychrispips It's fantastic to watch especially seeing the broadcast master video cassettes being played via a VTR machine.
It's awsome and funtkastick isn't it?@@mrhammadmossop1988ul-haq
Amazing linear years, I miss the FFWD sound.
'fred pellow' looks like someone from Look Around You.
I hadn't realised that the Cintel Mk. 2 TK was still being used in the days when C format video had already replaced Quad.
The Mk 2 has some similarities to the look of later (1950s) Kalee projectors. Of course, Rank owned both Kalee and Cintel at one time.
My first job in TV was operating the CIntel machines at Lime Grove, TK3, which often carried the majority of an evening's transmissions. At that time a good 35mm print on TK3 produced some of the best quality pictures possible on 405 lines. We worked in either TK or VT, never both. Exciting and stimulating times, and the beginning of a long career in TV.
I was also surprised to find the Mk 2 still being used intensively in 1987.
How come Maggie Philbin didn't call me back on the telly? Perhaps I should have gone to Visionhire rather than Radio Rentals!
I would have loved this job back then.....
How quaint all this is now. These VT operators with their own machine and responsible for their own output. All very different now.
Brilliant video
RECORDING DATE:
Thursday, April 30, 1987.
Recruiting for the people who made the christmas tapes? 1978/79 are the BEST
I would have loved to have done this!
I was trained in College on all that analogue equipment and, by the time I was trying to advance a career in the industry, they were replacing all that with digital suites. Not funny having to learn your job twice.
No it wasn't plus there was a curtain amount of satisfaction getting it right in an analogue world 🗺
Whata hell !!!! I was going through the three systems "conversions" in the television broadcast industry in my life .... real-to-real, U-matic & Beta SP / Beta SX-digital / File Management System recording & playback .... and I had to finally give up on the last, fully digital one in 2010. It was enough of it for the engineer video tape operator getting older faster then normally !!!! :o)
@@dasboot5903 I feel you my friend. I also used U-Matic and BetaSP in my early days.
This was really interesting!
5:43 I totally feel Sally's anxiety, even now when I have to work a live show, especially now since 90% of everything is run by me on my own when I direct. At least I don't have to physically wind the media to do inserts. Also, I don't think I've ever directed a show with even a fraction of the audience that Tomorrow's World would have gotten in 1987.
NBC never sent video tape operators out to a country resort or drove us home late at night. But I think we had more fun at 30 Rock
Thanks I couldn't remember what this video was called
They use AMPEX VPR 2B one inch vtr.
This room is surrounded by film
Strange working hours
Those machines were very expensive so they had to be used a lot to make them pay their way. Generally 12-15 hours a day 7 days a week. Plus very early morning maintenance before the first shift.
You can't beat starting the day with a one hour breakfast 😊
IMO TV was better in them days because there was a lot more effort involved (and cost) in production so they made sure the content was 1st class!!
These are the sort of people I need when I want to splice my flash card.
Now all that equipment has gone and been replaced by hard disks...
Very good
Sadly once again all this great equipment got chucked out or scrapped.
This would have been a dream job if I saw this at the time
They're all on the BBC gravy train :)
Hardly, anyone who isn't management or talent gets no chance of even sniffing any gravy train!
@@stickytapenrust6869 Yes the pay wasn't that much, the people were great and some of the extras were very nice however you didn't get rich from it.
Music at the very end was Jean Michel Jarre - Rendez Vous
Also at the beginning.
All this complication and staff to run a TV channel all removed by just one digital software program which can do all of it.
After watching this, i'll never complain why editing on Resolve is so hard and i'll never download illegall pirated editing software.
Ah yes...the old BBC board.
Back when the BBC was actually respected.
13:20 The BBC bar, satin / silk football shorts in the work place ? - Mmmm not too sure what to make of that.
it was the training center, not the BBC studios. So more of a formation place for students rather than a workplace. On the other hand there's another video of tape editing in the BBC also from the 80s and some dude is smoking there. That's 100000000x more gross than them shorts 😂😂😂
They had to rev everyone up for Jimmy. A loved servant.
13:23 Those shorts 😂😂😂
There's a ton of stuff I miss from the 80s. That ain't one of them 😂
😆😆😆
I was wondering are these programmes still stored on these original tapes?
Probably all digitised now and archived on huge servers Tape degrades over the years so needs to be converted before it's too late (also the machines that used to play them are quite rare (especially working) old TOTP are being played on BBC 4 currently (not from tape though 😉)
3:33 - 3:46 I spotted Sammy singing 'Nothings gonna stop me now', did I miss something or is that from that weeks TOTP? If so, is there anything more from that recording or a link to the full program?
A lot of old TOTP's on iPlayer (BBC 4 ) but nothing extra here
Do the BBC Archive Centre in Perivale still have the original tapes that they used on this recording?
I doubt it, not the sort of thing that the rushes were kept for.
@@garycritcher3009 Strange you should say that because I saw a video clip and I saw that on it
@@mrhammadmossop1988ul-haq What was that video clip you were referring to that had one in it?
Will this be in 50fps?
9:17 'I've been working here for six months now and... I'm about to start in videotape.' To think there was a time when we were taught film before videotape. He's been there six months and he has yet to learn about the lesser of the two broadcast media which will eventually entirely replace the better version he has already learned in the first six months. There is great significance to this sentence in terms of how it illustrates the changes for the worse that occurred through the late 80s/early 90s in particular. Remember Star Trek: The Next Generation? Do you know why you can't get a widescreen blu-ray of that series? Because it was shot on shitty video in 4:3, whereas the original series (from the 1960s) you can.
Worked both in analogue broadcast and digital. Star Trek: The Next Generation was shot on 35mm film and transferred to videotape via a telecine process (3:2 pulldown), not on videotape. The original series was also shot on film and later transferred to videotape in a telecine process. The 35mm film frame is naturally closer to a 4:3 aspect ratio being a square, while wider aspect ratios on 35mm film is optically squeezed with an anamorphic lens. The picture quality is actually optically reduced slightly in widescreen when shot with an anamorphic lens. However, the originally 35mm elements would need to be rescanned in HD and both re-composited as well as reframed as the composition would be quite different. Additionally, commercially available videotape based broadcast systems in the 80s and 90s were interlaced -- in the UK, 25fps and in North America 29.97. Film would have been running at 24fps with a distinct motion cadence that could not be replicated in video at that time period, hence the 3:2 pulldown. The reason you can't get a "widescreen Blu-Ray" is because the series was storyboarded and framed for 4:3. In order to get 16:9 you would have to crop the image. As some of the visual compositions would look strange, the optical elements would need to be recomposited. Rescanning the 35mm elements and recompositing is a very expensive process. It could be done and the quality would be quite high, but it comes down to cost. CBS/Paramount would have to archive all the original 35mm elements, telecine/re-scan, then recomposite for final output.
4:50 Early version of colour grading.
TARIF. Television Equipment for the Rectification of Inferior Film. Designed by one of my colleagues (Bill Murray) in Designs Department
2:49 Why the two reels of the video tape on the VTR run in the opposite direction? In my mind they should run in the same direction or it is not possible for the tape to go from a reel to another reel.
The C format machines shown had a large rotating drum that the video playback heads sat on - the contra-rotating reels are just a consequence of the tape wrap needed to get good tape contact and tension control. Google VPR20 if you want to see a wild tape spool layout......
That's because on an Ampex VPR2 (the model these machines are), the tape comes off and arrives on the left sides of both reels. So the feed reel will therefore be spinning anti-clockwise, the takeup reel clockwise.
Most models, though had the tape coming off and going on to the two reels on opposite sides, so if it comes off the left side of the feed reel and is wrapped up on the right side of the takeup reel, the two reels would therefore have to turn in the same direction.
I always wonder what happened to people from old videos. In this csse the trainees
Most of the have probably lost their jobs around the early 2000s ...
@@TheWolfbass why
@@graemeconnelly8849 Because today they only have a small fraction of the staff they employed in those days. Digital has made almost everything you see in this video obsolete.
@@TheWolfbass Still interesting to wonder what happened with them.
@@graemeconnelly8849 A friend of mine worked as a sound engineer for German television in the 80s. He lost his job in 2012 and now has his own little recording studio.
How the Tv presenters achieve the inflated salaries that they do is ridiculous as the hard skilled work is done by these gifted people whereas most presenting jobs can be done by any joe blogs who would not know how to even press pause on a tape recorder
Just from his back I could it was Mike Smith!
What happened to Sally Wade ?
I remember that a telecine went wrong when a film snapped which was Star Trek film. Lol very funny but scary at the time! And they must had a hard job doing vt!
What would they have done when something like that happened ? Did they have to repair the film ir use a copy ?
@@curiousorange7723 A splice had come apart. Because Star Trek was American all the US commercial breaks had to be cut out, This would have been done in the 60s using a cement joining compound which sometimes didn't age well, the operator would have quickly rejoined with the more reliable sticky tape method, and now old prints are always checked for old cement joins and replaced.
@@Witheredgoogie
Bit late here! Apparently the BBC didnt show the cold opening, it was edited in after the credits. That's what failed apparently. I remember watching Star Trek as it was originally shown,looked strange!lol.
@@martinhughes2549 Hi Martin. I thought the 70s showings were well slick, all the padding had been cut out and the BBC globe use to dissolve into "space the final frontier".It was when they repeated much later the studio had sent them the show on VT, these looked terrible (obviously converted to Pal etc) and the sound was somewhat slurred. So I think they went back to their old prints but as you say they had to re-instate what they had originally cut out.
Wood Norton is now a hotel and all the stuff that was used from the BBC has now gone
Wood Norton Hall is indeed a hotel which is separate to the BBC training facilities & studios which still exist.
The piano @ 15:15 is still there in Studio A. Bit off tune now though ;)
Worcester?
This would never fly in a highly unionized broadcast facility. I had worked at the 4th network until it was purchased by Metromedia. We were an IATSE shop. Tape operators were tape operators, not audio, camera, lighting, technical directors etc. As a tape operator yoy got paid to know tape, inside and out. You were not allowed to perform any maintenance either, as that was performed by a different type of person. We had an dedicated tape maint person whos job it was to keep the machine fully operational. A tape operator could never be called upon to operate a camera aa the union would scream about that. Some people that came into tape wanted to edit right away. Thats not how it worked. You were assigned a position that day in the tape room. From playback inserts into a recorded show to on air playback. Once the supervisor was satisfied in your knowledge, u moved onto recording. Once the supervisor was satisfied with your in depth knowledge how the machine records, you may ne asked to edit. You begin by editing inserts fir the news. You are not responsible for creative content, thats what directors are for. They are creative, you are technical. Each has a job to do and each are very different
*by
It always amazed me just how overmanned Television production was. Look at what RUclipsrs can achieve with a single camera an original idea.
it's hardly comparable, this was broadcasting to an entire nation 24/7 by highly skilled operatives
@@-christianphillips- To be honest probably more aimed at ITV who were notorious for overmanning pre 1991 Broadcasting Act.
Was this transfered from 1 inch type C or VHS ?
It was digitised from a Sony digi beta tape
@@daddychrispips Yup. Actually, this DigiBeta transfer was actually from an original 1" type C videotape.
*Hello Ms. Sally Wade @ BBC (in 80's of XX-th Century).* You were such a nice British chick ... junior VTR operator at that time, when this film was made (1987). I have to admit it here, just because you were such a good looking young chick in 1987 !!!! I am presuming, that U R not working anymore, because I am not working, too.
I started my profession, working for the Polish National Television Network (TVP) in 1977. Later on at the end of 90's I worked in a couple of the Canadian Televisions also, performing duties as a TV cameraman and also being digital VTR operator, working usually that time on Beta & Beta SX digital format machines. All my professional life I loved television, even if it was not an easy piece of bread, giving me so much stress and frustration, sometimes. I hope, that you are still in a good health even these days, and enjoying the rest of your personal life, eh ????
What was the date this got recorded in?
1987.
@@AtheistOrphan This was recorded on that date, on April 30.
I agree with comments about the US - I no way would any US network or TV station attempt to get new employees - Seems I was born in the wrong time and maybe the wrong country
Do any of the people work still? And whos the man that is the voice over
Hi Katie. Many people in the video and many who we didn't see there continued to work for the BBC throughout its many changes and challenges which followed. Others moved on at various times to work for other broadcasters and independent facilities companies, including me. After 26 years of doing that job in various places, I'm now a sound engineer at the BFI digitally remastering, restoring and archiving British film soundtracks for cinema, internet and blu-ray/DVD.
I should also say that many staff there were made redundant. Very sad indeed when there was so much talent and dedication there. I hope most of them were able to find a place somewhere else doing what they loved and were extremely good at.
@@mikekohlerchannel Yes just to discard all that knowledge and training in an instant, of so many dedicated people.
15:35 young Tom Hanks....
Hilarious....they all look a lot like Lego head ppl.
Oh god, I looked just like that VT operator in 1987 - all mullet and huge specs. Horrible, horrible era!
+UncleFeedle Well everyone else in the video didn't have a mullet or huge specs, It wasn't a horrible either
My cousin in the 80's that had to wear glasses by 1985 he wore contacts
My Dad Was Guaranteed A Job At The BBC But Instead Of Sticking By There Word They Stiffed My Dad Instead Of Giving Him The Guaranteed Work
That's the way of the world, kid, not just the BBC.
And he'll only be guaranteed the work if he actually signs an employment contract. If there's no employment contract, then there's nothing to guarantee.
@@stickytapenrust6869 I remember a good few in the sports department were promised jobs and relocation to Manchester, then were still made redundant.
That must be the longest songtitle ever!
@@KoendeJong yes, you have to imagine the last seven words in parentheses
12:27 Why does this woman sound like she is reading from an autocue? The monotony of her voice is putting me to sleep.