(b) Portcullis House
58. In the Autumn it is planned to introduce into
service the television facilities being provided by parliament
for coverage of Select Committees in the new Parliamentary building—Portcullis
House. There will be four Select Committee rooms and two multi-purpose
conference rooms, any two of which can be simultaneously covered
by television. Two TV Control Rooms are to be provided, each with
three robotic cameras, controlled and operated by two staff in
the same way as the trolleys used in the Palace of Westminster.
The control rooms will be connected to the appropriate Committee/Conference
rooms and the robotic cameras installed as necessary. The associated
sound coverage will be selected and will be available with the
television output.
59. The cameras being provided will have widescreen
capability, but they will be operated in the 4x3 format until
widescreen pictures are required. The signals from each control
room will be digital video together with analogue sound jointly
fed to the Central Technical Area (CTA) in 7 Millbank on fibre
optic circuits. In CTA the digital video will be converted to
a composite PAL signal with separate analogue audio for feeding
on to authorised users.
60. Two Members' Interview Studios are also to be
made available adjacent to one of the Committee Rooms. Each of
these equipped studios will have two vision and sound circuits
to the CTA and extended to 4 Millbank. Although these rooms are
being cabled to allow broadcasters to interview and report 'live',
they will have to bring in their own equipment. There will be
six further circuits to carry analogue sound from the Committee/Conference
rooms for use by radio broadcasters.
61. Additional circuits will need to be provided
between numbers 7 and 4 Millbank, together with internal distribution,
to carry the additional signals being made available.
62. The House will wish to note that Committee Unit
4 (a simple two camera unit without remote control facilities)
in the Palace of Westminster will be withdrawn from service as
the Portcullis House facilities become available.
63. Although a total of up to five simultaneous television
feeds of Committees will become available at 4 Millbank, there
are no plans to increase the number of sources available at BT
Tower. The four existing circuits will continue to carry House
of Commons, House of Lords and up to two Committees.
(c) The rest of the Parliamentary
Estate
64. Whilst in North America, the Committee toured
the broadcasting facilities of both the US Congress and the Canadian
Houses of Parliament, and was able to study the more relaxed attitudes
exhibited towards broadcasters and journalists; for example, during
votes in Congress, the television "dead-air" is used
to interview Members in Statuary Hall; in Ottawa, journalists
are able to interview Members immediately outside the doors of
the Chamber—a procedure referred to as "the scrum".
This may make for entertaining television, but the Committee was
not convinced that it would have been entirely appropriate for
Westminster; it did, however, agree with broadcasters that there
should be an opportunity to conduct live interviews with Members
"at the heart of Parliament".
65. At the invitation of this Committee,[20]
the broadcaster members of PARBUL submitted to the Administration
Committee a request to provide a TV access point in the Palace
itself from which broadcasters could record, or broadcast live,
brief interviews with Members of the House. We are pleased to
note that the Administration Committee has responded constructively
to this request, and has introduced an experiment, which is being
carried out between Easter and Summer this year, siting such a
point in the small vestibule situated off Central Lobby.
66. We were also pleased to note that the Administration
Committee has lifted the restriction, which was a source of irritation
and frustration to both Parliamentarians and broadcasters alike,
on filming in Members' own offices.
20 QQ 192-196. Back
