Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic BBC Symphony Orchestra Recording

This has been parked outside BBC Maida Vale studios for several days now -



I find it rather appealing to walk past and wonder what they are recording.

IIRC, the BBC are abandoning the venue - so, maybe they’re moving out.

I was once a BBC studio manager. Maida Vale studio 1 is the home of the BBC SO and it is where they rehearse and do some recording. The truck is their tour vehicle for transporting the instruments etc needed for a concert, wherever it may be.
Maida Vale is indeed being vacated by the BBC soon. The new music studios will be based in the East of London.
More about MV1 Here

Thanks for the info and link.

So sad the beeb are getting rid of another part of their heritage. I recall having my first few story meetings in TV Centre at Shepherd’s Bush, shortly before they sold it and moved to Manchester.

I guess the MV building will be split into flats, or flattened and redeveloped… [edit: according to the BBC Site it has been sold to “a partnership that includes the Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer and film producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner”, so hopefully will srill be used as a studio.]

Looks like they’re still monitoring with LS3/5a or similar, with some newer monitors flanking those (and subs?).

It is sad that MV is going - but I am pleased it will still be studios, in all likelihood. So many BBC buildings are gone. I worked in TV film to begin with at Ealing, and various Shepherds Bush buildings, then Pebble Mill. Then moved to radio and had to do the rounds of all the London buildings. Many of those buildings gone.

The monitors used in MV1 are these

There is a lot of misinformation about the use of Ls3/5a. As the development documents will show, they were intended for use in TV OB trucks, where space is very tight. Fine for use on speech and of course in mono back in those days of circa 1975. Then the hifi market started selling them and claiming they were used for music recording etc, which was hardly ever the case, except rare small set ups. Never a big orchestra. They were ok on speech. Nowadays I have seen them used os talkback speakers, as they are great for voices and low grade monitoring. The Radio OB trucks back then had much larger LS3/1, then LS3/7 and then LS5/8. Nowadays they have the same Geithain monitors that are in MV1, or Genelec. There are some great shots of the Radio OB fleet here

Thank you, fascinating!