BBC Studios and Post Production welcomes Strictly Come Dancing back to Elstree

BBC Studios and Post Production welcomes Strictly Come Dancing back to Elstree 25 September 2014

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BBC Studios and Post Production is providing full studio facilities, post production services and technical support from Elstree Studios for BBC's multi-award winning Strictly Come Dancing. Celebrating a vintage 10 years of tangos, tiaras and twinkle-toed TV stars, the show returns stronger than ever with a stellar all-star line-up. Pop star Pixie Lott, EastEnders Jake Wood, international rugby star Thom Evans and MasterChef critic Gregg Wallace are amongst the 15 celebrities taking to the dance floor with their professional partners to impress the judges and win viewers' votes to lift the Glitterball trophy.

During its thirteen week run, Strictly's dazzling Saturday night live performances and Sunday nights results show will come from George Lucas Stage 2 at Elstree Studios. Its 15,825 square foot studio space easily houses the iconic set and an audience of 750 people and is specifically designed to support large-scale fast-turnaround TV productions. The George Lucas stages dedicated production gallery suites are equipped with the latest HD technology to deliver tapeless post production.

Now in its 12th series, the production set-up for Strictly follows a tried and tested design. 10 cameras capture all the drama of the sparkling competition, including one 30' MovieBird Technocrane, four pedestal cameras, a radio Steadicam and four other handheld/lightweight tripod cameras. An extraHot Head camera, was used for the Strictly launch show, to capture the giant overhead shots of the dance floor action.

This year's Strictly sees the addition of two brand new screens that run along the sides of the upper balconies, enhancing the visual impact of graphics and bringing a whole new dimension to the studio and overall production.

The audio requirements are complex and BBC Studios and Post Production provides nearly 50 radio mics, talkback services and six portable stage boxes, equipped with 40 mic inputs and 16 line outputs to capture the orchestra and audience reaction. Over at BBC Studios and Post Production's BBC Elstree facility, a bespoke editing complex boasts ten Avid Symphony suites to meet the fast turnaround post production requirements of the show - between them they handle up to 100 hours of training material each week.

Optimising the connectivity between the two Elstree sites, material is ingested, logged and edited at BBC Elstree and reviewed and incorporated into the live shows via the HD production galleries at the George Lucas Stage. Content is also edited for It Takes Two and delivered to the show's central London studio via HD Baseband video line connectivity. The results show is recorded on Saturday night, and edited through the night and Sunday morning for delivery on Sunday afternoon, ready for transmission at tea time.

John O'Callaghan, Head of Studios and Post Production Services at BBC Studios and Post Production, said: We are delighted to welcome Strictly back to Elstree for a second time and to be supporting the nation's favourite dancing show for the 10th year running. As you'd expect from the team behind the shiniest floor in showbiz, the production requirements get bolder and more ambitious every year, but our fantastic production facilities and technical crew are up for the challenge!

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