Paul Clennell, chief technology officer at dock10, gives TVBEurope an insight into the facilitys ten years in operation, and the technological innovation that has helped it to evolve into the UKs leading TV studio campusBy Contributor
Published: October 7, 2021
Paul Clennell, chief technology officer at dock10, gives TVBEurope an insight into the facility's ten years in operation, and the technological innovation that has helped it to evolve into the UK's leading TV studio campus
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This year sees dock10 turn ten-years-old. Looking back, it's been a truly incredible decade of growth, development and success for the business, and it's seen some truly fundamental advances in the technology we use to make television. Some of the things we are regularly using today were embryonic when dock10 was created in 2011-think 4K or virtual sets. It's been quite a journey, and one worthy of brief reflection.
Based at the heart of Media City, dock10 was born out of the BBC's plan to move key elements of its television operations, including BBC Children's and BBC Sport, outside of London to Salford Quays in Greater Manchester. At the time there was criticism that the BBC was too focused on producing content within London, and Mark Thompson, the then director-general, was keen that the BBC should, in his own words, serve and represent the whole country, not just its capital. This ambition required a major new television facility equipped to support the creation of world-class content outside of London - dock10 was born.
Back in 2011, dock10 was little more than an enormous studio in the middle of a ghost town. But as MediaCity emerged around us, we also continued to grow and evolve. At that time, next-generation technology was just emerging and as we built dock10 we were able to incorporate it into the design, such as the latest IP network, centralised and virtualised technology. It was a smart investment that has served us well over the last ten years, but technology never stands still and we are constantly refreshing, updating and upgrading to ensure we keep ahead of the curve. Today dock10 is the UK's leading television facility and our eight permanent television studios and two outdoor spaces are fully equipped to handle any size or type of television production.
All our studios have their own unique characteristics, ranging in size from the UK's biggest multi-camera TV studio (12,540 sq ft with an audience capacity of 1,000 people) to small studios designed for 24/7 continuity for dedicated channels. We have recently invested £1 million in a new gallery solution for our smallest studio, HQ8 (713 sq ft), to meet the increasing demand for virtual studios and remote galleries. But what I think makes our studios really stand out is that they all share the same high-spec technology. They all have similar cameras and technical equipment, all are equipped with virtual studio capabilities, all have state-of-the-art interlinked galleries, and all are connected to dock10's unique infrastructure. This is great for customers as our connectivity and flexibility means any studio can incorporate whatever technology is needed; so every production can find the right size and spec of studio space for their particular production.
Operating over 50 fully-equipped edit suites with Flame and Baselight capability and 4K monitoring, we employ the latest technology, including Avid edit suites with Avid MediaCentral | Production Management, Avid Pro Tools audio suites with Source Connect voice booths, Baselight and Lustre for grading and the latest Autodesk Flame suites for VFX. We have grown to have a ten-person graphics studio and state-of-the-art dubbing suites operating Pro Tools S6 M40 desks. About five years ago, we built our boutique facility The Quay', which has ten offline and two online suites, four VFX suites, a motion graphics area and an expanded grade facility with built-in projector. Over the last few years, we have increasingly set ourselves up for remote working and even have a helpline for editors working from home. This allowed us to hit the ground running when the global pandemic forced the nation into lockdown.
What I enjoy most about our industry is that it never stands still and dock10 has a great reputation for technological innovation and for taking the latest developments from theory into practice. We love to explore new technology, rolling up our sleeves to see how it works, how it can be used, and how it can help our customers. For me, I think some of the biggest technology shifts of the last decade have been in UHD/HDR, augmented and virtual reality, and remote production, all of which I'm proud to say dock10 has fully embraced and often actively pioneered.
For most viewers, television is about what they see on screen and recognising that 4K UHD/HDR was likely to become the new standard, we have reconfigured our entire facility around this exciting technology. We've invested in 15 Sony HDC-3500 4K cameras, as well as vision mixers, multi-viewer monitors and core routers; more than this, our 200GBps network was developed specifically to smooth the way for 4K UHD/HDR and VR/AR. It is connected to all ten television studios and their galleries, as well as all 50 post production suites, our ingest, control rooms and the data centre. Built to extremely impressive technical specifications, the network comprises of two interlinked elements with a Control LAN monitoring and managing studio and gallery equipment in real time, while a Production LAN is dedicated to supporting 4K file-based content workflows. Constantly monitored by the latest software control tools and detailed analytics, our broadcast network is a dedicated standalone network used exclusively for broadcast cont
