Life as a media trainer...

Over the last two months I’ve been helping train the lovely staff in the newsroom on the BBC’s new OpenMedia system, both at Radio Bristol and Points West TV.  

Myself and the team of core trainers provided a mixture of classroom teaching, one-on-one support and ‘dry runs’ to aid the team as smooth a transition as possible.

The OpenMedia programme is replacing the ENPS scripts system across all the newsrooms at the BBC. I understand, in the commercial sector - Sky have also made the jump to OM too.

As trainers we’ve inhaled as many of the shortcuts and quick fix guides we can. These kind of rollouts test us in all manner of ways - from our knowledge of MOS technicalities, to private layouts, ticker bars to GDPR compliance just to name a few!

But it’s also fascinating that as much as we give our nuggets of wisdom to the journalists and technical staff we’re training, we too are offered a front seat view of another corner of the BBC! I’ve just celebrated my 10th anniversary of working at the corporation, and I’m still surprised how everyday is a school day!

I was particularly excited when asked to voice up a Sunday Politics BBC One ident because I was the ‘poshest voice in the gallery’! I’ll take that as a compliment... !

The Whiteladies Road base is also home to my former colleagues - Radio 4 Farming Today and Countryfile so in between living in a variety of Premier Inns, it was great to catch up with some familiar faces from my days at BBC Birmingham! 

Before I headed back to Manchester, I managed to take a few snaps in the studios of behind the scenes to share and keep for the scrapbook... 

Our next jaunts as OpenMedia trainers will be focussed on New Broadcasting House back in London, eventually followed by other nations and regions across the UK. I look forward to continue being a little nosier as the project continues...