BBC Scotland thread

Pretty much all of the examples denton gives need some sort of human intervention - you could automate bits of it, or do most of the prep during office hours, but you'd still need a person around to tweak the schedule in the event of live programmes overrunning or late changes.
indeed, there are examples of the nations responding quicker to a breakdown of a live program than network.

I'm assuming then that the hundreds of digital channels we have are all fully staffed by live CAs, as this is essential?

STV isn't even staffed by TX or CA people out of peak time nowadays.

Red Bee will handle playout for a large number of commercial channels rather than the channels doing it individually, won't they? There's quite a funky image on their website that would appear to show a playout centre of some sorts, with various channels all dealt with at the same time in the same space. As a result, TV channels may have prerecorded VOs or none at all, but I would suggest that someone will have put together the prerecorded ident/menu sequences to playout, and there will be someone nearby to do something in the event of a breakdown. I believe the BBC Network feed is dealt with by Red Bee.

I assume you're being sarcastic with your response?

I did not say it was 'essential', I said I preferred it. There is no denying that when faults do occur, it is better to have a human being there to react to the situation quicker, and to inform the viewer of the situation. That is far better than a blank screen.

Sky 1 resumed live announcers a few years ago. There was obviously a sound reason for them to move from recorded announcements, to live announcements.

As you said, STV doesn't have live announcements through the night, not so sure about transmission staff though. Meaning that when issues arose, nobody was available to fix the issue.

3 issues I can remember is part 1 of Champions League highlights being transmitted twice; an ad break during a film falling off air and a still image of the next part being on screen for 3 mins, and the same thing happening again during an episode of Murder She Wrote. Having human intervention in these scenarios is most definitely a 'necessity'.

You mean STV don't have Live announcements any more, since the Nightshift had someone live clearly there is someone in the building. Mind you there is ITN news report around 3am, ( no idea why that is still going!) Someone must be in the building to record and play out it on Non Nightshift days.

I remember a few years ago, STV opt outed from Losses woman to bring the long winded release of the lockerbie bomber, and because of the change to the line up no CA had been done but STV did give use LIVE CA into the news, it was by some random woman. It must have been someone in the building. Most of the time if there is a minor change you hear Maggie saying this is STV.

Humans will always be better than machines for being able to use instinct and deal with faults. However, the point is that we're in a position where the BBC needs to justify every penny it spends or it risks privatisation. I'm a huge BBC fan and it's so frustrating to see the corporate sleep walking into its own destruction.

Lol, that's true. I forgot about The Nightshift!

No...the ITV News Headlines during the night was axed along with the Morning News at the end of 2012.

No..... Because it's not essential for lots of those low-profile, non-reactice, no live content, no Nations or Regions variants, schedule set in stone days or even weeks in advance, digital channels.

But in light of the budget cuts, how much of that could be done by network rather than an independent presentation operation.

Yes BBC Scotland may currently mess around with the schedule lots, but that could be changed. Or they could end up taking network continuity between 0600-1759, with only a local announcer during prime time (and all the other operations stating with network).

There's going to be big changes across the BBC. "Because that's how thing are done now" is unlikely to be a good enough reason to continue doing them.

AS its already been said BBC Scotland opt outs during the day aswell, on BBC one and two for holyrood, sport etc

But as I said, there's no guarantee that will continue. Remember BBC Scotland themselves have to cut 1/5 of their expenditure too. Just because it's done today is not on it's own a good enough reason as to why it must continue.

I find it hilarious that on one thread its being suggested that shutting the entire BBC News Channel down is a possibility, but on another people are refusing to believe it would ever be possible for BBC Scotland to take Network continuity for parts of the day.