Friday Night with Jonathan Ross will this week become the first high definition production to be recorded in BBC Studios' new HD Studio, the re-vamped Studio Four.

Nearly two million pounds has been invested by BBC Studios, part of BBC Resources, in HD cameras, lenses, vision and monitoring equipment for the studio.

The new kit includes a Sony MVS-8000 series vision mixer and eight Sony HDC-1500 cameras. Studio Four's gallery and lighting gallery monitor stacks have been replaced and new HD fibre links laid to the central control area.

Danielle Nagler, the head of BBC HD, believes the upgrade will help to attract more HD productions to TV Centre. She said: “BBC HD strives to showcase the best of BBC content. Having a third HD studio available at Television Centre I hope will support our ambition to work with both independent and in-house producers to increase the amount of BBC programming we can bring to audiences in HD quality.”

Studio Four is the third studio to be upgraded to HD, following the conversion of Studio One and Studio Eight.

Future BBC Studios' equipment upgrades will also be to high definition, with an additional focus on 1080p/50.

The BBC hopes to produce all its content in HD by 2012.

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross returns for an autumn run starting on Friday 5 September 2008. It will go out in standard definition on BBC1 and in high definition on BBC HD.