Media City

On Tuesday 31st January, the Media Studies students including myself went to Media City in Manchester. While we where here we went on a tour around the BBC building.

The first room we went into was a recording room for BBC Radio 6. We learnt about its set-up and how they switch between different locations for recording. When we where in there, I thought that it was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, though it made quite a bit of sense when the guide informed us about how everything works.

The main layout for radio recording studio.

Music equipment in the recording room for when a live band comes in to record.

This is a stage where sets are built for television shows. They have numbers to coordinate how large the set needs to be. We were told that the floor is regularly painted for the sets which is removed once they have finished using the stage.

After going to a studio, we went into the stage for BBC Breakfast. Here we learnt about how the lighting works to make the stage look bigger than it actually is and how they read their dialogue off the screens in front of them.

This is a recording of the weather report. A weatherman would need to stand in front of here and read their lines in front of them. The weatherman could see a screen showing them in front of the map showing where to point.

We went into another set for BBC Breakfast and here some members of the group got the opportunity to report the news and do a weather forecast with text screens in front of them.

To do the weather forecast, the person needed to stand in front of a greenscreen, read their lines and on the screen the map will be shown.

The final thing we did before we left was take some time to try to answer some sports questions on a quiz.

Some students examining a few props.

Overall, I found the trip and tour around the BBC building to be very informative on what goes on behind the scenes on thing such as radio and television and how much work and effort goes in to make them work.