Ian Collins – Page 18 – What Was Pebble Mill?

Abekas 8150

Photo by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

VT editor, Ian Collins, took a number of photographs of technical kit as Pebble Mill was being cleared prior to kit being auctioned off, or taken to the BBC Birmingham, Mailbox.

This photo is of an Abekas 8150, which was a DVE machine, used in some of the video edit suites at Pebble Mill. The digital switcher could do colour correction, as well as a variety of wipes and other digital video effects.

Ian Collins adds the following information: the Abekas 8150 is a Digital Vision Mixer and currently resides in the Drama Production Village (BBC Birmingham) Finishing suite, though not used very much these days as it is not HD. It had a companion DVE called a Dveous which again is at the Drama Production Village but not used any more. They used to reside in Pebble Mill VT17.

Jonathan Dick, added the following comment on the Pebble Mill Facebook group: ‘never had one of these in the galleries, but we had dual-channel Abekas A-51s in all the galleries from about 1992. They succeeded the rather more limited EFlex DVEs. I used to enjoy concocting wacky DVE effects for all the daytime shows on the A-51s. They would look VERY dated these days!’

Peter Seabrook’s Gardening Week

Peter Seabrook presented many gardening shows out of BBC Pebble Mill. Peter Seabrook’s Gardening Week was a weekly gardening advice show which went out on afternoons on BBC 2 in 1996. Helen Yemm was Peter’s co-presenter. Peter would often present from the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley.

Thanks to Ian Collin’s for making this grab available.

Pebble Mill – Cyclo Cross Trail

This mechanical VT clock, for a cyclo cross outside broadcast for Pebble Mill, pre-dates the electronic VT clock invented by Peter Wood-Fisher, which was added in post production. The clock would have been recorded as part of the OB, with the details of the take chalked in fresh each time. The clock would then have been used at the front of the edited insert in VT.

Thanks to Ian Collins for making the grab available.

Linear Editing Computer Monitor

Photo by Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

This type of computer monitor was used in PSC (portable single camera) analogue, linear, tape editing before the introduction of Avid non-linear editing.

They were used extensively in Post Production at BBC Pebble Mill.

CMCR 9 Vision Crew

Photo by E.M. John Abbott, no reproduction without permission.

The photo is of the Vision Crew of the outside broadcast scanner: CMCR9, Pebble Mill’s CM1 in the 1970s. This scanner went on to become North 3, in Manchester.

The truck was used on programmes like ‘Gardeners’ World’ and ‘Songs of Praise’, as well as dramas and sport.

Included in the photo are: Ian Dewar at the back, Ron Pickering on the phone, Rod Bach at the front and John Allinson on the right. (Thanks to Janet and Ian Collins for the identification!)