[Stooky Bill]

You'd think a big region like the Midlands would have been converted years ago, really. If ITV can do it, who are constantly pleading poverty where the regions are concerned, then you'd think the BBC could have done it earlier too.

A lot of it is down to the upgrades being done centrally. They aren't able to and don't have the budgets to do them individually (except where there's a major change/refit of bullding that's happening anyway). There's a lot of benefits in everyone having the same - cheaper to buy in bulk, consistency in training, support, spares etc. 

For the last refits in the early 2000s they went out and bought a system by Quantel for every region and there was a big project to refit them all, in a few cases - Leeds, Norwich, Birmingham co-inciding with new premises. Essentially the regions (except London, Salford and Plymouth) still have that installation now, although I'm sure there's a lot of patching up, additions and changes to the original setup.

HD wasn't a thing then, the regions then were upgraded from analogue 4:3 tape based to 16:9 digital SDI server based. A huge leap in workflow

This time round it's being done like that again, the new system has been chosen, tested and people trained and is now being installed around the country, 2 regions have been done so far. All projects get delayed, I don't know why this is happening now but obviously covid has delayed it a bit. 

I think Birmingham will get the upgrade before moving, it's 3-4 years away. Presumably the Tea Factory will get the same system and then the stuff at the Mailbox used as spares. I'd have thought that they'll be fitting it out with IP infrastructure rather than SDI, so it'll be the most modern setup in the regions - only Cardiff is IP currently