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TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

We'll return as soon as possible. (April 2018)

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JK
JKDerry
Sands, you're mentioning NORAD there, do you get given TLEs for the bird you're after?


Isn't NORAD a Santa tracker?

That is only part of their operation, which kicks off on December 1st every year, and ends on Christmas Eve with the Santa tracker, which is adorable and cute, brings the magic back into life.

https://www.noradsanta.org/
CO
commseng

In the old days it would have been a link direct into Crystal Palace, but all that masthead receive infrastructure was torn out years ago.

Or into Television Centre East Tower as Chris Evans did from Riverside every Friday ... Sadly ???? The tower is no more ...

Yes the 3 BBC London area receive sites for microwave links were the Crystal Palace transmitter mast (450' level), the Swains Lane receiving station in Highgate, and the roof of East Tower at Telly Centre.
The Chris Evans show at Riverside studios was a BBC OBs show from when the resources were sold to other broadcasters.

ITV had a similar set up I believe, with receive points on the Beulah Hill (Croydon) mast, Highgate and on the roof of the South Bank tower. Occasionally we used that South Bank roof too, and got to meet the LWT Links engineers.

BBC News had receivers at CP, Millbank and Barbican, but the facilities were much more basic.
IS
Inspector Sands
Sands, you're mentioning NORAD there, do you get given TLEs for the bird you're after?


Isn't NORAD a Santa tracker?

To me it's always what the kid in War Games hacked into
elmarko, bilky asko and thegeek gave kudos
BE
Bennyboy1984
Note that whoever it was at SIS who configured those colour bars couldn't spell 'Media City'

The 'Signal Loss Detected' message comes from a decoder/satellite receiver, am curious how the bars appeared first.

IIRC they had two uplinks and the thunderstorm was so big it took out both


Probably a lot of swearing behind the scenes frantically trying to get it back on especially since it was off air for rather a long time!
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Is there still a microwave link from the roof of the Albert Hall to the roof of BH, (or has there ever been one ?)


RAH was on LOCO so SHF links may not have been required?
BL
bluecortina

Also I don't think the BT Tower has any facilities for 'ad hoc' microwave links.

It certainly does - the 35th floor (above the observation decks but below the 'infoband') is open to the elements just for this purpose. It's also handy for taking photos of the view without reflections.
*

We have done ad hoc links into the Tower, but not often. Sometimes it has been for BT themselves.
I doubt the view from Hammersmith to the Tower would have been line of sight, and may have needed a midpoint, which is not easy to negociate and rig at very short notice.
Bear in mind that last minute requests are all about exploring options - and working out what the potential costs associated with each of them is.
In the old days it would have been a link direct into Crystal Palace, but all that masthead receive infrastructure was torn out years ago.


I did mention the top of a residential tower block in North London In another thread (Hillcrest) - regularly used by LWT and ITN. Hillcrest>Southbank then anywhere you like. I think Hillcrest would be east of Hammersmith.
JA
james-2001

That is only part of their operation, which kicks off on December 1st every year, and ends on Christmas Eve with the Santa tracker, which is adorable and cute, brings the magic back into life.

https://www.noradsanta.org/


A shame Santa's been cancelled this year in case he catches or spreads covid.
MA
Markymark
Is there still a microwave link from the roof of the Albert Hall to the roof of BH, (or has there ever been one ?)


RAH was on LOCO so SHF links may not have been required?


Indeed. The SHF link was just to carry an audio NICAM stream for radio use I think?
TE
Technologist
Is there still a microwave link from the roof of the Albert Hall to the roof of BH, (or has there ever been one ?)


RAH was on LOCO so SHF links may not have been required?

But the BBC steadfastly refused to put RAH on the London Fibre Network LFN , despite the fibres passing the door !!!
UK
UKnews
Note that whoever it was at SIS who configured those colour bars couldn't spell 'Media City'

The 'Signal Loss Detected' message comes from a decoder/satellite receiver, am curious how the bars appeared first.

IIRC they had two uplinks and the thunderstorm was so big it took out both


Probably a lot of swearing behind the scenes frantically trying to get it back on especially since it was off air for rather a long time!

Building over the road has two American broadcasters in it who have fibres to BT Tower, sure they would have helped Wink
CO
commseng
Is there still a microwave link from the roof of the Albert Hall to the roof of BH, (or has there ever been one ?)


RAH was on LOCO so SHF links may not have been required?

There were radio links used from the RAH to Crystal Palace for the TV operation around the last 20 years.
Dishes at the lower roof level, and cabled to the Bedford links truck in the TV Compound which stayed in for the Proms season.

Yes, the LOCO did appear there, and could be used to send signals to both LBH and TVC.
I cannot remember why the LOCO wasn't used in later years, it may have been that the outer parts of it were ceased earlier, and not put onto any replacement. I suppose one of the reasons why the RAH wasn't connected was that very few Proms are live on the telly, so financially a permenant set up didn't make financial sense.
When I first started back in the 1980s, there was also a lot of Boxing that came from the venue, so that helped get the usage up.
CU
Curto21
Sportscene had technical problems with their graphics this afternoon meaning that none of the scores could be shown on screen.

When they went to the reporters at the football grounds instead of bringing up the graphics they showed a video of the stadium before the match although on some occasions they stayed in the studio instead.

The problems weren't solved meaning there were no classified football results but they managed to bring up the league table at the end.

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