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BBC World Service Selling Equipment
  • I have no connection with this link, but thought it might be of interest here. Note they will not ship -- items won at auction have to be picked up from the BBC. There is a lot of high-end audio kit here, but not much in the way of camera gear that I can see.

    http://www2.ppauctions.com/auction.php?thisPage=6&id=71&perPage=20&sort=2&search=&cat=all

    Note there are some camera lenses included, e.g.

    http://www2.ppauctions.com/lot.php?l_id=21829&id=71&search=lens&cat=all&perPage=20&sort=2&thisPage=1

    or this Panasonic AW-E800

    http://www2.ppauctions.com/lot.php?l_id=21827&id=71&search=camera&cat=all&perPage=20&sort=2&thisPage=1

  • 9 Replies sorted by
  • A lighting grid with some Kino-Flos etc http://www.ppauctions.com/lot.php?l_id=22773&id=71&search=&cat=all&perPage=20&sort=2&thisPage=56

    ...and quite a few microphones around page 51 EDIT find them all here: http://www.ppauctions.com/auction.php?thisPage=4&id=71&perPage=20&sort=2&search=microphone&cat=all

    A few Dedolights in the listing too although one item has a few power supplies but only one light head (from the look of the picture). Would still be worth a lot of money if you got it for a good price. At http://www.ppauctions.com/auction.php?search=dedolight&refresh=1&perPage=20&sort=2&id=71

  • @Mark_the_Harp Nice find! Current bid is £90.00. Seven days to go.

  • @ahbleza and thanks for the heads-up about this auction. Although having worked there years ago, it would be a bit difficult going back and seeing the place pulled apart.

    Just to warn anyone thinking of bidding: the larger audio desks / tape machines / cd players will be in mono. The BBC World Service was made to convert a lot of the stereo-capable machinery to mono at vast expense thanks to some government edict way back in the 1980s. This included buying expensive Studer A80 stereo tape machines, then fitting mono heads and output modules to the machines, so it's not always easy to convert them back.

    These EMT950 turntables were probably mono'd but you could probably convert back to stereo. They are seriously wonderful, wonderful machines and very rare. They even play backwards! At http://www.ppauctions.com/auction.php?search=EMT+950&refresh=1&perPage=20&sort=2&id=71

  • These LS3/5A speakers: http://www.ppauctions.com/auction.php?search=ls3%2F5A&refresh=1&perPage=20&sort=2&id=71 are little gems. They have a beautiful soundstage and would be wonderful for an editing or small mixing setup. Quite an old design but very much worth buying as they are sought-after. They would require an amplifier. Lots of choice. I see they are selling the H+H amplifiers separately elsewhere, but these would have been paired with these speakers (1 amp per speaker).

    There are quite a few other Fostex / Canford speakers if you want a self-contained powered speaker at good quality.

  • Man that stuff looks thrashed. Do they ship to the US?

  • @DrDave A lot of it was used by journalists - enough said! They bend things. If they're in a hurry and have a plug that is the wrong shape for a socket, they'll just push it harder, and then wonder why it ends up looking bent like a miniature banana. If they do get it to go into the equipment, they wonder why it doesn't work and where the socket has disappeared to. I've seen the results of extreme journalism many times, and it's never pretty. And that's before they even get out of the building.

    To be fair the low prices (at the moment anyway) reflect that. It was a stupidly busy environment and the studios were almost never empty - there would always be rehearsals or transmissions going on, so the gear was in constant use and the condition of some of it reflects that. You are not talking finesse here. The mics are probably a pretty safe bet because the ones listed (with the exception of the Coles) were only occasionally used, but I wouldn't even touch the tape machines (can't think why anyone would want to anyway). There's a huge amount of comms gear and specialist stuff like telephone hybrids, that no-one would want to use any more except possibly as infill for a concrete floor.

    It's collection only as @ahbleza says.

    On the plus side I don't know if there is more on offer, but that stuff doesn't represent anything like the total of what was there - there were something like 40-50 large studios and countless smaller editing areas, in various states between new and very shabby.

  • @DrDave No, it's all pick-up on site only with photoid. Maybe you can find a friend who will pick it up and ship it for you.

  • It's rare that the BBC will dispose of so much stuff at once as it all has to go through a recognised supplier. Therefore a lot of stuff is just skipped. I have personally thrown out loads of audio gear including the H & H amps for the Rogers 3/5a speakers (the speakers were all swapped out for Harbeth Monitor 20s & 30s) EMTs / Nagras / Revoxs / Cart Machines, etc and a lot of camera gear like old Betacams sold off for £250 a pop. At one stage even had the Radio One Roadshow mixing desk & console which went to a local media college. The BBC is a wonderous, fab and groovy place!

  • I've found a few things in skips - including the most amazing zoom lens from a studio camera. Long gone now, alas, but it would never have fitted on a GH2.

    I contacted the auction people and there will be more on sale in a further auction. Watch their site from October onwards for info.