noggin's posts, page 16

The Sky News Thread

That's a very minor lighting set-up. You could probably run it on VLok rechargeable batteries. LED lighting of that level takes less electricity than a washing machine or a kettle.

Top of the Pops

The Cypher Op had designed the trajectory and position paths of the letters and words so that it made shapes - rather than the letterforms of the text being altered.

The Cypher was effectively leveraging the processing designed for Mirage - but with only one of the four processing cards ISTR. Each on-screen character was effectively a 2D video key and fill element in a frame store that was allocated a 'DVE' tile of its own - so could be positioned, and moved anywhere independently of any other character. It could also have feedback of its own (hence the trail effects etc.).

Really neat way of creating a new product using tech developed already. Of course an operator user interface more suitable for CG use - and without the requirement for coding in Pascal that Mirage required- was also needed.

This is all a very dim recollection though... ISTR that NBC Sports were very big users of Cypher (and had a big cheque book) - and at times had an NBC employee permanently based at Quantel in Newbury working on new functionality.

(Talking of 'shapes' - Quantel's Mirage was often used for basic 'Computer graphics' as it was easier/cheaper to design a shape within the Mirage 3D DVE and 'paint it' with a 2D video frame, than it was to design a similar 'computer graphic' in a real 3D CGI system. Plus the Mirage effect was realtime - and needed no offline rendering...

A lot of the planets in Star Trek : The Next Generation were 2D textures wrapped onto a Quantel sphere effect to create a globe. You could create them very quickly with a Paintbox and a Mirage in an online edit suite.

UK Govt launch another attack on BBC, C4 & S4C

There are only a relatively small number of 'big names'.

I believe the patching approach is used because it can be agnostic between DVB-C RF-over-fibre and IP-over-fibre connectivity - rather than requiring an all IP approach. You just fit the correct optical converter/modem etc. at the other end.



Yes - but that would mean DVB-C over fibre providers weren't able to offer their services.

I don't know what approach is used for standalone houses, and how the local council handles things. (I suspect that is done at the IP level)

One nice side-effect of this approach is that getting a dedicated IP connection for broadcast is now effectively trivial - as you can book a fibre IP connection (NOT over the public internet) if you discuss with the local council your requirements. In some cases I believe dark fibre is also an option point-to-point. (Satellite uplinks are now very rare in Sweden for either news - which uses bonded 4G largely - or broadcast backhaul - which uses fibre near universally.)

UK Govt launch another attack on BBC, C4 & S4C

However we have terrible high-speed broadband provision compared to many other countries in Northern and Western Europe.

Stockholm, for instance, in Sweden has 97% homes able to get a fibre IP connection (that's fibre to the premises or fibre to the home - not VDSL fibre to the cabinet)

As an example of typical costs :
200Mbs for £25/month
1Gbps for £50/month

Increasingly 'cable TV' is now multicast IPTV over fibre IP connectivity (with DVB-C RF-over-fibre and DVB-C over coax increasingly being retired)

Sweden has a very sensible approach to fibre provision. The ISPs and Telecomms companies aren't responsible for the consumer fibre network - the local council is. The council have fibred their towns and cities, and then rent the fibre capacity to ISPs. If you live in an apartment building you'll have each ISP land in a central apps room, and then you'll be patched, over fibre, to your chosen ISPs' fibre switches, with this fibre connection landing in a cupboard in your flat, alongside your main power distribution and breakers, and any legacy phone lines and coax cable/aerial feeds.

BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

How bizarre that I've managed to misremember that date for so long. I was present for the first broadcast after the move to N8 - which was News 24 Breakfast... I was sure it was almost exactly a year after the original launch in what later became known as N9.

It certainly happened on the day that BBC One and BBC Two Digital officially launched to the public, as the UK Today opt-ins to News 24 launched from N8 on the day the studio came into service.

US ELECTIONS 2020 Coverage

There are lots of ways of generating AR tracking data these days - some use scene analysis, some use tracked camera mounts, some use secondary cameras doing scene analysis separate to the camera shooting the scene for broadcast, some use a combination of techniques. Some scenarios require you to 'teach' the system the location you are in prior to shooting, some record data as you shoot, some work entirely based on post-production analysis.

Strictly Come Dancing | 2020

That would mean contestants had to stop their day jobs - which I suspect wasn't a commitment that people could make.

It would also have meant all crew had to be paid for days they weren't working too, as they wouldn't have been able to do other jobs.

Creating a whole-show bubble is possible with a recorded series like Bake Off, but is next to impossible for a series like Strictly which is weekly.

AIUI the Strictly approach is strict social distancing in studio and ancillary areas, and either the celebrity or the professional living alone for the duration of the series so that they can be part of a support household with their partner's household.

That coupled with frequent testing is the approach being used.

I don't know if Nicola or Katya was the single household in this scenario.

It also goes to show that however careful you may be - it's still possible to catch Covid - and it's still possible to have it without knowing you have got it...

BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

BBC News 24 was still in N9 in October 1998 - it moved to N8 in November 1998, almost exactly a year after its launch. The date of that BBC World clip cannot be correct if it says it was October.

The BBC News 24 move to N8 happened on the same day that BBC One and BBC Two Digital officially launched on digital terrestrial and digital satellite, which co-incided with the launch of the first UK Today opts, which filled the regional opt-out gaps on BBC One England (as DSat and DTT in England had no regional variations) also launched on the same day.

The 1330 and 1830 UK Today editions were opt-in simulcasts of BBC News 24 - and launched on the first day of News 24 broadcasting from N8. (The UK Today opt-outs in Breakfast, and after the 9/10 O'Clock News were pre-recorded from a newsroom camera with the 5Live Newsroom as a backdrop, and played in from an edit suite. There may still have been BBC Two regional opts to blanket too)

BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

I think those dates are out by a bit.

BBC News 24 launched in early November 1997 from N9 (though at that time it wasn't called N9)

BBC News 24 moved to N8 in early November 1998, at which point World could move in to N9 and start installing their new set elements and training their directors (who previously worked traditionally with a vision mixer and remote camera operator and TX staff) on the new Omnibus+Columbus automation system, remote cameras, sound desk, server playout etc.

I don't think World launched on-air from N8 until late 1998 or early 1999? (My memory - which is dim - is that it was early 1999)

BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

It's entirely possible that World used N6 for their temporary CSO weekends in 2001-ish, with BBC One bulletins coming from TC7?.

BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

If you want to be precise, technically Europe Direct was originally a show broadcast on BBC World only, as it launched on BBC World a week or two before BBC News 24 launched ISTR.

BBC News nostalgia, including BBC World

I don't think so - Lyndsey Brancher wasn't a regular overnight presenter between Nov 1997 and Nov 1998 when BBC News 24 was in N9 (though it wasn't called N9 at the time).

BBC World retained the flags look when they moved in sometime in early 1999.



Yes - but the original BBC World set in 1999 was still flags era and I don't think they newsroom artwork was hugely changed?