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It's so lit (April 2018)

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NG
noggin Founding member

Do the regions still play the bed in locally during their bit? (Or does the digital network feed have extra audio channels they can send it down clean and in sync?)

Beds are played in locally. There are additional audio channels for audio description (and possibly other uses) but they aren't decoded or made available in regional galleries, and with the proposed change to opt-out architecture removing the network feed to the regions, there would be little point in adding them.


With a bit of cleverness, if/when the centralised opting system is implemented, the bed could also be centrally added 'under' the opts. (Although, there would also be the scope for comedy moments to occur too )


You'd need to fit audio mixers for every sub-region and region, with remote level control (to cope with sync or music), and need to feed clean grams (as the studio output will have the sustaining headline) separately from the studio to the switching area - so it's still not a quick or easy fix.
MA
Markymark
Beds are played in locally. There are additional audio channels for audio description (and possibly other uses) but they aren't decoded or made available in regional galleries, and with the proposed change to opt-out architecture removing the network feed to the regions, there would be little point in adding them.


With a bit of cleverness, if/when the centralised opting system is implemented, the bed could also be centrally added 'under' the opts. (Although, there would also be the scope for comedy moments to occur too )


You'd need to fit audio mixers for every sub-region and region, with remote level control (to cope with sync or music), and need to feed clean grams (as the studio output will have the sustaining headline) separately from the studio to the switching area - so it's still not a quick or easy fix.


Yes, but all 15 or so devices would sit in the same equipment rack, so the 'op-ex' wouldn't be too bad. I'm sure it's the sort of thing our friends across the Atlantic wouldn't even blink at Cool
NG
noggin Founding member

With a bit of cleverness, if/when the centralised opting system is implemented, the bed could also be centrally added 'under' the opts. (Although, there would also be the scope for comedy moments to occur too )


You'd need to fit audio mixers for every sub-region and region, with remote level control (to cope with sync or music), and need to feed clean grams (as the studio output will have the sustaining headline) separately from the studio to the switching area - so it's still not a quick or easy fix.


Yes, but all 15 or so devices would sit in the same equipment rack, so the 'op-ex' wouldn't be too bad. I'm sure it's the sort of thing our friends across the Atlantic wouldn't even blink at Cool


Yep - I guess engineering the remote audio control, monitoring, dual main and reserve from different sites etc. may just prove to be not worth the perceived value though...

However if (and I think it's still an IF - though I think an RFI has gone out) they move to an IP system for regional production (possibly using remote production techniques) then that may offer some potential solutions.
MA
Markymark

You'd need to fit audio mixers for every sub-region and region, with remote level control (to cope with sync or music), and need to feed clean grams (as the studio output will have the sustaining headline) separately from the studio to the switching area - so it's still not a quick or easy fix.


Yes, but all 15 or so devices would sit in the same equipment rack, so the 'op-ex' wouldn't be too bad. I'm sure it's the sort of thing our friends across the Atlantic wouldn't even blink at Cool


Yep - I guess engineering the remote audio control, monitoring, dual main and reserve from different sites etc. may just prove to be not worth the perceived value though...

However if (and I think it's still an IF - though I think an RFI has gone out) they move to an IP system for regional production (possibly using remote production techniques) then that may offer some potential solutions.



The Beeb may also wish to have a facility to stick captions and tickers over 'network' ( a lá CiN evening)
so again something to think about. Although the last time I saw a BBC region do such a thing outside of CiN was BBC Plymouth in 1984, when there were electricity glitches affecting most of the region. I don't know of any more recent examples ?
DO
dosxuk
If all the audio mixers are in a data centre, it should be trivial to provide each with a "network bed" source that is played from a media server in the same racks, triggered by the same button as the bed in the national bulletin gallery. You're not having to distribute that audio feed all of the country, just around a few racks in the same room.

Having everything in the same place opens so many possibilities for remote control and access to sources.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
It's not all that different to the situation now where local radio has split jingles in the evening. The presenter in Leeds fires the jingle and it is added to each station's output at the local radio equivalent of the coding/mux centre.
DV
dvboy

Yes, but all 15 or so devices would sit in the same equipment rack, so the 'op-ex' wouldn't be too bad. I'm sure it's the sort of thing our friends across the Atlantic wouldn't even blink at Cool


Yep - I guess engineering the remote audio control, monitoring, dual main and reserve from different sites etc. may just prove to be not worth the perceived value though...

However if (and I think it's still an IF - though I think an RFI has gone out) they move to an IP system for regional production (possibly using remote production techniques) then that may offer some potential solutions.



The Beeb may also wish to have a facility to stick captions and tickers over 'network' ( a lá CiN evening)
so again something to think about. Although the last time I saw a BBC region do such a thing outside of CiN was BBC Plymouth in 1984, when there were electricity glitches affecting most of the region. I don't know of any more recent examples ?


Seem to remember at least one region putting a caption up over Wimbledon in recent years when a Murray match delayed the regional news (the 6 having been shown on BBC Two).
WL
W1LL

Yes, but all 15 or so devices would sit in the same equipment rack, so the 'op-ex' wouldn't be too bad. I'm sure it's the sort of thing our friends across the Atlantic wouldn't even blink at Cool


Yep - I guess engineering the remote audio control, monitoring, dual main and reserve from different sites etc. may just prove to be not worth the perceived value though...

However if (and I think it's still an IF - though I think an RFI has gone out) they move to an IP system for regional production (possibly using remote production techniques) then that may offer some potential solutions.



The Beeb may also wish to have a facility to stick captions and tickers over 'network' ( a lá CiN evening)
so again something to think about. Although the last time I saw a BBC region do such a thing outside of CiN was BBC Plymouth in 1984, when there were electricity glitches affecting most of the region. I don't know of any more recent examples ?


Every now and then you get the odd enterprising region sticking a caption over the Wimbledom coverage to inform the viewer what time the regional news has moved to.

EDIT: Beaten to it.
DV
dvboy
Here we go, although it was over The One Show on this occasion. (original)
*

And here's BBC One NI with a caption over Match of the Day (original)
*
MA
Markymark
dvboy posted:
Here we go, although it was over The One Show on this occasion. (original)
*

And here's BBC One NI with a caption over Match of the Day (original)
*


Very good, thanks all. (Of course it’s probably less unusual for a BBC Nation to do such things?)
PC
p_c_u_k
I imagine it would be more pressing for BBC Northern Ireland to alert viewers to such a development given the much smaller geographical area it covers. Whereas it's unlikely a weather event would shut every single school in Scotland or Wales. It could, however, be as simple as BBC NI continuity being more on the ball as per usual.

The regional optouts and thunderclaps ... having seen video footage some time ago on YouTube (which I can't find now, annoyingly) of a regional gallery opting in and out of the headline sequence I can only admire the people responsible. It isn't a countdown as such, London just yells "opt out opt out" down the line after the last national headline and the timing is up to the region. It really does seem unnecessarily complicated and it's amazing we don't get more crashes and untidy mixes.
TT
TerrestrialTelly
Fair play to Sophie Rayworth who flew through the headlines tonight! Blink and you may have missed it!

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