Live Site comes to Millennium Place in Coventry

[dutchman]

A BBC Big Screen Live Site is coming to Coventry and will broadcast a variety of events, which will hopefully include the Royal wedding in April.



The screen, which is being installed in Millennium Place, outside the Coventry Transport Museum, will also show BBC News and local and national features.

Other cities that already have a Big Screen include Bristol, Birmingham and Leicester.

The London 2012 Organising Committee is also a partner of the Big Screens.

'Live Sites'

The Big Screens is a collaboration between the BBC, LOCOG and UK local authorities, but with the London 2012 partnership, the 19 screens around the country will become "live sites". This means that they will broadcast live coverage and news relating to the Olympic and Paralympic games.

The screen in Millennium Place will also reflect the local community with videos of events and partnerships with other arts and media organisations in Coventry and Warwickshire. It also allows those watching to send in text messages and images and play with the interactive applications.

Speaking to BBC Coventry & Warwickshire about the installation, Geraldine McCullagh, editor of the BBC Screens Operational Centre said: "We had to make sure that we had absolutely the right site and that there was plenty of funding to run it; and partnering up with LOCOG (the Local Organising Committee for the Olympic Games), have helped bring finance into the city, so have helped afford the screen."

Millennium clock to go



Head of city services at Coventry City Council, Martin Yardley, also told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire: "The beauty of that square is that it's so big. It can accommodate, we think, upwards of 6,000 people within that square, if we get to that stage."

The location of the screen would mean that visitors would be walking over the raised Millennium Clock. However, according to Martin Yardley, this is something that may change once the screen has been installed.

He added: "One of the things we've actually asked in the consultation we did around the Olympics is how attached were the people of Coventry to the clock. We've got to look at how flexible that space is and interestingly, when asked whether people be happy about the covering the removal of the clock, nine out of ten said we could remove the it.

"We're not digging it up because it's not actually buried into anything. We're going to unbolt it and take it away... It does cause us issues around the square in terms of its usability because it's a trip hazard.

[PoundShopPeter]

That 'clock' is one of most bizarre things to ever 'grace' our city.