One of the challenges I work on in developing BBC R&D North’s new premesis (both the interim solution and our long term base at MediaCity:UK) is figuring out just what we as a department need to do our work. I’ve talked a little about the technology, but the physical environment is important too. Just what makes a space that engineers can work effectively in? I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have (use the comments), but I also thought I’d share some quotes I found when trying to quantify and communicate the environment we’re trying to create.
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It’s been quite a while now since I started working on BBC R&D’s North Lab. I’ve thoroughly failed to provide any updates, for which I apologise, but I think it falls under the category of “the more is happening, the less time you have to blog about it”! We’ve been ploughing ahead with our interim lab which will tide us over for the next two years or so on the existing BBC Manchester site, and planning for MediaCity:UK at Salford, which is our longer-term solution. My main focus was to be the former, but I’ve increasingly been pulled in to helping plan for MCUK; as you can probably imagine, it’s a very large project requiring a lot of effort. But perhaps we’re starting to work out just what it takes to build an R&D lab…
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It’s been quite a while now since I moved to Manchester… 6 weeks to be precise. (I had to go look at my calendar to work that out!) So what’s happened? Well, everything and nothing really. Life continues much as normal, and though I’ve been desperately looking for a funny story to share with you, an anecdote of life up north that will make you smile, I’ve failed thus far. This can probably be seen as a guarantee that this post will be dull as dog poo, but I’ll try to give you a brief update anyway.
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Manchester greeted me yesterday with howling winds and a few brief showers. Not the best of starts weather-wise after the glorious sunshine that bathed London last week. However I’m now sitting in the Research & Development office of the BBC’s New Broadcasting House in Manchester, getting settled in. How I came to be here was somewhat of an interesting story, and I explained a little here. But what I’m doing over the next 6 months will be even more interesting, and it’s a journey I hope some of you might like to join me on. We have the task of establishing a new Research & Development lab in Manchester ahead of the BBC’s move to Salford Quays. Setting up a new broadcast and media research lab isn’t something that happens often, so just how we go about it will be full of creative and technical challenges.
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