Open Plan at Birmingham

 

THE Midlands administrative staff move into new offices this month.

The company has acquired the entire ground floor of a new multi-storey building in Edmund Street, Birmingham.

The new offices will be light and airy. They will also use the Open Plan principle which has proved so successful at ATV House in London.

Muzak has been installed to provide background music and the accommodation provided is the Midlands match to London’s ATV House in Great Cumberland Place.

Although the move has not been made yet — final touches are still going on — the building was officially opened last month by Alderman Garnet Boughton, Lord Mayor of Birmingham, by cutting a length of video tape at the entrance.

The ceremony was attended by Mr Prince Littler, Chairman of ATV; Mr Norman Collins (Deputy Chairman); Mr Val Parnell (Managing Director) and Mr Lew Grade (Deputy Managing Director).

The company’s London delegation were welcomed by Mr Philip Dorté, the Midlands Controller.

After the opening 150 Midlands dignitaries were entertained to lunch at the Grand Hotel. The Lord Mayor congratulated the company on its success and referred to television as “Another star in the firmament of our city”.

CHAIRMAN’S REPLY

In reply to the Lord Mayor’s speech, Mr Littler recalled that it was nearly five years since Independent Television had been inaugurated in the Midlands.

“In those five years ATV’s audience in the Midlands has grown from a handful in 1956 to well over four million today”, he said.

“Nowadays, 71 per cent of the Midland television audience with a choice of programme elects to view ATV in preference to the BBC, whose share is 29 per cent”.

Mr Littler added that although Mr Dorté the Midlands Controller met so many local people, and members of the Board visited Birmingham regularly, this was the first occasion for four years his Board of Directors, as a whole, had played host to a reception gathering of Midland civic, ecclesiastical and ambassadorial leaders.

ALPHA PROGRESS

Meanwhile, work continues on the new Alpha studios. Here, incidentally, the workers probably down tools more often than any other builders in Britain. And it’s all on account of TV.

“We had to issue programme bulletins to the foreman to enable him to call a stop to all noise while we are on the air”, Frank Beale, General Manager of Alpha, told me. While noise is a headache for the television staff, office accommodation for the production staff is at a premium too. But as soon as the new building is completed (August is the target month) there’ll be six floors of space with comfortable accommodation for everyone. But the building operations haven’t always been inconvenient.

SPECIAL FEATURES

One of ATV’s best “Lunch Box” shows was actually done on the building site. Special features in the new Alpha building will be: a control area on the top floor; a canteen covering the whole second floor and electric underfloor heating.

“We’ll turn on the current at night, and off in the day-time. This should keep the building comfortably warm all day” said chief engineer David Whittle.