Sneak behind the scenes at BBC Wild Week Live – Castle Espie Day 2
Two shows in now and we’re all getting in our stride here at Castle Espie, positively revelling in our “as seen on TV” status! Another fantastic live programme last night, with thankfully calmer winds and no rain this time...fingers crossed for tonight!
You may be amazed to know that BBC Wild Week Live took some two years of careful planning and over five weeks to organise and set up on-site here at Castle Espie. It’s really quite amazing to see just how much time, effort, kilometres of cable (would you believe 6km in total!) make up the half an hour programme you see on screen. That’s not to mention the crews set up at the other locations around Northern Ireland with presenter Darryl Grimason.
One of the real hubs of the technical operation - and what we like to call ‘mission control’- is the room set up here at Castle Espie which has been kitted out full to bursting with video screen after video screen and state-of the-art editing equipment. Each monitor, expertly manned by Assistant Producers Chris Agnew and John Anthony, and one of BBC NI’s Technology Development Specialists, Charlie Brown, each monitor receives live feeds from one of the many webcams that have been set up in our duckery and in nest boxes around the site. Undoubtedly adding the cute-factor to the programmes, Chris, John and Charlie are responsible for selecting and editing the best bits for the evening’s programme. Last night's dramatic cliffhanger with the jackdaw nest and ailing chicks is sure to have everyone tuning in tonight to find out what happens!
You can see the live feeds on the BBC Wild Week Live website (INSERT LINK - Gill/Kath you should have this) and visitors to Castle Espie during the day all this week will also be able to see these images beamed live onto the big screen in the Drumlin Theatre at the centre – so a real extra treat for visitors this week.
Assistant Producer Chris Agnew is actually quite at home here at Castle Espie this week. He said: “ I have been coming to the centre over the past five years as my daughter just loves the place. I have seen many changes over that time and the transformation into the wonderful sustainable visitor centre it is today.”
Possibly vying for one of the fantastic cakes, scones or slices of cheesecake on offer in our Loughshore Cafe, John Anthony commented: “ I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the knowledgeable staff at the centre.”, and techy expert Charlie added: “I’ve been blown away by the tremendous variety on-site and the good range of things to see.”
Let’s just hope they keep up the good work and help bring us another fantastic programme live from Castle Espie at 7pm this evening. I wonder how resident artist Lorna Hamilton is getting on with that owl painting.....?
