Behind the Scenes of Springwatch

So what does it mean to have one of the BBC's biggest outside broadcasts coming live from a nature reserve, into the homes of over 4 million viewers each night for three weeks?

Pensthorpe's staff car park becomes the 'Home of BBC Springwatch' and sees a total transformation as marquees form the production's departments temporary 'home from home' from the Natural History Unit in Bristol and this year, as they have gone High Definition, five articualted lorried provide all the editing suites and technical back up. It takes over two weeks to put all the infrastructure in place for this popular series and sees staff on site 20 hours a day, seven days a week, collecting footage from the the cameras set up around the 500 acre estate.  All of this to bring you footage of species perhaps never covered on the series before, and wildlife behaviour never before caught on camera.

Unsurprisingly, there's lots going on behind the scenes here at Pensthorpe in order to bring you live footage of wildlife and nature. Here are some of the amazing facts which help to make BBC Springwatch operate successfully from the wilds of Norfolk ...

• Two generators provide continuous power for the 23 days of live television.
• 12 temporary phone lines are installed, along with four wired broadband services and fifteen satellite-based broadband services.
• 36 television transmissions are planned over 12 days, including web transmissions and 'red-button' programmes, plus inserts for national and regional media.
• There are radio contributions for all parts of the United Kingdom over a three week period.
• Two further outside broadcasts feed programme material live into Pensthorpe, both connected by a second satellite.
• Five web streams generate and transmit to the Springwatch website via a third satellite 24 hours a day for 23 days.
• The BBC install 26 kilometers fibre optic cable, 7 kilometres of power cable, 2 kilometres of audio cable, 45 microphones on-site, 12 radio microphone receivers and 45 cameras on-site.
• Each satellite link involves a signal path length of 44,600 miles - 22,300 up and 22,300 down
• 6,580 sq ft of temporary office space has been erected to accommodate offices and technical areas, with on-site recording for 20 hours a day, seven days a week, for 3½ weeks.

So, as you can see, there's a lot more to Springwatch than meets the eye!

A short behind the scenes video reveals more Springwatch secrets.