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The Vaudeville Studio where an attempt was made to provide a theatre atmosphere.
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right - The balcony, intended for part of the small audience "required for giving
atmosphere to the broadcasts". |
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left - The view from the back of the stage,
looking across towards a corner of the balcony. The collapsible black
screens at the sides of the stage were meant to be drawn out to form
'wings'. The prevalent colouring of the decorations was grey blue,
lemon yellow and pale red. 
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 BA
was used for light musical as well as Vaudeville programmes. A 1935 cigarette
card shows the BBC Dance Orchestra playing there. The BBC would soon take
over the nearby St. George's Hall which would house the larger vaudeville
programmes, leaving BA to handle the smaller variety shows. It was 44' x
36' x 19' high, a volume of 30,000 cu. ft. The reverberation time was 1.1
seconds. Provision was made for four microphones, the outputs of which were
mixed in the adjoining listening room. This room also contained two gramophones
whose outputs were connected to the six channel mixer which handled the
mic outputs. The Silence, or Announcing, Room was shared with Studio BB
- possibly this was the small area between the two studios which is shown,
but not labelled, on the floor plan.
BA was to last only a few years. It became the Control Room during the war years and up to
the early 1960s. It then, once again, became a studio, named S2.
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