Monday, May 13, 2019
Today we got in the bus and headed to Manchester to visit MediaCity. MediaCity is an international hub for technology and creativity. It is the home of companies like BBC, ITV, Ericsson, dock10 and Kellogg’s as well as the MediaCityUK campus of University of Salford.
We started our day off with a tour of the University of Salford building in MediaCity. The location was gorgeous! It was located right next to BBC in a park. There were restaurants and picnic tables as well as food stands.
On our tour we were told that Salford works very hard to blend together the students and the professionals. Salford lets their neighbors, BBC borrow their facilities, however, BBC needs to promise to use Salford students in their projects. What a great opportunity, right?
After the tour, we headed over to tour BBC.
What a surreal experience. I got to sit in the celebrity guest chair in one of the BBC Radio studios. This studio contained instruments that many famous bands, like Arctic Monkeys, has played. There was also a piano with a beat up bench. The bench had been used by every celebrity that has ever walked into that studio. People like The Beatles and members of Queen had sat at that bench, so it makes sense why they didn’t redo the upholstery.
The most shocking thing, I think was seeing the different filming studios. The studio where they film BBC Sports was so much smaller than expected. Plus, it was so plain and messy! The floors were scratched up, the chairs had wire duct taped to it, and it was lines with plain wood. The effects and lighting they use when filming are so good, you would never even know!
At the end of our tour we had the opportunity to sit on the set of what looked the the BBC morning show and then it was time to go to our hotel. After another amazing group dinner (I had more French fries so you know it was amazing), it was time to go to bed so we would be ready for our flight.
Tomorrow we are off to Scotland!