Category: Building

The Pebble Mill Building

CMCR 9 (CM 1) – Ray Lee

CMCR 9 after restoration, Aug 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph by Ray Lee, no reproduction without permission.

CMCR9 was built in 1969 and equipped with Pye PC80 colour cameras. It was originally based in Acton, but I believe moved to Birmingham when Pebble Mill opened. It was already in place and in use when I arrived in 1974. In 1979 it was moved to Manchester to become “North 3” which is the name most of the articles refer to it as. It remained in Manchester until 1982, when it was sold to another company.

At some point the PC80 cameras were replaced by EMI 2001 cameras. I can’t remember if that was done in Birmingham, or in Manchester, but I think it may have been in Birminham, as the studio cameras were all EMI 2001, and it would have made sense to have all the same type. I only went out with the vehicle on two or 3 trips, and one trip was to Jolly’s Club Stoke on Trent for the World Darts Championship, and I thought EMI 2001s were fitted at that time.

It covered O.B.’s all over the country and was heavily used during its time in Birmingham. Gardeners’ World at Clack’s farm was a regular venue. Match of the Day, and racing from Cheltenham, Motor racing at Donnington Park, Songs of Praise, in fact think of an O.B. Venue and it probably went there.

CMCR stands for Colour Mobile Control Room, 9 was obviously the 9th one. While in Birminhham it was known as CM1 (Colour Midland 1) when it got to Manchester it became North 3 (as their 3rd O.B. control room) They were generally referred to as “Scanners” but I don’t know exactly why.

Speaking to Steve Harris and his colleague at the show (Onslow Park Steam Rally, where the scanner was recently exhibited) I was reminded of a “joke” played by Birmingham staff when the scanner went to Manchester. As well as putting all the faulty modules they could find, and keeping the good ones for Birmingham, the interior was covered in fake cobwebs of the sort obtained from joke shops in spray cans. Apparently Manchester were not very amused!! It took them some time to get it all working again, and goes down in the legends of engineers’ tales.

Ray Lee

The following comment was left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Pete Simpkin: ‘SCANNERS. They were called ‘scanners’ for historically the very first OB van was built by Baird to transmit the Derby to London cinemas in the thirties and the vehicle’s entirety consisted of the great scanning disk which whirled round at a frightening rate converting the scene into TV signals, so the vehicle was the ‘camera’ or as such things were called in the ealy days the ‘scanning apparatus’. So for ever afterwards even when staff could get on board with their electronc system the name remained. CMCR was never quite as pioneering or exciting!’

Lunch time in Cannon Hill Park

Chris Hardman, Lisa Sommerville, Karen Hewson

Chris Hardman, Peter Poole, Lisa Sommerville

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission.

A pleasant lunchtime in the early 1980s: a short walk over from Pebble Mill to Cannon Hill Park.

The photo was probably taken in 1980/1, as Karen left Pebble Mill in 1982.  The girls worked together in Asian Programmes, Chris later went on to work in ‘Farming’ and on ‘Gardeners’ World’ as a production assistant.

 

CMCR 9 – Outside Broadcast Truck

CMCR 9 OB Truck

CMCR 9 Vision Control

CMCR 9 Sound Control

CMCR 9 Production Area

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Ray Lee, no reproduction without permission.

Ray Lee took the photos of the OB truck, CMCR 9 at the Onslow Park Steam Rally recently.

The old CMCR 9 has just been repainted by its present owner Steve Harris and exhibited as a vintage vehicle.

Despite its 40 years, it is looking in remarkably good shape. The CCUs are EMI and not the original, as it was converted for EMI cameras when it became North 3.  A lot of time and effort has gone into getting it to this stage, it will no doubt bring back memories for a lot of Pebble Mill folk.

The OB truck left BBC Pebble Mill in 1979, and went to Manchester.

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Alan Miller: ‘I never worked on this one as I worked in Scotland at the time but it certainly brings back memories of another age.’

Telecine – Ray Lee (part 5)

Jim Gregory in TK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worked in TK for around a year and a half before moving to VT for a brief attachment. I had further subsequent spells in TK, later in my career, including one period where I refurbished every board in the machines, as by that stage some components, mainly the trimmers, were completely worn out. The maintenance budget took a big hit that year, but the machine reliability improved no end.

In the early days TK had regular bookings for ‘Pebble Mill at One’, ‘Midlands Today’, ‘Farming’ (The predecessor of Countryfile), ‘Asian Programme’ inserts, Studio A inserts for various network dramas, and from time to time film inserts to ‘Nationwide’ and other London News items.

I remember one day in I think the summer of 1975, Jim Gregory and I viewing a film trailer for what was expected to be a big series of films. There was an item in a programme about George Lucas, and his vision for the films, the trailer was from “Star Wars” (although I’m not sure it was known as such at the time). It did eventually become a whole series of films, but after the initial “Star Wars” was released in 1977 there was a long period of uncertainty, regarding the rest.

Jim Gregory and Paul Richards pretty much were TK, for most of the time I worked at Pebble Mill. Graham Winter went on to lecture at Wood Norton, and everyone else moved round various places. I remember the time with affection, and was quite sad to see the old Cintel TK’s finally removed to make way for new equipment, something I was involved in as a member of Post Production Maintenance in the 90’s.

R. G. Lee

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Group:

Keith Brook: ‘This is a rare shot indeed. Jim Gregory out of his chair!!’

Pete Simpkin: ‘Fascinating stories of TK. I was at Evesham with Jim in the 60s. I remember in a previous job in regional TK in Southampton waiting to send a commag news story to AP for the new BBC 2 News and after a very long wait eventually getting through to VT there who were going to tape it and the operator said something like ‘Hang on there’s a lot of noise ouside in the corridor, I’ll just shut the door’, we sent the package up OK and when he came back on to say all was OK he told us that TVC and all TV had crashed due to the major power failure in London which eventually led to the abandonment ofhe opening of BBC 2 that night!’

Midlands RTS Awards 2008

Photos from BBC Birmingham post production, no reproduction without permission.

The photos were taken at the 2008 Midlands Royal Television Society Awards held at the ICC in Birmingham.  Amongst the winners were ‘Countryfile’ and the documentary series ‘Family Wanted’.

I’ve added most of the names, but please add a comment with any that I’ve left out.