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TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

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IS
Inspector Sands
Already been discussed in the CBS thread but a major breakdown (as they almost never happen) on a network newscast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOwIU9emv9o

Lots of interesting things in that, especially from British eyes

Firstly the read sponsorship for beer in a news programme Shocked
EDIT: and what sort of company wants to associate their product with tax returns?

Secondly it seems amazing that CBS would have nothing to fill the time without playing the same 5 promos on a loop. No 'technical difficulties' caption or any other way to tell the audience what is happening. Also the fact that the 5 promos last just over a minute is quite amazing. A masterpiece in economy of editing, but just so annoying to watch one after the other.

Are those long periods of CBSN caption where an ad break would be? Not really that good on the network especially one that likes to cram 5 promos into a minute!

What happened to the ad breaks that were meant to be in the network news? I'd have expected CBS to just have played them anyway, maybe some affiliates played theirs in the CBSN breaks?

Finally the legal ID that pops up during the first promo, is that triggered by the promo or would it have gone out over the news at that point anyway? Seems a bit unnecessary seeing as the local news had just finished

American TV fascinates me
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 24 May 2020 9:04am
MA
Markymark
I know that CBS use Evertz ATP gateways at the DC facility, one of those could have failed in theory.


In theory yes. It's not really 'cricket' to publicly name individual manufacturers for high profile failures, particularly making mention of them in the preface to a You Tube clip, and particularly if posted using your real name! In my experience, there is often no single cause, and/or the problem is excasabated by facility staff not fully understanding how to implement a work around. The broadcast engineering community is a small one, and there's awful lot of flow of staff and contractors between companies. Don't 'dis' others products or work, you might find yourself working for them or with them one day.
NG
noggin Founding member
I know that CBS use Evertz ATP gateways at the DC facility, one of those could have failed in theory.


In theory yes. It's not really 'cricket' to publicly name individual manufacturers for high profile failures, particularly making mention of them in the preface to a You Tube clip, and particularly if posted using your real name! In my experience, there is often no single cause, and/or the problem is excasabated by facility staff not fully understanding how to implement a work around. The broadcast engineering community is a small one, and there's awful lot of flow of staff and contractors between companies. Don't 'dis' others products or work, you might find yourself working for them or with them one day.


👆👆👆THIS 👆👆👆

There are exceptions to this - for instance if it's known that equipment suffers frequent failures because of a design fault (say power suppliers overheating and failing regularly) then that is likely to be discussed in the open.

However single, one-off failures, that are not necessarily attributable to a single, specific, hardware or software failure, but instead result from a configuration or installation or interoperation or operation error are seldom a reason for professionals to 'name and shame' - though in private they may share the experience to assist the wider industry in stopping it happening to others. Or they may not.
VA
valley
In theory yes. It's not really 'cricket' to publicly name individual manufacturers for high profile failures, particularly making mention of them in the preface to a You Tube clip, and particularly if posted using your real name! In my experience, there is often no single cause, and/or the problem is excasabated by facility staff not fully understanding how to implement a work around. The broadcast engineering community is a small one, and there's awful lot of flow of staff and contractors between companies. Don't 'dis' others products or work, you might find yourself working for them or with them one day.


Absolutely agree. Your experience tallies with mine. I was just trying to come up with a potential answer as to what Evertz product was being referred to. I do find it odd that someone on Facebook (according to Rkolsen's post) would particularly draw attention to a particular brand having failed. Doesn't seem like a particularly clever thing to do.

However single, one-off failures, that are not necessarily attributable to a single, specific, hardware or software failure, but instead result from a configuration or installation or interoperation or operation error are seldom a reason for professionals to 'name and shame' - though in private they may share the experience to assist the wider industry in stopping it happening to others. Or they may not.


Naming and shaming is definitely only beneficial in certain circumstances - power supply issues are definitely one of them - and I find that people are far too quick to jump to vast conclusions (particularly with first-generation products where the manufacturer is using the first round of users as the beta testers...)
RK
Rkolsen
Already been discussed in the CBS thread but a major breakdown (as they almost never happen) on a network newscast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOwIU9emv9o

Lots of interesting things in that, especially from British eyes

Firstly the read sponsorship for beer in a news programme Shocked
EDIT: and what sort of company wants to associate their product with tax returns?

Secondly it seems amazing that CBS would have nothing to fill the time without playing the same 5 promos on a loop. No 'technical difficulties' caption or any other way to tell the audience what is happening. Also the fact that the 5 promos last just over a minute is quite amazing. A masterpiece in economy of editing, but just so annoying to watch one after the other.

Are those long periods of CBSN caption where an ad break would be? Not really that good on the network especially one that likes to cram 5 promos into a minute!

What happened to the ad breaks that were meant to be in the network news? I'd have expected CBS to just have played them anyway, maybe some affiliates played theirs in the CBSN breaks?

Finally the legal ID that pops up during the first promo, is that triggered by the promo or would it have gone out over the news at that point anyway? Seems a bit unnecessary seeing as the local news had just finished

American TV fascinates me


The legal ID is triggered by either station master control (which is hubbed), is triggered by network master control or embedded in a promol. However here I believe it was scheduled as it’s a new program starting. Legally IDs are supposed to be at the TOTH or as close to the TOTH - however almost every station promo will include calls and city of license.

Apparently Tuesday’s there is no affiliate inventory so CBS would be the only one losing money. I’m not sure about CBSN’s typical advertising strategy - it’s possible there may be ads online but CBS Master Control only had a clean feed or someone said “we aren’t letting people who paid for online only ads get on air”.


And I apologize for naming the brand. It’s going by what was told via Facebook and what other people have told me.
IS
Inspector Sands

Apparently Tuesday’s there is no affiliate inventory so CBS would be the only one losing money. I’m not sure about CBSN’s typical advertising strategy - it’s possible there may be ads online but CBS Master Control only had a clean feed or someone said “we aren’t letting people who paid for online only ads get on air”.

Affiliate inventory is space for them to sell ads?

That's a good point about CBSN, that's only avaliable online? Mind you even if it wasn't they wouldn't want to essentially give out free advertising. The break filler isn't exactly TV friendly
OV
Orry Verducci
Secondly it seems amazing that CBS would have nothing to fill the time without playing the same 5 promos on a loop. No 'technical difficulties' caption or any other way to tell the audience what is happening. Also the fact that the 5 promos last just over a minute is quite amazing. A masterpiece in economy of editing, but just so annoying to watch one after the other.


I don't believe US networks have technical fault slides in the same way we do, certainly not ready to go anyways, so they resort to the next best thing.

Filing with promos does happen here sometimes, just no one usually notices. If a live programme can't come on air due to a problem, and it's believed it will be resolved quickly, it's not uncommon for playout (master control for Rkolsen's benefit) to throw in some extra promos to buy some time. The broadcaster I work at does it all the time, we have a set of "emergency" promos ready to go for this purpose.

It's not really 'cricket' to publicly name individual manufacturers for high profile failures, particularly making mention of them in the preface to a You Tube clip, and particularly if posted using your real name! In my experience, there is often no single cause, and/or the problem is excasabated by facility staff not fully understanding how to implement a work around. The broadcast engineering community is a small one, and there's awful lot of flow of staff and contractors between companies. Don't 'dis' others products or work, you might find yourself working for them or with them one day.


I second this, I'm one of the engineers who's had the pleasure of dealing with problems like this. While equipment issues are usually a factor, sometimes recurring ones, most the time the situation is exacerbated by production staff not knowing how to handle the problem or getting in to a panic, at no fault of their own.

I've had occasions where shows have gone on air late or not made it on air at all, down to a combination of issues which had a work around that was completely missed. Obviously this isn't always the case, major problems are still major problems.

And I apologize for naming the brand. It’s going by what was told via Facebook and what other people have told me.


You're just repeating the information you were given, which is fair enough. Really whoever at CBS passed on this information shouldn't have named the brand.
MA
Markymark
In theory yes. It's not really 'cricket' to publicly name individual manufacturers for high profile failures, particularly making mention of them in the preface to a You Tube clip, and particularly if posted using your real name! In my experience, there is often no single cause, and/or the problem is excasabated by facility staff not fully understanding how to implement a work around. The broadcast engineering community is a small one, and there's awful lot of flow of staff and contractors between companies. Don't 'dis' others products or work, you might find yourself working for them or with them one day.


I was just trying to come up with a potential answer as to what Evertz product was being referred to.


Oh, I realise that Valley, my post and thoughts were directed at Ryan as friendly but cautionary advice
RK
Rkolsen

Apparently Tuesday’s there is no affiliate inventory so CBS would be the only one losing money. I’m not sure about CBSN’s typical advertising strategy - it’s possible there may be ads online but CBS Master Control only had a clean feed or someone said “we aren’t letting people who paid for online only ads get on air”.

Affiliate inventory is space for them to sell ads?

That's a good point about CBSN, that's only avaliable online? Mind you even if it wasn't they wouldn't want to essentially give out free advertising. The break filler isn't exactly TV friendly

Yes, time for stations to air their own ads.


In theory yes. It's not really 'cricket' to publicly name individual manufacturers for high profile failures, particularly making mention of them in the preface to a You Tube clip, and particularly if posted using your real name! In my experience, there is often no single cause, and/or the problem is excasabated by facility staff not fully understanding how to implement a work around. The broadcast engineering community is a small one, and there's awful lot of flow of staff and contractors between companies. Don't 'dis' others products or work, you might find yourself working for them or with them one day.


I was just trying to come up with a potential answer as to what Evertz product was being referred to.


Oh, I realise that Valley, my post and thoughts were directed at Ryan as friendly but cautionary advice


Okay. Thank you.
RO
robertclark125
If a breakdown occurred on ITV, when Channel were showing the same thing as TVS or Meridian, would there have been black for longer than say on STV or Granada, to allow Channel to get their own slide up to prevent them seeing a TVS or Meridian branded slide?
WM
WMD
TVS usually used unbranded slides for this very reason.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
and an unbranded IVC studio a lot of the time iirc

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