Three years ago on June 9, 1960, the first production was transmitted from Studio 5 at Wembley. Since then thousands of people from this country and from all over the world have come to stand and stare.

Advertising agents and advertisers have goggled at the lighting console, heating engineers have marvelled at the ventilation system, architects have wondered at the high degree of accuracy in the floor level, television experts have come from all over the world and few have gone away without learning something. All have been bemused by the giant doors – there is nothing to touch them anywhere else in the world.

When you live with something like Studio 5 you tend to forget that it is a show-piece just as the people in a town rarely visit an attraction which is a focal point for tourists… unless they want to show it off.

Those directly involved with handling visitors know how deeply people are impressed by Studio 5, but we who live with it tend to forget that this happens. We’ve told the story before, but it’s worth repeating, how the Japanese television engineer was told by a compatriot when he said he was visiting England: ‘You must see Studio 5.’

A brochure has now been printed to give away to visitors and the inside pages of this brochure are reproduced here because we feel that the staff might be interested in seeing what others will receive. Most of the photographs were specially taken by Donald McCullin.

A highly technical workshop like Studio 5 must have an equally skilled staff. In Studio 5 the hands of the craftsmen, artists, technicians that fashion every production, are experienced, talented and thoroughly professional. Even the hand of welcome in the reception hall plays its part. The hands that paint the backcloths. The hands that dress the set with properties. The hands of the make-up artists that prepare the cast for their performance. There are many pairs of hands and all of them help to maintain the high standard. So much to be done: a deadline to be reached every day. The set must be designed, then fashioned, then built. The property men must dress it with the hundreds of bits and pieces. The carpenters must modify, improve and alter. The curtains must be hung – but even in this apparent turmoil there is time for a meal, a drink or a quiet read.

The stage is set, the cast is assembled, the Director arrives and rehearsals begin. High above the studio floor he sits, facing fourteen 21-inch monitors, and selects the picture he wants. His word is everyone’s cue. Flanking him are the Vision Mixer (right) and Production Assistant (left). In the early stages of the rehearsals the Director may have a discussion on the studio floor with the Designer, Floor Manager, Senior Cameraman or artists – but for the performance he sits alone. Each of the two sections of Studio 5 has its own Control rooms but when it is operated as a single unit, one half, 5A, becomes the master and 5B, the slave. Studio 5 is equipped to operate on the 405, 525 or 625 line standard. The Vision, Lighting and Sound controls are situated on the first floor with double windows and have an easy access to the studio gantries. Each section is equipped with four 4½-inch Image Orthicon Cameras and 5A can employ all eight cameras at one time. Lighting Control and the Camera Control Unit downstairs on Studio floor level can be likewise divided, or operated as a single unit.

The final ‘take’ – the last performance – the Studio is stilled before the opening seconds. The set is built, dressed and lit – everything is prepared. The Floor Manager, who hears the Director through his headphones, cues the Studio and the production begins. The cameras swoop in and out or crab sideways, peering, staring, prying. The lights beat down, the floor is tense and alert.

The final shots are taken, the performance ends. In half an hour the Studio is empty – to be filled again tomorrow – and the next day and the day after that. Studio 5 has a healthy appetite. But so has television.

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In December, 1954, Central Rediffusion Services Limited, the service and supply company of the Rediffusion Group, was appointed technical consultant to Associated-Rediffusion Limited and has been responsible for the planning and equipping of all Associated-Rediffusion studios and technical areas. With the completion of Studio 5 these services will cease.

No one would pretend that Wembley Studios are ideal, because the site is not large enough to contain all the service areas which modern television studios require. But one of the greatest problems facing Associated-Rediffusion when it was appointed the first programme contractor to the ITA late in 1954, was the speed necessary to equip and build studios and to train and rehearse personnel and artists.

In buying Wembley Film Studios, Central Rediffusion was at least able to make a quick start. Studio 5 is, therefore, an operational unit only – much of its scenery and services must be brought from elsewhere.

The building of Studio 5 started in December, 1958, and though the building contractors had the advantage of extremely good weather during the spring and summer of 1959, the national shortage of bricks caused a serious delay and necessitated continuous alteration to the planned progress. The final stages of testing of the studio and control apparatus have started and it is hoped that Studio 5 will be handed to Associated-Rediffusion during May so that training and rehearsals can commence.

Studio 5 is certainly the largest television studio in Europe and probably the largest ever built as a television studio. It has a floor area of 14,000 square ft [1,300m²] and a clear height to the inside of the roof structure of 40 ft [12m] with a clear height in the centre section, which houses the dividing partition, of 30 ft [9m]. Walkways are provided at the 12 ft [3.6m], 30 ft and 40 ft levels.

The whole of the building foundations and floors are divided into two sections and when the centre partition doors are lowered the studio can be used simultaneously as two studios of 6,700 square feet [622m²] each.

One of the most important features of the studio is the dual partition which is of lattice girder construction with external wind bracing on the cavity side. The acoustic slabs consist of two mild steel sheets 4 inches [10cm] apart with 3-inch [7.6cm] rock wool filling, one sheet is suspended free and connected to the main frame at the edges only. The two partitions, when lowered, are designed to provide an acoustic separation of 60 Db over the range of 50 cycles to 4.5 kilocycles.

The lifting and lowering of the doors, which weigh 25 tons each, is done by four specially designed units consisting of an electric motor coupled through a reduction gear to a wire rope drum from which the door is suspended. The doors, which are provided with several safety stops, will take about half-an-hour to raise or lower.

One of the great difficulties in television studios is providing sufficient ventilation to give cool air on the studio floor. There are separate ventilation plants for each half-studio to give seven air changes an hour, the ventilation ducts in the roof being large enough for a man to walk through. Adjustable nozzles allow the flow of fresh air to be directed. Another ventilation plant is provided for the control rooms and technical areas, and each equipment bay has its own supply, extract and filter.

Everyone knows of the problem of studio floors. In Studio 5 we have an added problem due to its giant size. The floor must be level to plus or minus ⅛ inch [3mm] At no point must it have a slope of more than 1 in 1,000. The length of the floor will change by ¾ inch [19mm] with normal temperature variation and yet no crack must appear between the two halves when the floor moves. Two special comb joints are, therefore, being fitted to the centre partition which will cause only very minor camera wobble as cameras track across these joints.

Each studio will have 340 lighting circuits fed from the lighting patch panels. These panels are next to the lighting control consoles which are arranged to be operated from a sitting position in the form of an organ console. Each studio will have 70 lighting hoist units driven by electric motors. The raising and lowering of each unit is controlled from a panel next to the lighting control rooms on the 12-foot gantry or from the studio floor by means of a wandering lead. Fifteen units can be selected and operated simultaneously and four such groups are available for selection and operation.

The control rooms, which are big enough to carry any extra apparatus required for colour transmission, are built along the northern side of the studio with the vision, sound and lighting control rooms at 12-foot level, and the camera control rooms, make-up rooms and service rooms at ground floor level.

The entire studio is being equipped with eight new E.M.I. 4½-inch [11.4cm] image Orthicon cameras and the vision system can be operated on 405, 525 and 625 line frequency. Each vision control room will have 14 21-inch [53cm] picture monitors to allow the monitoring of 10 sources in addition to transmission, off air and two previews. It will thus be possible to record programmes on film or tape which can be used overseas without further alteration. The sound equipment has been specially designed and has 26 low level channels and nine high level, divided into four groups. All controls and faders are mounted on a sloping panel of a sound console to facilitate operation.

One of the most important requirements is good communications in order to co-ordinate the team of people whose combined efforts make a television programme. The director’s talk-back system carries the director’s instructions to headphones worn by operators in the studios, and to loudspeakers in the control rooms. In rehearsal the director can speak to the studio through a public address system.

Programme sound is also distributed so that all may follow the programme and respond to sound cues when required. A separate sound balancer’s talk-back system connects the sound balancer with microphone boom operators. The director can talk to the floor manager by a radio talk-back system, thus avoiding trailing leads. The intercommunication facilities in Studio 5 are provided by a ‘Transicon’ equipment consisting of small transistorised amplifiers plugged in to rack frames, an arrangement which will ensure the rapid detection and righting of faults and contribute to the efficient working of the new studio.

During 1955 and in a space of less than 10 months all the original studios and equipment were planned and provided. It was not until 24 hours before the official opening that the first complete rehearsal was possible, and even then no commercial film inserts were available.

Studio 5 is the outcome of 12 months careful thought and 18 months building and equipping. The artists and personnel who use it will have at their hands the latest and the best. It therefore only remains for me to wish them all success.

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It would be fair to say that in recent years television broadcasts have become more complex, more polished and operate at a faster pace; this process must continue and, so far as television studios are concerned, will probably culminate in the ‘Spectacular’. Spectacular drama and light entertainment broadcasts have been shown in the past only via the film medium in this country. They have never been televised ‘live’ due to the lack of studio space and facilities. It is to remedy this omission and to present Spectacular British Broadcasts that Associated-Rediffusion has decided to lead the way by building Studio 5 at Wembley.

The Studio and its associated service areas are to be built on a site at present used for car parks and film vaults. The building will contain a studio of approximately 14,500 square feet floor area, production, camera, sound and lighting control rooms, a new canteen, entrance hall, visitors’ lobbies, dressing rooms, make-up rooms, etc.

The main feature of the Studio is to be a partition which may be lowered or raised, thus enabling the Studio to be divided into two studios of approximately 6,700 square feet floor area each. These studios will be known as Studio 5A and 5B, and will have their own associated control rooms, make-up rooms, etc. If the partition scheme is successful it will represent a major engineering achievement.

One great difficulty in planning any enterprise of this magnitude for television is the fact that production techniques and demands will most certainly have changed by the time the installation has been completed. Many traditional broadcasting practices have thus been discarded and new ideas put in their place. One example of this is to be found in the production control rooms, where the control desk is to be curved following the principle of the round table. This idea has two particular advantages to recommend it; no matter where a person sits the rest of the company is always in front of him, and also his immediate neighbours do not obscure his view or that of any others at the desk. Seated on the outside of the curve the control room personnel look inwards towards the picture monitors. The picture monitors will be 21-inch screen diagonal, because in the 1960’s it is estimated that 21-inch receivers will be the most usual for British homes, and it will be essential for the director to get the same sensation of perspective and impact as his audience.

The control room monitors will all be below eye level, so minimizing the angle between script and monitor, and avoiding the usual neck stretching which is a feature of the traditional design.

The control of the production lighting will be very comprehensive. The lamps will be raised and lowered by remotely controlled motorized hoists and the intensity of the illumination controlled from lighting consoles. The installation is designed to cope with any production likely to be brought to the studio. When the studio is used as one, the control of all the production lighting will be from one console position. Eight modern television 4½-inch Image Orthicon cameras will be available for the studio as a whole. These cameras will be a little more than half the weight of the present cameras and will open a new avenue for our cameramen in handling techniques. Two studio zoom type lenses will be available for the whole studio. When the partition is lowered, four cameras will normally be associated with each studio but it would be possible to have, say, five in one and three in the other. The design is such that should a camera channel fail in Studio 5A it will be possible to have a replacement from Studio 5B and vice versa within a matter of a minute or so.

By the time Studio 5 is completed, tri-alkia Image Orthicon camera tubes will almost certainly be available, this in simple language means that the cameras will be much more sensitive than those of today and will enable directors and lighting supervisors to create new visual moods and effects. An Inlay desk is planned for each production control room. This will have the facilities for inlay, overlay, scanning of 2 × 2 transparencies and roller captions.

Two separate sound control rooms are planned, each with a newly designed sound desk, four multi-speed gram units and a tape recorder. The sound installation will give maximum flexibility, and with very little alteration will give facilities for stereophonic sound. It is hoped that a new type microphone zoom will be available giving a full 360° rotation, and a seat for the operator.

A fully equipped make-up room will be situated adjacent to each of the two studios. This follows modern practice by getting make-up as near to the studio floor as possible. Each is to have seven make-up positions, with all the necessary wash-basins, hair dryers, etc.

By 1960 it is envisaged that the scenery will be of relatively lightweight construction, and a great deal of this, on the faster type productions, will most probably be ‘flown’. For this purpose eighteen power-operated hoists will be available plus the usual skids, etc. The hoists will be operated from a control panel on the studio floor, or from a portable handheld control board.

It is planned to have a maximum audience of 500 in the studio on certain productions, and it is hoped that 27-inch monitors will be available enabling them to view the televised show. The strain of television inevitably tells on the studio operators after a period of time. In planning Studio 5 considerable thought, time, tears and sweat have been expended in trying to reduce the operational fatigue experienced by the studio personnel today. It is hoped that this will be repaid by better and more polished productions, for although Studio 5 will, without doubt, be the finest television studio in England, it will rest with the operators and artists as to whether this venture will be a success or not.

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‘Three Roads to Rome’ was the composite title of three separate plays, starring Deborah Kerr and with a glittering cast including Celia Johnson, Isobel Dean, Anthony Newlands, Jeremy Brett and Alan Cuthbertson.

Associated-Rediffusion provided the full technical facilities of Studio 5, and the whole of its production resources for the 525-line video tape recording. It was soon obvious that the entire 14,000 square feet of floor would be required to house the biggest sets since ‘An Arabian Night’, including a full-sized ‘practical’ carousel in an Italian market square.

Ronald Marriott, aided and abetted by his P.A., Helen the Best, became thinner but wiser as director, while the Americans sent a colourful quartet of producers to assist him. In order of meeting they were:

enter (at ceiling height) briskly: John B. Green (Executive Network Producer) quickly known as ‘Big John’. This could be because he was at least nine feet high and came from Texas. (Why doces he never stand still? Is the weight too much for the floor for more than a minute? ‘Hush dear, he’s thinking!’)

enter (legato con moto) ‘Beau’ Goldman (bow-tied associate producer and musical adviser): ‘Say, Beau, have you met Steve Race? He will write your music.’

exit Both (Control Room left) together with scripts, stop watches, blank music sheets, frowns and a brace of P.A.s.

enter (quietly, politely, inquiringly) Arthur Penn, legendary film, Broadway and television producer and other half of COE PENN production partnership. He is small, tweedy, bespectacled, but with an air of intent. ‘You say we can have eight cameras, all on two-shot? – That’s just fine!’

exit — with Ronald Marriott to floor, in a hurry.

enter – Bold Fred (Coe), fresh from Paris and preceded by his ‘you-name it — he’s done it and at the moment he’s television adviser to the President and they don’t come any bigger than KING SIZE’ – reputation. ‘Good morning’ (formal introductions) and, quick exit to his private viewing room (with telephone to gallery) calling over his shoulder: ‘Arthur, I want to talk to you about the lighting, and another thing, that scene where we are’ … A pause, quiet descends, the gallery settles and from the studio the pleasantly Welsh voice of floor manager Eric Cooper calls for quiet. Fred Pusey’s delightful Forum and Rome hotel balcony set appears on camera 1.

The cultured American voices (how beautifully Deborah and Celia have slipped into character) engage in the opening dialogue of ‘Roman Fever’ – the first play.

It is Monday morning. Vic Gardiner’s five cameras cluster above, below and all around the hotel balcony balustrade, sections of which are being continuously moved, just in case one of the five cameras can get a better two-shot, or maybe a small trench for the crane would give … a … better …

Before we had finished in the studio some four days later we had all learned a great deal about American production techniques. Quickly we found how to live with and interpret their methods and techniques to their satisfaction, while at the same time bringing our own individualism to the finished product.

Did I say finished?

The V.T.R. Room at Wembley looked like a first feature cutting room with a world premiere brought forward a month. From this do-it-yourself drama kit, Jim Runkle’s recording team, Harry Baker in charge of V.T.R. and Theo Duka in charge of tele-recording sound, worked like beavers to cut together a rough working copy from the dozens of ‘takes’ and bits of tape in order that the producers could have some idea of the production as a whole on the following day. (Perhaps even a timing.)

This was done on Friday and Saturday while Steve Race, with copious notes, a buzzing head and the prospect of a heavy week-end was charged to write the incidental music by Monday morning’s 9 o’clock band call. The American technique for major productions is to record the music and any effects required, post-sync sound, as in feature films. This was an innovation in live television production as far as we were concerned and considerable knitting of facilities was required to achieve it. It was, as far as I know, the first time that the techniques of live television, film sound and video tape had all been combined in this way.

On Monday morning, we assembled in Studio 5 to view the final cut working copy and to record the musical backgrounds required at intervals throughout the 90-minute production. Tony Bristow kept a firm hand and his urbane disposition visible throughout and the session was successfully concluded just as the last over-coated musician left the studio.

With, it seemed, an ever-increasing kit of parts, we ascended on the Tuesday morning to the dubbing theatre at Television House where George Willows and his crew bade us welcome, while Freddy Slade sharpened his chinagraph and his wits for the master mix. Sound tracks wild and sound tracks sync were combined to sound track master and while a fascinating series of numbers flashed by on the projection screen, the V.T.R. picture from Wembley appeared, as if by magic on cue from the dubbing mixer. (Sheer fantasy this!) Tracks were moved, cut, laid, wiped, stretched, blooped, padded, blanked and generally administered by ace cutter, John Butler, who was able to remove ‘dead air’ not by a fan, but by moving music tracks to cover dialogue pauses.

The prospect of replacing the theatre carpet was causing George Willows some alarm (Why can’t John B. Green sit down?). Ronald Marriott was down to his last set of finger nails and now had pins and needles in both legs. Faces various, looked in, paled, and left rapidly; but by Wednesday afternoon, it looked as if we had won. Thursday saw the happy wedding of track master sound, to track V.T.R. vision, while Friday morning saw the first-off replay of the entire production to most of the principals and cast.

The quality of all aspects of the production were the subject of very considerable praise from the Americans and the occasion for not inconsiderable sighs of relief from us. The impeccable lighting of Bob Gray gave Don Furness, in charge of racks, the opportunity to produce some of Studio 5’s finest pictures. During the production it was fascinating to see how the expert make-up, under the direction of Mary McDonough, coped with the changes in age and character of Deborah Kerr, who although rarely off the set for more than a few minutes at a time gave a shining example of patience and sweetness which charmed everybody. Her casual asides during the inevitable moments of tension reduced the floor to near hysteria on several occasions.

Much of the great success of this operation was due to the enormous co-operation given by everybody and the mustering of Associated-Rediffusion’s production facilities under the supervision of programme coordinator, Lloyd Williams. A complicated operation? Expensive? Time-consuming? Yes, possibly all three. But for first-class quality and guaranteed results on a national network where these factors count above all, come to Associated-Rediffusion, as ABC did.

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