noggin's posts, page 20

Morning Live

Sunday Morning Live (which broadcasts at a similar time) has historically hung a weighted gauze outside the studio to reduce the light through the windows. You used see it rustling in the breeze some times on some shots. However I suspect the number of people required to safely hang that and remove it each day may be tricky with social distancing rules in play.

The studio windows do have ND installed on them for the period when The One Show broadcasts in sunlight, but that is removed annually when The One Show broadcasts in darkness (like now).

The Million Pound Cube

All UK broadcasters now take delivery of their HD shows as AVC Intra 100Mbs MXF-wrapped files in the DPP AS11 format. Of course they may then be transcoded to another format for TX server playout - though I'd have thought there was a lot of sense in keeping to the same codec and avoiding this, given AVCi100 is a sensible codec at a sensible bitrate.

Tape has long since departed from the mainstream production process for mainstream broadcasters. The BBC stopped accepting TX masters on HD Cam SR a good few years ago, and BBC Information and Archives will now only accept recordings of live shows as files too.

(Live shows have what's known as a PasB - Programmes as Broadcast - recordings in an AS11 DPP-like format - the only difference being PasBs should have time-of-day timecode, not start at 10 o'clock like delivered shows. In some other areas these are sometimes called RoTs - Recording of Transmission - but PasB is the preferred term. Confusingly the BBC also have PasCs - Programme as Completed - which is the name for the production paperwork detailing the contractual status of all contributors, archive, stills, music, writers, directors, producers etc. for rights reasons)

BBC Regional SD/HD Transmissions

There are a couple of issues here :

1. Setting up a BBC One HD opt-out system - where there currently is only an SD opt-out chain. This may end up being radically different to the current system. This doesn't require regional production to be in HD, the opt-out could be in unconverted SD on BBC One HD.

2. Distributing BBC One HD English regional variations. On Freeview HD this is possible - as there are already matching BBC One HD encoders for every ITV HD regional variation (a consequence of stat muxing PSB3 - the PSB HD mux) - though if the BBC regionalise more than ITV they will need to fund additional encoders not just for each BBC One HD variation - but also for BBC Two HD, ITV HD, C4 HD and C5 HD - even if they aren't regional - as that's how stat mux works)

Distribution of every regional BBC One feed on satellite in HD will either need a lot of additional transponder capacity (and that costs a lot more money) or the BBC might have to do what ITV has started to do, which is reduce the number of SD regions on satellite to free up capacity for more HD services (though the BBC may feel it can't do that in the way ITV can because of their licence fee funding)

3. Upgrade regional production facilities (i.e. cameras, routers, vision mixers, graphics, playout servers etc.) to HD. AIUI the playout servers in each region are now HD-capable, and some SD regions now have HD-capable cameras. However upgrading the rest of the infrastructure is non-trivial and costly. There is also the discussion about whether you go for a cheap-and-cheerful current-tech solution (Ross Overdrive + Graphite, NRK/Superfly's Open Source Sofie + Black Magic etc.), or go for an IP-based remote production solution (like BBC Local Radio uses)

1. is already being considered and may already be happening.

I have no idea about 2.

I believe 3. is still being discussed.

I also believe that automation was being resisted in some quarters - but with the major cost savings the BBC have to meet, and with all the network shows already heavily automated, with decent production values, I think the 'no automation' arguments are now going to be very difficult to win.

Reminiscing The Big Breakfast

I know some people who speak fondly of the friends they made and the fun they had - but as Whataday has said - Planet 24 were terrible to work for. They had a terrible reputation for exploiting staff - and in some cases offering 'work experience' that was little more than getting people to work for relatively long periods, unpaid...

AppleTV 4K and Apple Video Services.

I think it's less about 'intercepting' more about rights. There are some situations where the broadcast rights situation for 'mobile' devices are different to those for 'TV' devices. Restricting mobile apps to only displaying content on the mobile device, and not an external display, means those licensing rights are enforced.

Coronavirus - Impact on live/recorded shows

How would pre-recording Strictly work with the 'viewers voting' format? You have to have that element otherwise it's not the same format at all? If the judges are the only arbiters (as is the case with Bake Off) - it becomes a very different show?

Morning Live

Or it could be that Gethin was in Manchester when they needed to shoot his bits of the trail - Gethin has been studying for a Masters degree in Manchester I believe, and may well live there some of the time as a result. (If Kym Marsh is based in that part of the country too it would make sense to shoot their bits there?)

https://www.businessupnorth.co.uk/acclaimed-manchester-met-sporting-director-qualification-opens-for-applications/

Harry Gration to leave Look North

The BBC relaxed its rules in this regard a while back (around the time of PQF or DQF) because so many people were being made redundant ISTR.

Top of the Pops

TC2 and TC3 still exist - ISTR that the Star Bar was between the two of them?

(TC2 is now home to Lorraine, Loose Women and Peston, along with Sunday Brunch, TC3 is the home of GMB and This Morning)

Top of the Pops

AIUI the Cypher, being a Quantel product, used the same source of bitmap fonts/typefaces as the original 'Classic' Quantel Paintbox (V-series Paintbox had launched by the time TOTP used it - but Cypher pre-dated that, as it was partially based on the Mirage architecture I believe).

I suspect it took a while to get the BBC logo into that typeface ecosystem (though not sure why - the system had been in use by US broadcasters with bespoke graphics for a couple of years by then...)

Britain's Got Talent 2020 Set Design- Discussion

AIUI the switch from pre-recorded to live was during a commercial break (so they went into a break at the end of the final pre-recorded part, and when they came back from that break they were live). I may be wrong.

'Changing Rooms' Returns

Given C4's financial issues - having it subsidised by an advertiser up-front probably makes sense.