Moving from one famous location to another was inspiring. As a skinny kid and enthusiastic movie goer growing up in Essex, I never thought I'd be welcomed through that famous arched portal to Paramount or to the home of Sony Pictures.

Not that it was called Sony when I was younger; I knew it as Columbia with the illustrious Torch Lady (not Liberty, as in the famous statue on the eponymous island in New York as is often supposed) holding her beacon aloft at the start of every picture but none the less representing the spirit of freedom so integral to the identity of this great country. To step onto the same ground where James Stewart, Cary Grant (born in Bristol as Archibald Leach) and William Holden spent much of their Hollywood careers was a thrill.

NBC Universal's offices are in Universal City on the hill leading to the famous lot where today you start the studio tour (from where you also get a great view of Warner Bros down in the valley) whereas CBS, next to the celebrated Farmers' Market in West Hollywood is the home to some of the most popular television shows of yesterday and today; the audience were already in line and being wound up for a recording of the original version of The Price is Right.

20th Century Fox is located on the aptly named Avenue of the Stars in Century City with MGM, and its iconic roaring lion trade mark, close by. MGM also incorporates United Artists - famous for the James Bond movies filmed at Pinewood Studios here in the UK.

Lionsgate is one of the growing group of influential independent distributors (watch out for Mama Mia star Dominic Cooper's new movie, The Devil's Double opening in the UK in August) and is located in Santa Monica, close by the ocean. Comcast Networks has recently seen its position as the country's largest cable TV and channels operator enhanced by the merger with NBC Universal to create a TV powerhouse located in London and Singapore as well as in LA.

Ahead of our meeting with Comcast, Dave Travis (WRN Broadcast's Head of Engineering & Technology Solutions) and Doug Stewart (North America Consultant) and I had a working lunch with John Rubey, Executive Producer at one of the world's largest concert promoters and the man behind the live telecast of Michael Jackson's tribute ceremony in July 2009; his company, AEG runs the O₂ in London - the world's most successful concert venue. John showed us a fascinating 3D show reel featuring the Black Eyed Peas with some truly amazing visual effects. The 3D glasses were electric!

It was a hectic and exhausting week as we moved between four or five meetings each day - thank goodness for the GPS navigation system in our hire car - usually followed by a business dinner at night, including a visit to Gladstones, a Southern California institution right on the ocean where Sunset Boulevard meets the Pacific Coast Highway at Pacific Palisades, close to Malibu. The sunset was truly spectacular. A meeting at Manhattan Beach with Alpha Media's Jim Meyers brought the business appointments to an end (well, not quite as Dave, Doug and I spent an hour or so drafting our report on the week's activities in the terminal at LAX) before we flew home; Doug to Denver and Dave and me to London.

And finally, a piece of trivia learned from Reed Manville, Executive Vice President, International Channels for CBS Studios. How many Hollywood studios are actually in Hollywood? Answer: 1 - Paramount on Melrose Avenue. All the others are outside the Hollywood City limits.

David Treadway

Managing Director

WRN Broadcast