Because the show is still directed and vision mixed in New York?
Last time I was in New York in 2009 I found myself at 30 Rock looking into the Today show studio during the NBC Nighty News.
That edition was being presented from London, and they kept the feed from the studio/pres point during the vt packages, and Brian Williams autocue was scrolling as he was reading it on one of the 1B cameras.
So even the autocue is written and operated from NBC News and fed to wherever in the world the presenter is.
They must be using low latency feeds (IP and/or fibre) for both the autocue reverse vision feed and the camera feed from London not to be the victim of horrible latency issues. (You could mitigate the camera feed latency by sourcing early audio for the prompt operator)
Carrie’s resignation is making the top lines on BBC World News. It’s in fact the second top headline in the bulletin I’m watching right now. 03G.
Out of interest, are ITN and Sky reporting this story ?
It's an interesting and significant story, but to be blunt, she's not really a household name, and
it seems to be the BBC are (once again) getting over excited about one of their own issues.
I'm not saying it's an important issue, it most certainly is, but the way it's being reported is that there's something unique about it, and there's not. Read up about the Dagenham sewing machinists dispute.....
if the BBC didn't report on this they'd be accused of a cover up... I think the point about the Dagenham machinists is that that was a LONG time ago. We shouldn't still have to be having this conversation.
Thanks thegeek so i am guessing each line has a mpeg receiving/encoding unit so no need to tune in anything?
Whilst not requiring tuning, it is possible that you will have more potential ASI sources than MPEG2/H264/H265 decoders I guess - so there may still be some ASI-domain routing? I guess that will depend on utilisation and systems design? As an ASI stream could be carrying MPEG2 (though I guess this is rarer), H264 or H265 video in either 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 I guess you may need to route the streams to different decoders based on the content?
(ASI is a standard for carrying an MPEG2 transport stream - and can include carrying it over SDI-type infrastructure)
In dummy talk, is that something they are likely to do, I mean is it a widely used codec?
Strictly speaking it's not a codec (the codec being used is HEVC/H.265) - it's an 'EOTF' (Electro Optical Transfer Function) - but it is the only standard that makes sense for live and as-live multi camera TV production.
It also has the benefit of being backwards compatible with SDR displays (though colour space conversion may still be needed). For most domestic viewing situations, if anything, HLG is a better solution than HDR10.
Yep - Stuart White and Susie Fowler-Watt must have been presenting Look East for 20 years give-or-take now? ISTR that Penny Bustin left Look East in 1997 (a bit after the Cambridge sub-opt launched?), and Susie took over the main co-presenter role a little while later?
1997 Susie moved from politics to alongside Stewart. They are a superb duo and both extremely down to earth. It would be marvellous to have a 21 year celebration to go with the 60 year anniversary next year but they both seem too modest.
When did Stuart start presenting regularly? I'm 30
something
and I can't remember him not doing it.
Think Stewart has been presenting Look East since the early-to-mid 80s? 1984 rings a bell. He was at Central before that.
Ah, UK Arena, one of the first commercial channels (excepting BBC World) to be played out from Television Centre - when the playout contract for UK Gold moved there. UK Style, Horizons, Arena and Gold - or 'SHAG TV' as it became known to some of us
Did they start before BBC Prime? I'd have thought that and BBC World were the two main commercial channels the BBC TX-ed prior to the UK TV era (or was Prime initially advert free - like BBC One/Two Mix aka BBC Europe before it ?)
Yep - Stuart White and Susie Fowler-Watt must have been presenting Look East for 20 years give-or-take now? ISTR that Penny Bustin left Look East in 1997 (a bit after the Cambridge sub-opt launched?), and Susie took over the main co-presenter role a little while later?
Seems a bit dubious to me. At a time when the BBC is under huge pressure to tighten its belt, why would it want to take over S4C?
BBC Wales already has a full transmission operation for BBC One Wales and BBC Two Wales. It would surely be able to reduce S4C's Playout costs by playing out S4C as well, rather than S4C running a totally separate Playout operation ?
That would either allow S4C to reduce costs (and the BBC to reduce the amount if pays S4C) or it would allow for more money to go into original content?
The BBC is having to make major cuts to make savings, S4C presumably should be expected to make them as well?
As is usual at Christmas Freeview was full of repeats or programs with no subtitles but I looked forward to watching one decent program , "An Inspector calls" on the Drama channel of Freeview Tuesday 26.12.2017. "An Inspector calls" is considered to be one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre. The only problem from my point of view is that I am one of the approximately 19% of the total population who is deaf and requires subtitles to understand anything on TV. Its a waste of time talking to Freeview about this problem because they use the copout of, All of the channels on Freeview are responsible for what they do. In other words, Nufinct to do with us mate all we do is to take the money.
I'm now looking for a replacement to Freeview for which I don't mind paying.
Yep - as others have said - this isn't within Freeview's remit. It's a UKTV and/or Ofcom issue.
These days you could also use desk delays to wind in delays on each clean feed - you'd need enough slack on the track at the top (and to cue it even earlier I guess?) to avoid clipping the top on the least delayed version?
"When there are choirs all over the country singing together, how do they stay synchronised, bearing in mind all the distances and delays involved?"
Tony Revell, (Sound Supervisor) kindly described the techniques involved.
As it was I who was originally asked by the producers of Children in Need to devise a way of getting the 14 contributors into the programme singing live at the top of our show back in the 90s, so you can hear it from the 'horse's mouth'.
This was achieved by pre-sending a guide backing track up the clean feed line to the contributor early enough for them to sing to and send their voices only back down the line to TC1 in London. This is analogous to throwing many balls up into the air at different times (the earliest ball being thrown the highest) so they all land on the floor together.
We would start by laying up as many tracks on a digital multitrack (Akai DD1500s to start with - currently Pyramix) one track per contributor. Each OB's Clean Feed would be replaced by this track when it came to doing the piece within the show.
To get the delays correct, we would have to 'Pre send' each OB their own specially timed backing track. Originally we used a version of Hot lips to work out the time delays. This involved contacting each OB in turn and asking them to return our Clean feed back to us. A tone blip was then sent out and Hot-Lips would measure the time it took between sending and for it to come back to us. This time was noted and that OB's track moved forward in time by that amount.
When all tracks had been timed we would be ready to go. These days with digital multi-tracks having moved on a pace, a guide tone blip is recorded early on a cue track. The contributors are still asked to return our clean feed signal back to us when lining up, we then record their incoming feed onto the track that their nominated clean feed is to be on. That OB's whole track is then moved, complete with its guide music, to align the received blip with the master sync blip. This then ensures that the OB's contribution will time perfectly with the live band in TC1.
It is now worth noting that the band in the studio was to play the song live with children singing in TC1 as well. To keep all of this in time, a click track was laid up in sync with the original backing track on the multi track and fed to the musicians headphones - thus enabling them to play in sync.
The multi track would be played early from TC1 so the OB's with the furthest delay had their guide track sent first - This would also allow the clicks enough time to count the band in.
It all worked so well, it has become a bit of an annual event now - rods and backs spring to mind!
The largest way this was used was for the Music Live 'Perfect Day' song where we had to sync 38 incoming sources - ranging from the banks of Lock Ness to a rooftop in LA with Lou Reed. This last one involved 4 satellite hops - 2 each way. This LA hop was about 2 1/4 seconds round trip! For Perfect Day we set up a master control room on TC2's floor which looked after all comms and clean feeds to all contributors.
There are two tasks.
One measure the delay.
Two edit the multitrack so that the backing tracks are advanced early enough to effectively remove that delay. (The track for the most delayed OB will start first, the track for the originating studio will start last)
DAWs make both One and Two easier.
Last edited by noggin on 27 December 2017 11:13am - 2 times in total
