SNOW AND ICE

BBC's Jon Brain reports as the UK is caught in the grip of one of the coldest winters for decades, with snow and ice set to continue causing problems as temperatures could plummet to -20C.

A PRESENTATION FOR THE BBC SENIOR EDITORS TEAM

Today, I had a great time with Mark Byford, Deputy Director General of the British Broadcasting Corporation and head of BBC Journalism, and his Senior Editors Team.

They wanted me to present the INNOVATION experiences and models on Newsroom Integrations.

They understand that this is a crucial issue for their future.

The BBC doesn’t buy the “us” against “them” idea and they have decided to reorganize the newsroom facilities around “content and audiences”, our mantra in this field.

So they were really interested in how to create new working flows, how to build an agnostic platform super-desk, etc.

After the presentation and many questions from this group, I have the feeling that the BBC can lead better than anybody else the new online journalism narratives of the 21st Century.

They have the talent, credibility, reputation, people and leadership to re-invent journalism in these new new platforms.

The old Regent Street Bush House or the BBC Broadcasting House will become, for sure, the biggest and most advanced state-of-the-art multimedia newsroom of the world.

The huge new rebuilding project will cost over 200 million pounds.

In less than 2-year time, more than 5.000 BBC people will move there and work together under one roof.

BH has been the BBC’S headquarters since 1932 and has survived every attempt of Hitler to destroy it.

The architects will have produced an estimated 10,000 drawings by the end of the project that will include 80.000-square meter of production areas, studios and staff facilities, plus a 4.000-square meter newsroom.

64,000 tonnes of debris will be removed from the site.

Around 17,000 lorry loads of rubbish will be taken from BH

During excavation, work will be taking place 4 meters from the Victoria tube line.

There will be six new studios for television news.

The new News studio will be one of the largest live newsrooms in the world

There will be 140 acoustic spaces for Radio & Music, News and World Service.

There will be 10,000 miles of cabling in the new building.

The focus of the complex is an atria-lit newsroom at the base of the main building.

See here more pictures from the old and future newsrooms.

(iPhone picture of Mark Byford introducing me to his team)

ST. DAVIDS CATHEDRAL CHOIR (EST. 1132)

The earliest reference to choristers at St. Davids Cathedral was in 1132 during the reign of Richard II when there were two choirboys who were given instruction in grammar and singing.

In 1535, the number of choristers had risen to eight.

Thomas Tomkins, the famous church music composer, was born in St. Davids in 1572 and he became a chorister in the cathedral while his father was the organist and master of the choristers.

St. Davids Cathedral Choir, like most British cathedral choirs, was made up of boys singing the treble line and men singing the lower voice parts until, in the late 1960s, an epidemic of influenza in the run up to a live broadcast caused the cathedral organist, Peter Boorman, to take the prudent step of introducing girls to strengthen the treble line.

From that time until 1991 the cathedral choir included girls' and boys' voices mixed in a single line with the result that girls rather took over.

The main cathedral choir is unique in the United Kingdom in that its top line currently consists of girls aged 8-18.

The lay clerks of the choir work locally in a variety of occupations.

The choir sings at four services each week and has recorded several CDs, one of which sold more than one million copies in the US, and broadcast many times on BBC radio and television.

In addition to the Cathedral Choir, there is a separate Boys' Choir. The boys sing Evensong on Tuesdays and Fridays (fortnightly with the lay clerks).

The Junior Choir is open to boys and girls in Years 3-6 and currently has 25 singers from the primary schools of St. Davids, Croesgoch and Solva. The choir rehearses at 3:45 p.m. on Fridays and sings two services in the cathedral each term.

All three choirs benefit from a first-rate musical education.

For the Cathedral Choir and Boys' Choir there are other perks: they receive payment and the girls have a number of singing lessons each year with a professional singer, subsidized by the Dean and Chapter.

In 1991, the Cathedral Singers, an adult choir of mixed voices, was established. Under the expert direction of Simon Pearce (Assistant Organist) since 1998, the choir sings evensong every fortnight and occasionally deputizes for the cathedral choir during half term holidays.

Picture from the St. Davids Cathedral Web site.