Interesting that the BBC have detailed a 2160/50p HEVC iPlayer profile (as well as the 2160/25p HEVC profile they are using for Blue Planet II HDR stuff). That would work very nicely for UHD / 4K Sport...
Personally I'm not sure the Winter Olympics are a big enough event in the UK for the BBC to do anything other than a UHD trial for them (if they do anything) - but Wimbledon and the World Cup would make a lot more sense.
We've had 3D discussions before (such as this one I made a couple of years ago) but interestingly here this is actually far less nauseating than the video posted in the above thread with the Pet Shop Boys on Children in Need 1993. And a lot of others that are on YouTube.
I suspect the Pet Shop Boys video, apart from being OTT with visuals, suffers from the fact the constantly moving video isn't "regular", it varies in speed and what not, plus you have all the studio lights, flashing and what not, whereas Scott and his friend Matt Grey have at least tried to keep a relatively circular arc and speed to smooth the effect out in natural daylight.
This isn't the first 3D video on YouTube by any stretch of the imagination. But its one of the better ones. Appears that subject matter and what you're filming has more impact that just spinning a camera round a random tree in a forest somewhere.
(wasn't sure where to put this, in the YouTube thread or the main forum, so I'll leave it here and if its better elsewhere, somebody can shift it).
The key thing about the Pulfrich effect is that the camera has to keep moving AND there has to be parallax in the shot (i.e. elements at different depths moving at different relative speeds)
Does anyone have any insight in how to this was produced? It’s quite a feat.
Yes- it's been a BBC party piece since the mid-90s at least! Most years Children In Need do a song where every regional OB takes part for a line (which can be upwards of 10 - even 15 or more injects). Some are on close to zero-delay circuits, some are on circuits with 3 or 4" of round-trip delay.
Examples :
1996
(A few regions didn't hold their shots at the end of their sequences back then - but it was still quite new I think)
2014
(And some regions have more resources than others for their OBs/Studios...)
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All I can think of is every site was uplinked using the same exact kit and encoder profiles. Would that make the satellite delay consistent amongst all six sites? They’d be on th same talkback channel and cued at the same time. I imagine if the director noticed one choir getting ahead of the others they would cut to another shot.
🎶 We did it!🎶 The Big Singalong of ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ with 6 choirs across the UK. The benefits of singing for your health are great, so feel free to sing along! #BBCSingpic.twitter.com/Ncr1REUcvb
You don't have to have the same delay from every OB, you just have to ensure that every OB arrives back in sync.
To do this you just send each OB a clean-feed (IFB or Mix-Minus for those in the US) containing a pre-delayed (or advanced depending on how yo look at things) backing track (or click track if it is an a cappella number) which is delayed by the right amount so that it means that the OB hears the music and starts early enough to compensate for the delay in the round trip back to you.
The longer the delay on the a particular OB's circuit, the earlier you send the backing track/click track to that OB. If you have 5 OBs - then you have 5 different pre-delayed backing tracks playing simultaneously from a multi-track audio replay device. You agree which shots will come from which OB, and ensure any shot changes are well away from the OB transition points. During rehearsal you will measure the round-trip delays
It either requires the director to back-time the start of the track so that it reaches the most delayed OB such that that OB output arrives back in London when the presenters stop talking and hand to the item, (This could be 5" early), or you put the most delayed OB later in the sequence and their backing track starts 5" into the song . (There are two ways of doing it)
Last edited by noggin on 27 December 2017 11:26am - 3 times in total
Routing to an edit suite is one thing; routing to a vision mixer (which could be cut to line) is another. It's a big no-no where I work.
Yes. Though if you are off-air and take if off the mixer before you are back on-air, and don't cut it up on your main output, you are usually reasonably safe...
Or in some cases you just route directly to the screen, taking the mixer out of the path, to avoid it having to go anywhere near the TX path...
I understand there’s the security perspective but I’m thinking of the worst case scenario if something were to bring the tower down and damage the surrounding buildings. During 9/11 a local Verizon switching center was near ground zero and suffered damage causing outages.
That's true of any building though. All businesses should have Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans. BT will be no different - and neither will their customers - like the BBC or ITV.
You mean you don't just get to sit there watching TV all day?
No! Only some of the day
(Anyway, how would we know if it was broken if we weren't watching it?)
Unrelated to BT Tower potentially but related to quality monitoring. If a live TV show was going to have a test card in it as part of a skit or joke, do they need to tell the folks monitoring the feed so they don't have a mini heart attack?
On taped pre-recorded shows there is a part of the VTRR ( VT Recording Report) to notify presentation of things they should be aware of (such as simulated spooling, shash, fades to black etc.) and I believe there is often a space for this on delivery paperwork. I don't know if the DPP metadata extends to this, but there are usually areas in paperwork to report this (and it is requested that you do)
Live shows should do this, out of courtesy (and it is deemed 'the right thing to do') when you line up with presentation. I know many shows do this - and will sometimes also warn during their show when the item with a potential 'heart stopper' is about to happen. (Though increasingly the apparent indifference with which this warning is seemingly received can be a bit disheartening)
Do the lines and the operators actually work in the tower or nearby?
In the base of the building more than the tower AIUI
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I’m asking given the security implications these days. The tower is a big target in London and them publicizing how it’s a hub for global connectivity may not be the best idea. Sure there’s a backup but having the primary site in a non descript building would be safest like The Switch is in NYC or Encompass, Vvyx.
It's not unusual in Europe at all. Dates back to the 60s when Microwave links needed tall towers and were the main links for broadcast TV (and also telephony) In many European countries the distribution of TV signals was handled, like telephone calls, telexes etc. by the state PTT company (in the UK the Post Office - aka GPO) and large microwave towers were commonplace for siting distribution and switching operations. In some European nations they are also used to site TV transmitters - but this isn't universal. (It's common in Germany though)
In many European countries these towers are open for visitors and have viewing platforms (often with cafes and restaurants) at the top. The Post Office Tower (now BT Tower) was similarly open (and has a revolving platform once used as a restaurant) but an attempted bombing by the IRA in the 70s meant it was closed as a visitor attraction. It is now open for occasional visitors and corporate events (with aircraft cabin level security)
It's heavily protected - like most sensitive locations.
I just found out its possible to teach your Apple TV to use another remote, instead of using the supplied remote which I find annoying.
Interesting, I had to buy a new HDMI lead before Amazon 4k Would work, it claimed the TV did not support HCDP.
Some of the modes the ATV 4K will output are higher bandwidth than older HDMI standards, and older cables won't carry them reliably. This can confuse HDCP (even though it's not an HDCP fault per se)
I bet the package aired was designed for web. Shame no one noticed to kill the straps.
Probably a better solution would be a DVE push-back macro that would shrink the content slightly to make it safe, so you could keep the straps on-screen? That would also solve the problem that a lot of web text ignores graphic safety and is cropped on many TVs. (Though it won't help 14:9 BBC World News viewers who routinely watch horribly cropped text)
Outside Source proving it's a poor vessel for breaking news.
Is it specifically the OS format or that it's a World simulcast that makes it not work?
I flipped over to the BBC News Channel briefly when I heard of the Damian Green resignation, but because the coverage was a simulcast, there was that strange 'World-friendly' presentation which makes it feel like you're watching a non-UK broadcaster cover it. I flipped briefly to Sky then decided to wait until the Ten O'Clock News...
(Personally I'm not a fan of Outside Source. Feels incredibly dated)
One of the first things that popped into my head after Comcast would be a better fit (given how many Fox movies and shows are adult oriented) is if the Sky channels would reformat to 720p?
Don't see that happening. The 720p boat has long since sailed. It's now really only considered for IP streaming here - where 720/25p and 720/50p are widely used for catch-up TV services - though I suspect we'll start seeing 1080/50p from the BBC iPlayer, as it was listed as an HEVC MPEG-DASH streaming profile along with their 2160/25p and 50p profiles listed in the UHD HDR Blue Planet II beta test.
Sky did pretty extensive user testing before chosing 1080i. 1080i beat 720p at the point Sky did their testing. (Screens have got bigger and de-interlacers have got better so the resolution win for 1080i - particularly on 24/25p native stuff is well worth having).
Given that anyone shooting 24p stuff (i.e. most scripted drama and sit com) in the US will be shooting 1080/24p or 2160/24p these days - there is no reason to downgrade Sky's channels to 720/50p from 1080/50i.
The next move will be from 1080i to 2160p I suspect.
. (There are two ways of doing it)
