NZBC promoting their future plans
From Time and Space, October 1971
Progress can now clearly be seen on the new Television Centre at Avalon.
Intended to be of four separate buildings initially, this is New Zealand's first major production centre and, when completed, the NZBC will be able to widen the scope and vary the range of television programmes produced in this country.
Avalon also means that all facets in the preparation and production of studio shows will be carried out under one roof.
A main prerequisite for a TV centre is an area of flat land with studios at ground level so that scenery can be moved freely to and from the studio floors. The land purchased at Avalon is ideal for the purpose, placed as it is only a few minutes' drive from the centre of Lower Hutt and near a major highway to Wellington.
The first building on the site was the outside broadcasts base, built in 1965, and now the other three buildings are well on their way to completion.
Covering 72,000 square feet, the largest building in the complex is the studio block, constructed in three sections. On the Western side, nearest the Hutt River, is the set construction area, two storeys high.
Scenery will be built and painted by set-makers, set-finishers and scenic artists and moved on trolleys through the large nearby door- ways to the studio floors.
Designers, graphic artists and other staff associated with the section will have their offices on the western wall above the set construction area.
The studios are in the central block of the main building and special efforts have been made to provide acoustic isolation to keep out- side noise to a minimum.
Ultimately, four studios will be used and the largest studio will easily accommodate the NZBC Symphony Orchestra and an audience of several hundred.
The third section in the building is the technical wing, with all control rooms and technical equipment on the first floor.
Also in the technical wing will be the continuity suite from which the regular TV pro- grammes will be presented, a news suite for the production of 'Network News' and 'Newsview' and other areas accommodating the complex electronic equipment controlling cameras, film-reproduction and videotape recorders.
The film editing rooms, along with theatres, libraries, makeup and wardrobe sections, and a number of dressing rooms for artists will be on the ground floor. At this stage, with the concrete work completed, floors and walls have many holes in them, to be filled later by wires and cables, plumbing and air-conditioning. It has been estimated that when the project is complete, there will be over 3,000 miles of wire in the technical wing.
The service block is on the river side of the studio building. This will supply power to the complex, using a natural gas engine generating plant. It will also provide central heating, air-conditioning re-heat and hot water.
This plant is the first of its kind in New Zealand. A diesel generator is also being installed to maintain essential services during any possible breakdown in gas and mains supply.
The other building now taking shape is the tower block which will rise to ten storeys surmounted by a link room of three storeys.
The link room will house the reflector dishes which will feed the TV programmes in a direct line to the transmitter on Mt Kau Kau. These dishes will also receive the network signals from Auckland and Christchurch and from the mobile control room covering sports and events in the Hutt Valley and Wellington.
The tower block itself will provide office accommodation for many of the 300 people who will eventually work there, with cafeteria facilities on the first floor. The main reception area will be on the ground floor.
The Avalon Television Centre is similar in layout to others overseas and incorporates the best features from these.
Development of NZBC television concentrated in the first ten years on the transmitters necessary to provide coverage for as many New Zealanders as possible. However, now that nearly all parts of the country receive a TV signal, the first major production centre in Lower Hutt will soon become a reality
Avalon — the TV spectacular
By KEN COATES
Press, 14 December 1974,
To an ordinary television viewer, the new Wellington television centre at Avalon, Upper Hutt, is a spectacular palace of expensive new technology. It cost more than $10m and time alone will prove to what extent this is money well spent in bringing more and better New Zealand television programmes.
Avalon has been more than 10 years in the building. and is still not operational. But some N.Z.B.C. officials have moved in to supervise installation of the masses of electronic gadgetry, and help prepare the centre for 450 staff expected from central Wellington early next year.
Progress on the 10-storey tower block and sprawling studio complex has been described as “a kind of shifting sands operation.” It was first envisaged as a national T.V. productions centre and went on the Ministry of Works drawing boards in 1962. But both technology and T.V. development in New Zealand caught up with the planners and overtook them.
Network broadcasting began, colour was introduced and news and current affairs staff grew.
Ministers of Broadcasting came and went, and a centre that was planned for two T.V. channels under the corporation is becoming a reality with two competing channels.
Redesigned
Private architects were engaged and as the building proceeded it was redesigned for colour, and to cope with new techniques and equipment. The corporation’s own engineering division came into the act, and officials claim that while the delay with much needed facilities was frustrating, it at least provided an opportunity for New Zealand to learn from other T.V. organisations which have had to redesign for colour.
At Avalon, the result of changed decisions is evident here and there — equipment not quite matching the holes in concrete floors and units with square corners, rounded to fit.
Avalon’s pride and joy is Studio 8, the largest of 11 studios. To the layman, it looks more like an aircraft hangar, and there is a 25 ton sound-proofed door, electrically operated, which slides open and shut in a water bath.
Spectaculars
This is the studio where the New Zealand spectaculars can be produced. The N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra would fit in with plenty of room to spare. Studio 8 delights those responsible for light entertainment and drama. And with 9600 square feet of space, it looks as though a separate programme could be filmed in each comer.
There is also a cavernous staging area which runs almost the whole length of the studio complex. Props and staging will be made here for all studios.
At present, stored rather self-consciously at one end, are some of the sets from the production, “Buck House.” Book-lover visitors who see them are always upset, say officials, apologetically. One is a simulated library wall with a couple of hundred books sliced through and stuck to the wall.
Steel grid
High overhead in Studio 8 is a walk-over steel grid for 240 powerful lights which can be raised or lowered by servo motors. A powered platform will also raise or lower artists working on murals or backdrops. And camera cranes will enable high-angle shots to be filmed.
There is nothing quite like Studio 8 elsewhere in the country. It will be used by TV-1 which will have its headquarters in Wellington. TV-2, with headquarters in Auckland, will have no parallel facility. TV-2 will be linked with Christchurch, which will become a major production centre. Producers with experience overseas report that huge production centres are not necessarily needed for high quality drama and entertainment.
They point out that smaller TV companies in Britain have shown that good television can be produced with a low budget, using existing centre-city facilities.
Impressed
Still, Avalon will contain the finest facilities in the country. Australians who have already seen it are reported to be most impressed. The centre will provide facilities for making high quality productions, and N.Z.B.C. officials are quick to point out the corporation has in the past risked its reputation by producing drama and entertainment under adverse conditions.
By big city standards the 12-mile, 20-minute trip from the city to Avalon on the Hutt motorway is short. However, there have been murmurings, especially among news staff, about the coming difficulties in persuading interview subjects to travel all the way to Avalon and back to appear in front of cameras.
The centre will open with two production studios in operation. The 11 production areas are called suites, and, generally, a suite is a studio plus control facilities.
Remote control
The suite for news and general use has facilities to satisfy the most demanding news editor. It includes two remotely controlled cameras. Other suites will provide facilities for editing, film sound dubbing, still photographs and filming. Banks of equipment are being installed in control rooms, including console computers and the latest colour machines.
Make-up rooms will cater for a dozen people at a time, and there is a row of eight identical artists’ rooms. Each is equipped with shower, mirrors and wash-basin. They were first termed "star dressing rooms” but as the N.Z.B.C. considered this did not quite fit in with the New Zealand egalitarian concept, they were renamed.
Avalon does not have to rely on the national grid for electricity. The engineers have devised what they call a “total energy concept.” Three turbines using Kapuni gas will produce power, and heat generated will be used for water heating.
Film editors and technicians will be able to reach to the wall for piped compressed air and built-in vacuum cleaner nozzles.
One of the problems for machines through which film is run is the build-up of dust and dirt into hard and abrasive particles which can damage the film. Archives, videotape library and optical workshop are temperature and humidity-controlled. It is no wonder the door of one particular studio is always kept locked at present. It contains 13 television cameras, each costing about $70,000 — enough to buy a house in Fendalton.
Cable bays
Avalon is very much geared to the medium for which it was created. There is, for example, a 4ft 6in space between the ground and first floors. This houses the miles of complex cables and wiring for the building and its $4.5m worth of equipment.
The richly carpeted centre will provide much improved working conditions for staff — it is even in the catering business with a large restaurant at the base of the tower block which houses office accommodation.
Avalon has been called a castle of dreams. The dreams are about to become reality and thousands of television viewers will assess results.
The NZBC's future became TVNZ's past
The Avalon complex was sold June 2013 when contracts came up for renewal.
TVNZ Chief Executive Rick Ellis said "The need for Avalon's large studio facilities for local television production has steadily decreased over the years with the outsourcing of programme making and big budget, studio-based, local shows being less profitable to commission."
The complex includes four purpose-built television studios and a high definition control room, as well as extensive set design and build workshops, wardrobe, make-up and green rooms. There was also an extensive back lot available for production use.
The TVNZ Archive at Avalon would not be impacted by the changes.
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