noggin's posts, page 21

15,946 search results, most recent first

NG
noggin Founding member

Local TV

TheMike posted:
Emily Moore posted:
It's staggering that Cambridge TV went from this output:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twwwBY1NKTY

...to "That's East Anglia".

That YouTube video is dated 2018, that's after Cambridge TV had transitioned from a local TV operator to an independent production and training company, which is still around today.


Also - I think the interior shots of the OB truck (Which look very impressive to those viewing at first glance) are from a doc they have made including the BBC recording Carols from Kings... (Rather than their own production)
NG
noggin Founding member

Eurosport Player

UKnews posted:
noggin posted:
The Sky Q UHD is probably still SDR as first gen Sky Q boxes can't do HDR, and I don't think they can tone map Rec 2020 HLG to Rec 709.

It was reported Sky were planning live HLG HDR in time for the Olympics next summer, although it wasn't stated whether that would be the BBC or Eurosport's coverage.

The same report said Sky productions and movies are due before the end of the year to add to their currently (very) limited selection available.

Is this Eurosport French Open coverage the first HLG HDR broadcasts in the UK, or have their been previous ones? (Not counting anything streamed).

Good that Eurosport Player is now 50p, that's another one doing the right thing.


Sky are already doing UHD HDR using HLG via downloads on compatible Sky Q UHD boxes.

I guess the issue they have with live is that they either have to simulcast two UHD HDR streams (One Rec 709 SDR for first gen Sky Q UHD boxes that do Rec 709 SDR UHD only, and one Rec 2020 UHD HDR stream) or ditch the UHD stream for first gen box owners?

Although HLG is backwards compatible with SDR displays - that's only within the same colour gamut - and HDR really needs Rec 2020 Wide Colour Gamut alongside it to be worthwhile.

Interesting comparing Eurosport HD and Eurosport UHD on Sky Q during the French Open. The Eurosport UHD SDR feed is showing some tone mapping artefacts on some players orange shirts, which you don't see on the HD SDR feed. (My guess is that they are either using two different tone mapping approaches - or that the French Open is using Sony cameras with Rec 709 HD SDR and Rec 2020 UHD HDR dual outputs from their BPUs or CCUs and simul-cutting in parallel to avoid the Rec 709 HD SDR stream being a downconversion and tonemap from the Rec 2020 UHD HDR feed, downstream of the cameras)
NG
noggin Founding member

Steph's Packed Lunch

TIGHazard posted:
JKDerry posted:
Jameseh posted:
Virgin’s non-dynamic (static?) EPG may be a pain for shows that can overrun, but having live as a flag rather than in the title is one of its positives.

Can someone explain why Virgin EPG is not dynamic and can't change quick? Why is Freesat and Sky much better? I have Freesat, and any schedule changes made usually appears very fast. I am not a tech buff, so I would be interested to know. Thanks.


The US company who makes the underlying tech - TiVo - doesn't support it, as apparently dynamic EPG's aren't really a thing with the ATSC standard.

You'd think they would, considering the fact US networks deal with really long overrunning sports and just join programmes in progress, but from what I understand, the US didn't use the programme delivery control system either back in the day. People were just expected to deal with it.


Off Topic...

Yes - the US ATSC standard has PSIP - but it only carries it for services on the frequency you are tuned to and only has to carry a limited amount of information. Because of the affiliate / network system that the US broadcast market uses - the EPG can't be kept updated for all viewers by the network master control (as they don't know what local stations are doing a lot of the time) and local stations don't really have the effort to manage it AIUI. Add to that the multiple cable operators, multiple satellite operators and terrestrial being a less mainstream platform - it's just too complicated...

In the UK the DTT platform has had integrated EPG data baked in since the original planning stages (even though it took a while to implement), and Sky and Freesat both built reactive dynamic EPGs into their platforms too.

Microsoft did manage to support it though in Windows Media Center (which was quite a US-centric product - but with good support for European stuff like Teletext and MHEG5)...
NG
noggin Founding member

Eurosport Player

Just had a look at Eurosport Player UK on my Apple TV 4K - and all the streams I tried were now p50 not p25. Not sure when it changed - but that's great news.

The Sky Q UHD is probably still SDR as first gen Sky Q boxes can't do HDR, and I don't think they can tone map Rec 2020 HLG to Rec 709.
NG
noggin Founding member

Eurosport Player

james-2001 posted:
There's 4K coverage on Virgin Media too, via the red button.


As there is on Sky Q if you have the Ultra HD add-on. Eurosport have been doing 4K via broadcast for a couple of years now I think. (It's world feed with no real presentation I think - and no ads)

I think it's specifically the OTT thing that's new. Fingers crossed it's p50 and not p25...
NG
noggin Founding member

Global’s new TV ad campaign

Spencer posted:
I even wonder how useful it is giving specific local frequencies these days. Surely on most FM radios these days, you just hit Seek until the station you want comes up on the RDS. It must be a very small proportion of listeners who still have to turn a dial to find the station of their choice.


With such a wide frequency range I definitely search by frequency and then let the RDS confirm I've got the right station. I still think they are useful - and quite a lot of people don't have RDS radios still... Two of our portable radios aren't RDS - but both have digital tuning.
NG
noggin Founding member

Wales Today Central Square launch

Mouseboy33 posted:
The overall, the set up is nice. Nice camera moves. I agree it does feel very dark. Not sure about that matte black floor. One major issue to me is the actual studio lighting. The presenter at the desk and the guest...absolutely awful lighting. The lights IMO are the wrong temperature. They are cold and leaning into the blue spectrum and it makes the shot completely flat. But also the light on the main presenter position needs to be completely re-lit. It could be the black-top desk.... maybe some in-desk chin lights?. But there shadows under the chin and eyes makes the entire view look completely flat and the presenter look tired and haggard. Also the overall studio has zero texture lighting. When you have such a wide expanse across a wide open floor, texture lighting does wonders. OVerall its not a bad look. I just wish they pulled a BBC Scotland, and went for something completely different than just a regional-esque look. But its nice.

Here is the texture lighting on the floor.... blue spots at night and warmer spots during the day, used by Clickspring at the DC Bureau.
*
*


Given that the studio has a large window onto a daylight lit atrium, with daylight colour temperature light potentially hitting areas of the studio - I suspect the colour temperature they are lighting the studio to needs to be towards the daylight end of the range otherwise you'll end up with a mix of colour temperature light sources which is always a recipe for a problem. Sure you can make the 'cold daylight blue' a feature - but it isn't always a great solution. You can put CTO or similar on the windows - but that's not perfect either...

Most window studios I know of light to daylight colour temperature and then warm up the shots in the vision control area - rather than lighting them warm and having a mix of colour temperatures lighting people.

The BBC Wales studio also, presumably, has to provide a home to S4C's Newyddion (which is further away from the BBC News brand) so it will be interesting to see how the studio is used for that. I expect the black floor is a compromise to avoid overlay branding the studio one way or the other.
NG
noggin Founding member

A Question of Sport axe Sue, Matt and Phil

Steve in Pudsey posted:
Are they recording every edition in Salford now? At one point they were alternating between Manchester/Salford and London, which may have helped with guest bookings.


I think it's been recorded at Dock 10 in Salford since TV Centre closed. I don't think they've done any recordings in London in TC1, BBC Elstree D or at Elstree Film since. I may be wrong - but AIUI it's now an entirely Salford-based recording schedule.
NG
noggin Founding member

ITV HD Regions on Freeview

Orry Verducci posted:

Back on topic on the note of GMB, my experience of working in playout is that galleries providing programming (e.g. the local news) should know when they're going on air, and exactly how long they have. If they can't hit the right time the playout operator is happy to let the automation cut them off. I don't work at ITV Pres so I can't say if they're exactly the same, but where I work we do provide live programming to ITV Pres and I can tell you they don't cut us any slack.


Yes - ITV are very tight on hitting your fixed duration accurately - and that is a basic requirement for regional opt-out or switch-in type programming (both on ITV and the BBC).

However GMB, and to a lesser degree Breakfast, have fluid opt-out times - so the risk of the GMB style 'central switch' functionality is that you fire the opt and regions that aren't ready are automatically cut-up, whereas the BBC system means the network sustaining feed continues to be broadcast if a region doesn't opt-out. (Rather than whatever is on the local studio output being cut to air for the period of the local opt)

Off topic below :

AIUI the BBC English regions are moving to a hybrid system - where the physical opt-switches move from being on-site at each region (and removing the requirement for a 24/7 network feed fed to them, and a 24/7 localised BBC One feed backhauled back to London and ANOther Place), with instead the switch happening off-site BUT under local control from each regional gallery. There is still the option of soft-opting (by having a network feed made available to the English regional centre either side of the junction - though this doesn't now have to be 24/7 resilient) with some clever delay calculations done to avoid big jumps during the soft-opt. This system will also, potentially, allow for BBC One HD in England to carry regional news - BUT if it happens before the regions have HD production equipment the soft-opt, like the old split analogue and DTT opt-outs, will need to be masked on HD in regions with SD gear I guess, to avoid the BBC One HD feed going SD after the soft-opt point)
NG
noggin Founding member

The Sport Thread

Michael posted:
DVB Cornwall posted:
Just the 14 extra streams on the Eurosport Player atm,

9 Roland Garros,
5 Eliteserien Norwegian Football.


Considering DPlay Sweden have the Allsvenskan, wondering why DPlay UK/GB doesn't offer it.


Presumably because Discovery haven't bought the UK rights?
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Cymru Wales New HQ

Inspector Sands posted:
denton posted:
BeebyBoy posted:

That's all well and good, but the building itself wasn't in great condition. Believe me, you wouldn't want to find yourself working in an office late at night with a storm raging outside, with the wind and rain rattling those old windows for all they were worth. It must have cost a bomb to heat the place too...energy efficient it certainly wasn't! That said, it will be missed by a lot of people who worked there.


You want to try Broadcasting House in Belfast. The windows are 80 years old, many can no longer be closed. I've witnessed it snowing in a corridor on more than one occasion.

Luckily it's Belfast next. It's the last big BBC centre to be refitted/relocated I think


Last I heard refit rather than relocate - but others may know better.
NG
noggin Founding member

AppleTV 4K and Apple Video Services.

In a number of other countries you often get an OTT/IPTV app option alongside your 'cable' (often IPTV) subscription that lets you view the same services you get delivered via multicast IPTV (or DVB/ATSC cable) to your set-top box(es) on your phone, tablet OR Apple TV. This can be a very neat second-room solution with an Apple TV 4K - removing the need for cable companies to route coax or ethernet cabling to secondary viewing areas - and eventually letting them migrate to this delivery for all viewing (particularly in countries where FTTP or FTTH is widespread).

If Apple created a standard framework for live TV and catch-up - rather than operators having to create bespoke versions - that might work nicely (particularly if catch-up is properly integrated into ATV4K/iOS/iPadOS search)