BBC North West Tonight

There are internal Raman fibre circuits in/out of New Broadcasting House in Manchester and in/out of Media City in Salford I believe - so you just book a path between the two, just as you would between either location and any other BBC centre.

(NB ISDN is not used for broadcast video links as its data rate is orders of magnitude too low. ISDN delivers 64kbps or 128kbps - whereas most standard internal SD BBC vision circuits are 270Mbs (and previously were 140 or 34Mbs) - ISDN is routinely used for commentary and some audio contributions - though really you need to use the 128kbps dual-bearer system for semi-decent sound quality)

Thanks for that. I should have realised that ISDN would be unworkable.

Does moving to Media City mean that straps will animate any differently, if there is a new graphics playout system?

I don't know anything about these systems at all - I mean will they animate/look more like the national BBC News graphic animations??

There will be tweaks, a new playout system that's being rolled out across BBC W1 Broadcasting House and Salford Quays called Mosart. Been in use on Newsround for the last week, and will eventually end up running the whole BBC News Operation in 2012/2013. No radical changes though, it's more workflow based.

For those who couldn't see NWT last night: here is the end of their main programme from 'NBH'.

They went straight to the network promo at 18:58, whether by accidental over-run, or by design: so I have added a copyright frame (after a fashion) - to keep the pesky BBC Lawyers away from my YouTube account.

Nice that Gordon Burns was the last voice on the reminiscence story.

Play a piano solo, and I'll probably cry anyway: but this was sad: I went round NBH at Oxford Road as a youngster in the early 80s when the news moved to NBH.

They invited people round, so I applied for a ticket and got one. I was rather disappointed that my mates didn't want to go.

I was so excited, and it was so hot waitiing in the queue (mid summer) - that I actually almost fainted (and ended up in a portacabin with a securty guard for ages - it spoiled my trip in a way - but not my enthusiasm for TV.

There is no BBC Manchester, it's BBC North West and has been since the 1980s Since the move in fact, to NBH!

It's just replacing BigTED is it not; in that the journo now enters the information into ENPS and Mosart then pulls it to the character generator. What I'd like is for some of the equipment at Oxford Road (that's only 4 years old, by the way) to be sent down to Birmingham as their gallery is running on fumes now!

Meh! I remember them trying to name it as BBC NORTH, when tinckering with North-East/Cumbria and the like.

Let it alone as BBC Manchester for it's last day (even if I only call it that in the absence of a proper copyright end-cap.) , please.

Tell that to people like me who live in Liverpool. BBC Manchester? No thanks!

It's BBC Manchester for network productions (Question of Sport, for example), and BBC North West for regional stuff.

Interestingly the neon NW branding was used on the OB vehicle which I imagine saw more use for network programmes than regional ones - such as UP2U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91czpXdqNTk - with theme tune "ruined" (in the words of Anthea Turner) by our own Nicky Schiller!

Yes there would have to be as both centres have been live on air for the last few months.

I suppose it's different to the Pebble Mill close as the technology for the circuits have changed and also there was a definitive changeover day

Presumably elements of the studio set/floor kit were being binned, sold or transferred and it couldn't wait for the final date?

It's the only example I know of during a studio move where the output has actually ceased entirely over the weekend (in this case shared with Nottingham) rather than manage to be a straight switch the following day.

As regards the new set, surely we'll see it during Breakfast? Even if Breakfast are using the same set when they move next year there's nothing to stop them using it in the mornings until then.