[Stooky Bill]

Will this be a bigger facility than the Mailbox?

The BBC has been underserving the midlands since it abandoned Pebble Mill.

But  without the BBC in the Midlands over half the viewers will have no BBC TV!
(not everything is in Birmingham - although half of Local radio may be there) 


The greater issue was that there was very little indie production in the Midlands
(other than Maverick) .... its too close to London....

Yes, the Midlands region has a lot more involvement in the BBC's output, and a lot more money invested than most people realise. Its not as obvious as a programme being made there though and it's functions that should be invisible to the audience 


The problem with the Midlands with both the BBC and ITV is that they wanted geographic spread within England so went for London and Manchester... and Birmingham is stuck in the middle

[Jon]

In ITVs case I don’t think it was the case they choose Manchester over anywhere else, having arguably their most important show based there meant there was something solid keeping them in the city (and later Salford). And the Media City project was very much driven by the BBC IIRC and it made sense for ITV to be a part of that. There was nothing on going in Birmingham or Nottingham for that matter to keep significant production there.

[Mike]

How does the 5m clearance compare to the current set up? And do we know the size compared to present?

5m would certainly be a greater ceiling height than the current studio. I've never been able to get any dimensions for the current studio, but, in terms of height, it does seem to be at the reasonable end of converted office space studios. For comparison, N8 and NBH-E have ceiling heights of about 3m, while the NWT/Breakfast studio seems more around 2.5m. A typical full-size TV studio (e.g. NBH-B) is about 7.5m, but such height is rarely needed for news.

5m is in the ballpark of the mezzanine level of the Broadcasting House newsroom (the Outside Source 'studio') and the ground floor of Quay House (the old BBC Sport news/future BBC Breakfast studio). Overall, not a bad size - at least they seem to be taking regional studios seriously, which they weren't in the 2000s.

At present the news studio at the Mailbox is 4.75m high to the top of the grid, and the dimensions are 9m x 11m of floor space (obviously less with fire lanes). 

While it is true, the current studio was set to be a meeting room - it was meeting rooms (plural) on 2 levels that were merged to form one space, I don't even think it ever got constructed as such - the plans were changed during construction several times.

The intent at the time was to have a more MHS inspired news presentation style with a small bookend of the newsroom available for space if required (used by the Politics Show and the occasional programme for English Regions, as well as whenever there's a party conference in Birmingham).

[DTV]

At present the news studio at the Mailbox is 4.75m high to the top of the grid, and the dimensions are 9m x 11m of floor space (obviously less with fire lanes). 

While it is true, the current studio was set to be a meeting room - it was meeting rooms (plural) on 2 levels that were merged to form one space, I don't even think it ever got constructed as such - the plans were changed during construction several times.

Thanks, that's great info - one of the few regional studios I've never been able to pin down. You don't happen to have a ballpark for Nottingham or Leeds?

[Mike]

That I’m not sure about; Nottingham is a good size, as it was planned and built around the time of independence (BBC Midlands and East being its own entity rather than the larger English Regions directorate).

It even has its own scene dock, which leads out onto the car park at London Road - I suspect but don’t quote me on it that the studio is the entire lower level of one of the ‘wings’ to Nottingham, where the scene dock door is. Whether it was constructed to allow for some network studio production to come from the same space or not I’m not sure.

EDIT: I'd estimate Nottingham is 12m x 19m just using the Google Maps measure tool as to where the studio actually is - which would make sense as it's always looked very narrow on camera. They lost a large amount of space to the old East Midlands Launderette rear projection screens of course.

[DTV]

Thanks again. Doesn't surprise me that Nottingham's studio is of a fairly reasonable size - it's always had enough space for two presentation areas despite often using rear projection - and the abnormally long shape of the studio (similar to Hull) would explain a lot in terms of set design and camera angles.

I'd guess Leeds' studio is somewhere in between but closer in size to Birmingham than Nottingham - it's never looked cramped (which Birmingham has at times), but I doubt they'd have the length for a wholly independent second area like Nottingham have. I also have a vague memory of somebody suggesting it was non-rectangular (like Norwich), but don't hold me to that.

[W. Knight]

Sorry for bumping up an old thread: The Tea Factory move will be delayed for a year.
www.bbc.com 

BBC Birmingham move to The Tea Factory faces a year's delay - BBC News
Work on BBC Birmingham's new home is expected to get under way in early 202…
  Source: www.bbc.com

[Humphrey Hacker]

Sorry for bumping up an old thread: The Tea Factory move will be delayed for a year.
www.bbc.com 

Lets just hope its a storm in a teacup.

[Mike]

It's quite funny that the BBC is using an out of date/superseded render in a story about their own estates changes.

[AndrewP]

I do like the building -- looks like the front of an old Marks & Spencer when shops used to invest in their buildings..