I can't find my source for this, but I believe that a simple caption was carried on a page part of the standard teletext magazines, and this was superimposed over programmes to inform viewers that the 405 line service from the particular transmitter was due to close shortly.
The BBC had a similar system, known as Presfax, which was used to send live schedule data to the nations and regions. It may even still be going...
(in London, there's also the SSD - or Schedule something Display - which is just a VGA output of a PC showing much the same data.
Presfax as a teletext style page is a fairly new thing, probably only 10 years or so. It was an odd black and white display before that
The SSDs go back to the first automated playout system, it's been replicated on its replacements and then got used as Presfax too. In TV Centre the SSDs were on the ringmaster and in the days if the NTA on screens in the corridor outside the playout suites
I think autocorrect has made an entertaining adjustment to 'ringmain' there...
I have vague memories of a similar system at BBC Leeds when I worked there in the mid to late 90s. I think it might have been called Norfax, if I remember rightly, and I think it featured the canteen menu, and not a lot else.
I’m sure I came across it when flicking through the channels piped around the building to TV screens on the ringmain, having never seen it displayed anywhere before in the building.
I have vague memories of a similar system at BBC Leeds when I worked there in the mid to late 90s. I think it might have been called Norfax, if I remember rightly, and I think it featured the canteen menu, and not a lot else.
I’m sure I came across it when flicking through the channels piped around the building to TV screens on the ringmain, having never seen it displayed anywhere before in the building.
Was that teletext (i.e. did you have to press the text button on your TV to see it) or was it just an analogue ring main channel containing the output of a computer which showed various pages of information? If it was the latter - lots of English regions had those - so that people across the building could see the lines and studio bookings for that day, canteen information, social club stuff etc. It was a bit like ITV Nightscreen I guess - but not really teletext.
I have vague memories of a similar system at BBC Leeds when I worked there in the mid to late 90s. I think it might have been called Norfax, if I remember rightly, and I think it featured the canteen menu, and not a lot else.
I’m sure I came across it when flicking through the channels piped around the building to TV screens on the ringmain, having never seen it displayed anywhere before in the building.
Was that teletext (i.e. did you have to press the text button on your TV to see it) or was it just an analogue ring main channel containing the output of a computer which showed various pages of information? If it was the latter - lots of English regions had those - so that people across the building could see the lines and studio bookings for that day, canteen information, social club stuff etc. It was a bit like ITV Nightscreen I guess - but not really teletext.
There was also a thing that was semi-officially called Bennfax apparently, which was described by Richard Russell as a forerunner to Presfax. It showed the scenic design department's booking schedules, named after the manager who commissioned it.
