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TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

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IS
Inspector Sands
Yes, IIRC the network director had a couple of breakdown slide sources available and they had to load up the correct slide (there were different versions of the main one) . They would have just gone to the one with the CBBC breakdown slide on first
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 20 July 2019 9:44am
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Here's the same thing in reverse, with a second or two of the BBC One breakdown slide before the CBBC version

JV
James Vertigan Founding member
I always thought CBBC were in charge of their own pres during their hours rather than network pres.
IT
itvblocks
Flashback to when "Blue Peter's Big Olympic Tour" fell off the air halfway through back in the Summer of 2012.

"Back soonish" Laughing

*

Link to thread: https://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/blue-peter-big-olympic-tour-breakdown-38359/
Last edited by itvblocks on 20 July 2019 9:43am - 2 times in total
IS
Inspector Sands
I always thought CBBC were in charge of their own pres during their hours rather than network pres.

Kind of.

The way it worked then was that the whole afternoon came from TC9. NC1 would cut to TC9 at 3:20 and then everything was from them until 5:35*. In the lobby area of the studio were a couple of VT machines and an operator from pres took the programmes down and played them from there. This meant that they could be a bit looser with timings and do fancy wipes and credit squeezes into and out of the programmes**

However once the programme was on air the gallery was by-passed and the VT machine was going directly out of the output of the studio. This allowed the gallery and presenters to rehearse and set up the next link. So the programme was the responsibility of the tape operator sitting in the next room.

So if there was an issue with the VT as seen in the Playdays clip then it was network control who put the slide up because TC9 wouldn't have been in a position to step in immediately... in fact the gallery might not have even noticed as they weren't watching what was on air. So the network director would have put up the slide and then wait till TC9 were able to take over.

The morning CBBC block was different as that all came from presentation, with recorded links.

The other reason that network would get involved during CBBC programmes is if there was an issue with TC9 or they lost the line from it. Though of course if this happened the tapes with the programmes on were on the other side of TVC so they'd have nothing to play


*the network director didn't have much to do during CBBC but despite it all being from the same source, the schedule in the automation still had the programmes as seperate items and the director had to manually 'take' them when they started. This was for timing reasons and later on to trigger the EPG


** this changed when wide-screen CBBC programmes started. TC9 was still 4:3 and so if a 16:9 programme was scheduled that would come from pres in the normal way, not from the studio. This meant a straight cut into and out of the programme.

Even though I think TC9 was built so it could easily switch to 16:9 the issue was how it would control the wide-screen switching. These were the days when the were seperate analogue and digital versions of BBC1 and 2, and so there were ARCs all over the place and different AFD and wide screen switching signals sent for each programme. Also the two aspect ratios were played from different tape formats. It was very complicated

As time went on more and more of CBBCs programmes went wide-screen and so network control ended up playing everything
VM
VMPhil
I think they later ‘fixed’ the widescreen problem by showing all 4:3 programmes in 14:9 (mostly imported cartoons)
SP
Steve in Pudsey
They used to do the same kind of thing during Going Live etc with NC1 taking the cartoons directly so TC7 could rehearse or pre record. When Live and Kicking introduced a DOG they had to find a new way of doing it.

I remember seeing a behind the scenes in pres clip with a monitor labelled "Clean Feed to Nations and CBBC" - presumably the same arrangements used to play programmes from pres into TC9.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
When did the majority of CBBC programmes go widescreen? I bought The Demon Headmaster DVDs recently and the third series (1998) of that was 4:3. I know they were doing widescreen broadcasts in 1998 albeit on digital but I dare say the children's strand wasn't going to be a priority for that so it may have been the peaktime programming that had dibs on widescreen production?
GH
G Honeybun
ITV Anglia just had a moment. At 18.08 jumping from a report to the weather sponsor and starting to play out the weather and jumping back. 18.14 apologies to the east from Becky.



Awwh they've corrected it for the online version:

https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2018-05-04/catch-up-watch-the-most-recent-itv-news-anglia/
JV
James Vertigan Founding member

Kind of.

The way it worked then was that the whole afternoon came from TC9. NC1 would cut to TC9 at 3:20 and then everything was from them until 5:35*. In the lobby area of the studio were a couple of VT machines and an operator from pres took the programmes down and played them from there. This meant that they could be a bit looser with timings and do fancy wipes and credit squeezes into and out of the programmes**

However once the programme was on air the gallery was by-passed and the VT machine was going directly out of the output of the studio. This allowed the gallery and presenters to rehearse and set up the next link. So the programme was the responsibility of the tape operator sitting in the next room.

So if there was an issue with the VT as seen in the Playdays clip then it was network control who put the slide up because TC9 wouldn't have been in a position to step in immediately... in fact the gallery might not have even noticed as they weren't watching what was on air. So the network director would have put up the slide and then wait till TC9 were able to take over.


Ah yes. I remember this clip. Nice demonstration of CBBC Studio 9 pres and playout here from 5:07 in
JA
james-2001
There's a pre-launch clip somewhere with Otis going round the studio where is pointed out that the studio is widescreen capable (even having a widescreen bodged version of TCF on one of the monitors- the clip predates TCW!). CBBC pres was one of the last things to go 16:9 despite that though.
TI
TIGHazard


The other reason that network would get involved during CBBC programmes is if there was an issue with TC9 or they lost the line from it. Though of course if this happened the tapes with the programmes on were on the other side of TVC so they'd have nothing to play.

** this changed when wide-screen CBBC programmes started. TC9 was still 4:3 and so if a 16:9 programme was scheduled that would come from pres in the normal way, not from the studio. This meant a straight cut into and out of the programme.

Even though I think TC9 was built so it could easily switch to 16:9 the issue was how it would control the wide-screen switching. These were the days when the were seperate analogue and digital versions of BBC1 and 2, and so there were ARCs all over the place and different AFD and wide screen switching signals sent for each programme. Also the two aspect ratios were played from different tape formats. It was very complicated

As time went on more and more of CBBCs programmes went wide-screen and so network control ended up playing everything




What is happening here in this clip from 2002 then?

They lose the studio, after a while finding out they can't go back play out the standby programme of Kenan & Kel, fade that out, go back into The Saturday Show which itself goes into a cartoon.

Is Pres playing out the cartoon, or is that the studio? If it's pres, I wonder why they didn't just play that out instead of Kenan.

I'm pretty sure that Pres would be playing out CBBC programmes in 2002 and using that "nations and CBBC clean feed" because they were doing credit squeezes or putting the credits or talking to the newsround presenter on monitors around the set during the weekday slots.
Last edited by TIGHazard on 20 July 2019 1:01pm - 2 times in total

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