RTÉ ONE

RTÉ ONE in Ireland is having some tricky moments this evening. They appear to have some sort of problem with playout equipment in their main transmission area.

I first became aware of the problems just before 6pm. At 5.57pm, a frozen ident and silence was going out. A blank programme holding still then appeared for the next three minutes or so, with a live announcer apologising c. every 30 secs before giving a rundown of programmes coming up later.

The ad break during Six-One News at around 6.20pm failed. The holding caption appeared again after one programme trailer played out. The announcer then apologised. We returned to Six-One News after about a minute. One of the presenters apologised for the technical problems during the ad break.

The ads seemed to be back to normal at the next break.

Again, just after 9pm, a holding caption, rather than ident was used to introduce the news. I also now note an absence of programme trails and idents. It's almost as if the gear used to broadcast programme trails and idents has now been made available for the transmission of commercials.

There was also a glitch at the end of Fair City. About 10 seconds of a frozen Avonmore cream ad endcap, followed by generic caption and short apology. The we got the last second of the Avonmore ad... again...

Disclaimer: I do not watch Fair Sh.itty

Seems that RTÉ being available in NI on Sky is a step closer... a test channel on their transponder is now carrying RTÉ TWO (with no audio) and has conditional access only allowing NI and RoI Sky Subscribers to view it. It's also been reported that the feed is carrying widescreen programmes, which is a first for RTÉ.

10.744H 22000 5/6 - 9604

And about time too!!

Curiously, there's no 'RTE TWO' DOG. Is the DOG only present on the analogue version?

That is interesting - maybe it's just a temporary glitch, although it's entirely possible the DOG wasn't on the analogue at the time either given the reliability of them...
Certainly if DOGs are ever needed it's the Sky platform that demands their use - it definitely ought to be sorted before they start. Interesting that the DOG is going to be about of a quarter of the way across the screen in widescreen broadcasts.

And just on the related issue of Presentation - their new suite as pointed out in the TV Room is switching sources in a much smoother fashion now. It used to be ridiculous at the start news bulletins and studio prods like the Late Late with nasty flickers and audio blips on the cut.
The difference is as welcome as it is marked, and not before time.

(Just to note - I'm 'RTÉ 1', but I'm ditching that username for Telefís from now on for kinda obvious reasons )

Alright Damo

First RDD, and now Damo !!

I'm sorry, I haven't the faintest what your're on about - although I've an idea

I'm a newbie through and through

Yep. I'm a newbie too

Nothing to with techincial diffulties, but, following The Pope's death, RTE ONE is really going to town on reflecting/commemorating/nostalgising on him, especially his visit to the Republic of Ireland in 1979.

The planned schedule has been almost totally replaced by coverage surrounding the late Pope.

It is a little reminiscent of the way the schedules were replaced (in the UK anyway) on the days and indeed days following the death of Princess Diana, though without the 'shock' factor that her death enduced. With hindight, I think most of us feel that was overdone.

RTE TWO and TV3, on the other hand, are sticking to their normal programmes. It's just as well - I think it would be misplaced in a modern, aspirationally pluralistsic country, to assume everyone felt the same way.

Just as a PS, it was interesting to see Bishop Casey of Galway acting as MC at the Drogheda gathering in September 1979. An interesting character, no doubt other Irish contributors would concur with this view.