rooms in the basement. Design Production Design Department had design offices in the central tower block until moving in the early 1990s to a new extension on spare land (originally intended for the early Light Entertainment Studio C) next to the road to the rear car park. There were offices and work rooms for set and prop design located to the rear of the extension near to the construction workshop. On the ground floor were several props cages which contained all manner of items, even a Dalek. Make-up Make-up had a large purpose built complex on the ground floor next to Studio A. With seating for 6 people and small office space at one end of the glassed gallery at the front of the building. Communications and signals Pebble Mill formed part of the BBC's communications and transmission backbone. London's BBC Television Centre (TVC) had primary responsibility for most of the BBC's transmitted output and day to day transmission switching and presentation. Pebble Mill was the Midlands Central Switching and Monitoring Centre, and would route national channels (two television, four national radio and local radio) to the Midland transmitters at Sutton Coldfield, Ridge Hill and The Wrekin and to other parts of the UK as well as acting as a national back up to TVC in case of emergencies. Outside broadcast – television and radio In the late 1960s to the early 1990s, Pebble Mill had a fleet of 'Links' or scanner vehicles that were used to relay vision signals from outside broadcasts (OBs) back to the Communications Centre or 'Comms Centre' before being redistributed to London. All audio signals were sent via copper cable (Post Office/BT land lines). When satellite transmission of picture signals began in the mid-1990s, Pebble Mill gained satellite dishes and had fibre optics installed as permanent links to Birmingham's BT tower. Pebble Mill had several scanner vehicles possibly dating back to World War II when it was a Royal Air Force (RAF) term for mobile radar vehicles which the GPO and BBC used after the war. During the 1970s 'Comms Centre' was located in the 'Foyer' at Pebble Mill, but by the 1990s, Comms moved around the corner in the studio and was situated in the link area between Radio and TV. Television CM1 (Colour Midland 1) CM1 was a Type 5 Scanner built by Link Electronics. This was an eight camera vehicle and had