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Broadcast Clocks

Origins and examples (January 2021)

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NW
nwtv2003
Steve in Pudsey posted:
I vaguely recall reading of occasions when BBC1 and 2 transmitters were left on overnight during a cold snap to prevent them failing to start up the next day.


If you jump to 0:19 into this clip, it is certainly the case. It maybe from January 1987 when there was a very cold weather snap.

Last edited by nwtv2003 on 23 January 2021 9:36pm
JA
james-2001
Captionless TCF too, that must have been a rare sight.
MA
Markymark
Steve in Pudsey posted:
They were on main sites, but the typical log periodics on relays might have been vulnerable?


Not when you're only pumping a watt or two into them, makes no odds whether they're on or off, they ice up regardless
MA
Markymark
nwtv2003 posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
I vaguely recall reading of occasions when BBC1 and 2 transmitters were left on overnight during a cold snap to prevent them failing to start up the next day.


If you jump to 0:19 into this clip, it is certainly the case. It maybe from January 1987 when there was a very cold weather snap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzgyHaKXNKY


Coukd have just been RBS testing. That often happened in January, and January is mid winter!
CO
Coronavision
Markymark posted:
Which ITV companies never had an electronic continuity clock ?

I'll open the batting with Thames?


Thames may have been the only one, although didn't LWT just scrap theirs altogether in the early 80s?

Pretty sure Border did update to an electronic one very late, around 1992 or so.

Tyne Tees never had an electronic clock while independent, but YTV did put out TTTV-branded clocks on overnight continuity in the 1990s.

TT may qualify as the last company to actually install a new mechanical clock though, as they changed to an electronic-looking, but physical model in 1985 (retiring it in 1989). It was clearly a different device to the one that went before it, with different colour injection etc. Quite why they did this when an electronic one would surely not have cost much more is an odd one.
Last edited by Coronavision on 23 January 2021 10:43pm
JA
james-2001
This Channel clock from 1993 looks mechanical, but it might not be:

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=89267

The one from 1992 definitely is though:

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=89224
JA
james-2001
Coronavision posted:
Tyne Tees never had an electronic clock while independent, but YTV did put out TTTV-branded clocks on overnight continuity in the 1990s.



Not just overnight, there's one into the early evening news here:

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=125045

Looks like it had gone by the "Channel 4 North East" rebrand, though, Yorkshire had a clock until the generic look in 1999, along with Granada, which must make them the last ITV regions to use on, unless you count Channel having pre-recorded sequence which had a clock in it on their regional news into the early 00s.
Coronavision and Roger Darthwell gave kudos
SP
Steve in Pudsey
commseng posted:
That is bizarre. Why would you leave a live studio camera to air?
The chances of the cleaner making an appearance must be reasonably high!
The clock on the other hand would be a far safer bet to be clean at all times.
I wonder if the engineers at CP and Croydon for some reason wanted something which wasn't mostly black?

Thinking about it, could that have been a photograph of the continuity studio in a slide scanner?
MK
Mr Kite
I don't ever recall Granada using a clock in the 90s. Think they stopped using clocks with the 1990 blue stripe corporate look.

Do you mean Grampian?
JA
JAS84
james-2001 posted:
This Channel clock from 1993 looks mechanical, but it might not be:

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=89267

The one from 1992 definitely is though:

https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=89224
Yeah, the second one's design is the same as the one they were using in 1985.
BE
Ben Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
commseng posted:
That is bizarre. Why would you leave a live studio camera to air?
The chances of the cleaner making an appearance must be reasonably high!
The clock on the other hand would be a far safer bet to be clean at all times.
I wonder if the engineers at CP and Croydon for some reason wanted something which wasn't mostly black?

Thinking about it, could that have been a photograph of the continuity studio in a slide scanner?

Surely they'd use a more appropriate slide if that was the case.
SI
simpfeld
Markymark posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
I vaguely recall reading of occasions when BBC1 and 2 transmitters were left on overnight during a cold snap to prevent them failing to start up the next day.


It might have been to avoid the transmitting aerials from icing up, which would cause an excessive VSWR, which would in turn cause the transmitters to trip out? However UHF antennas were (and still are) inside fiberglass shrouds for that very reason

Maybe stand practice after the Durris incident. Ice was the main factor that led to the feeder fire?

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