BBC Studios and Post Production Completes George Lucas Stages Gallery Build at Elstree Film Studios

BBC Studios and Post Production Completes George Lucas Stages Gallery Build at Elstree Film Studios 04 Jul 2013

BBC Studios and Post Production has completed the build of a brand new gallery suite at the George Lucas Stages at Elstree Film Studios to support large-scale TV productions. Located on the ground floor with direct access onto Stages 1 or 2, the galleries are equipped with the latest HD technology redeployed from BBC Television Centre, as well as new technology and a series of upgrades. The first programme to take advantage of the galleries is ITV's new Saturday night primetime entertainment show, Your Face Sounds Familiar, which sees celebrities perform as different iconic music artists every week before a panel of judges.

BBC Studios and Post Production placed high-speed connectivity at the forefront of the build and installed a mixture of fibre optic and copper cabling to link the George Lucas Stages 1 and 2 and the new galleries. The connectivity also runs through all of the company's dedicated areas at Elstree Film Studios including Stages 8 and 9, dressing rooms, green rooms and production offices as well as to Elstree Studio D at nearby BBC Elstree, its standalone post production facility on Charlotte Street and Digital Media Services facility at the Odyssey Business Park in South Ruislip.

The new computer network provides connectivity to Sohonet and BT Internet services and business services (PCs, VoIP phones, WiFi access points). An Exterity IPTV system is integrated into this network which provides studio and off air feeds that can be distributed to PCs and set top boxes anywhere on the network, including dressing rooms, using standard cat5 infrastructure. There is also the ability to playout live material to BT Tower via a BT HD facility line.

The new sound gallery is fitted with an upgraded Studer Vista 8 digital live production console and a Studer OnAir 3000 digital mixing console transferred from the iconic Studio One. The George Lucas Stages hosts wall boxes that enable multiple stage boxes to connect to the gallery via fibre.

The new production gallery is adjacent to the sound gallery and is fitted with the latest generation Sony MVS-7000X vision mixer console, transferred from Studio Three. It has a 32 button 3ME panel and an optional one or two ME side panel for screen operations. The room also has facilities for EVS and graphics operations. The monitor stack layout, consisting of 39 Sony monitors with BNCS control is built around the trusted set-up from Television Centre. A glass booth has been designed and built at the back of the room that can be used for a variety of functions, including housing executives, editors, or EVS/Graphics operators handling live replays. The Drake 4000 Talkback System from Studio One has been installed as the main communications device to the stage, along with the Drake Freespeak system for the stage floor.

Next to the production gallery is the lighting gallery. It comes complete with new furniture, a media wall hosting Sony and TVLogic OLED monitors, Hamlet waveform dispays for two vision control positions of up to 20 cameras, and ample space to house the production's choice of lighting control desk. An ELC dmXLAN Ethernet network has been installed for lighting control with DMX nodes available around the stage floor and at grid level. The network also has wifi to enable control of the lighting through app-enabled portable devices while on the stage floor.

The final room within the new gallery suite is the apparatus and engineering maintenance room, where up to 16 VT machines can work independently or in varied configurations of 10 VT machines and 2 EVS machines. The vision system, predominantly with embedded audio, is routed via an upgraded 288 x 288 Snell Cygnus HD matrix.

All the furniture in the gallery is bespoke crafted to fit the size of the rooms. The build commenced in April and the system integrators were Custom Consoles Ltd for vision and Dega Ltd for sound and communications. It completed at the end of June in time for the start of production on ITV's new entertainment show Your Face Sounds Familiar.

We've firmly made our stamp on the Elstree Film Studios site, said Anna Mallett, CEO of BBC Studios and Post Production. This investment in a brand new indoor gallery suite will greatly benefit large-scale television productions that pass through George Lucas Stages 1 and 2. It gives production teams direct and easy access into the stages something that wasn't possible before. We're especially looking forward to welcoming the Strictly Come Dancing team through the gallery when the 2013 series starts in the autumn.

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