STV News Studios

Breakfast at Crofthead Bowling Club was followed by a visit to STV Studios at Glasgow's Pacific Quay for a behind-the-scenes tour of their news studios.

We were met by our guide Katie, who was really knowledgeable about the workings of the studios and she was keen to point out that they didn't just produce content for Scottish Television but were in fact had a much wider scope, being winner of the Production Group of the Year at the Edinburgh TV Awards and they produce content for other channels like ITV, Channel 4, the BBC, Apple TV+, Discovery+, Sky Arts and E4.

On our way in further we bumped into STV's weather men, Seán Batty and Philip Petrie, standing in front of their giant Advent Calendar screen, showing the working day countdown to Christmas.

After that chance encounter, we went to see the Transmission Room, where all of the incoming TV feeds are monitored and delivered out to the four Scottish areas - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow - with region-specific programming, news and adverts. It's all handled by one person these days...and hordes of screens and computers.

Katie then took us to see the Glasgow News Room, which is where their journalists, editors and such gather to bring you the news. They had a very nice view across the River Clyde.

After that we were shown into the Production Room, which is where the live feeds are monitored, timed, mixed and linked into what you see on your TV box. We were in to see the start of the 1:55 news programme, which was being broadcast from their Edinburgh studio, and it was interesting to see how all the video feeds were timed in. All pretty tense stuff but they even have to have a buffer in case someone coughs or says the wrong thing. It didn't happen when we were there and everything went smoothly.

We then went back into the News Studio for some photos to round off the tour.

I think we all found the visit very interesting and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Katie was an excellent guide and gave us a very good view of how a professional TV studio operates.

And finally...the police would like to speak to a suspicious-looking male who was seen loitering around the green-screen camera...

You can find more information about STV Studios on their web site:

• • https://www.stvstudios.com/