Broadcasting House in 1932 Broadcasting House in 1932
8th Floor - Control Room - 1
The Control Room at this time did actually control the outputs of microphones in the studios. One man could sit at a control position here and control all the studios in the building.

General view of the Control Room
above - The near end of the room contained the six control desks used for transmissions, together with supervisory and simultaneous broadcasting positions. At the far end, beyond the final beam, can be seen some of the eight desks used for rehearsals. On the left were the racks of amplifiers and other equipment.

General view of the Control Room
above - The view from the other end of the room.

One of the fade units left -
A four-channel fade unit at one of the control positions. The two outer faders each controlled two sources, cross-fading between them. The central fader combined the outputs of the outer ones in the same way and the output of that fader was fed to the main control, lower left. See the technical section for more details.

Although the meter looks like today's Peak Programme Meter, it isn't one. The PPM was not developed till about 1936 or 7 but it did retain the previously designed scale.

Check Receivers

right -
Cables in the false floor, ending on terminal strips at the bottom of the 'A' amplifier bays and connecting them with the studios. High output, low impedance Microphones were connected directly to the Control Room through a balanced, screened pair. The cable, which could be up to 1000 feet long, connected through a step-up transformer to an 'A', or microphone, amplifier. High impedance microphones, such as condenser mics, needed a pre-amplifier in the studio, the required power being fed down the microphone cable.
Relays
above - Part of one of the relay bays, showing three types of relay used in amplifier switching.

left - Two of the receivers used for checking the quality of transmissions.

Cabling

Christmas 1935

This shot dates from Christmas 1935. The sign above the control positions reads "A Merry Christmas from a room that never sleeps."

In addition to the material on this and the next page, there is more information about the Control Room in the technical section.



Broadcasting House in 1932 Broadcasting House in 1932
8th Floor - Control Room - 1