On the top floor of a three storey extension to the TWW Studios in Cardiff is the new Master Control. It has been designed to operate two separate, simultaneous transmission for seven days a week: a unique responsibility for a single Independent Television company. It has been a three-year £¼ million development project.
The switching system provides for separate control of the two transmissions with a further separation for the South Wales transmitter of the Welsh network to obtain a similarity of advertisements broadcast from the two transmitters at St. Hilary.
In each Control Suite the Presentation Engineer has to ‘feed’ his transmitters, on a split second timing, with programme material from a multiplicity of sources. The switching system has been designed to allow each of the two engineers to select, in advance, up to eight future decisions for both the sound and vision requirements of the programme service he is controlling. This pre-selection is held in ‘memory stores’. Between them there is a total potential of 32 pre-selected events.
Also there is automatic control of the incoming network circuit and the link with the TWW Bristol studios: this involves automatic switching at both Cardiff and Bristol Post Offices. The entire switching system could be readily adapted for operation by computer.
In his job the PE requires rapid communication with many other personnel involved in the elaborate ‘web’ of operations in Independent Television. The system installed allows him to communicate with up to 24 remote sources. It has a special switchboard with automatic clearance, hold and transfer facilities for all calls and a conference facility which can also be applied to a loudspeaker. There is in addition a local 6-channel system of intercommunication built by TWW engineers.
An announcers studio (16ft x 11ft) adjoins each of the two control rooms. Each studio can be equipped with a front-axial projection system and sets can be ‘flown’. The announcer on duty who is part of the transmission team can immediately inject a sound announcement and can ‘pre-view’ the next programme source.
Full production facilities are available in one of these continuity studios which allows more sophisticated and interesting presentation items.
The two presentation suites can be used in combination if necessary. In an emergency, transmissions for both services can be controlled from a single desk. There is also a see-through glass wall system of visual contact between suites and studios. They also have independent ventilation.
Another glass panelled area for video-tape machines is at one side of the control room. Four video-tape recorders can be accommodated in a semi-circular layout. These are supplemented by two other machines in Bristol and one multi-standard mobile unit which can be linked with master control. Electronic editing and inter-sync is available for both studios. This area has been given special acoustic treatment to absorb the noise of machines in operation.