01-08-2023, 06:12 AM
The hub was purely decorative. In the first season it had some PCs around the base, which were occasionally used for researchers and a social media chap who would sometimes feature in programmes, but that went away pretty quickly.
It was pretty permanent too: removing it took about three days, some heavy duty lifting equipment, and some metal cutters - and there are still the remnants of the centre post embedded in the concrete floor.
Fun fact: the metal grid (which was largely covered up by lightboxes in recent years - you can also see it in the gaps between the banner screens in the picture above) was in the same net pattern as appeared on all the on-screen graphics in the first season - for example in the background of the countdown to launch:
www.youtube.com
I always quite liked that joined up bit of design, and how the physical aspects long outlasted its time on screen. A bit like the smoked glass flags in the Stage 6 newsroom at TV Centre which lasted right until the end.
(I know I posted this video a couple of months ago, but as it's ten years ago today I'm getting a little nostalgic.)
It was pretty permanent too: removing it took about three days, some heavy duty lifting equipment, and some metal cutters - and there are still the remnants of the centre post embedded in the concrete floor.
Fun fact: the metal grid (which was largely covered up by lightboxes in recent years - you can also see it in the gaps between the banner screens in the picture above) was in the same net pattern as appeared on all the on-screen graphics in the first season - for example in the background of the countdown to launch:
www.youtube.com
I always quite liked that joined up bit of design, and how the physical aspects long outlasted its time on screen. A bit like the smoked glass flags in the Stage 6 newsroom at TV Centre which lasted right until the end.
(I know I posted this video a couple of months ago, but as it's ten years ago today I'm getting a little nostalgic.)