noggin's posts, page 228

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NG
noggin Founding member

Ericsson Broadcast & Media Services to rebrand as Red Be

VMPhil posted:
So. Am I correct in saying that this was previously called Red Bee, then bought by Ericsson, who are now calling it Red Bee again? And this has nothing to do with Red Bee, the creative agency, whose name has never been changed?


Looks to me as if the following has happened/is happening.

BBC Broadcast - both the Playout and Creative operations - was sold and rebranded as Red Bee.

When Ericsson - who already had other Playout operations in other countries (including Sweden) - bought Red Bee, they retained the Red Bee brand for the creative division (i.e. the bit that makes trails, handles branding, and does graphics) but they branded the Playout operation as Ericsson, which aligned with their existing Playout business in other countries.

Now that Ericsson appear to be looking at selling their Playout and creative businesses - they need to not be Ericsson branded I guess - so the Ericsson Playout arm is being folded into the Red Bee brand, and the whole lot run as a separate, wholly owned, company. In the UK this means some people who once worked for BBC Broadcast and then Red Bee, and now Ericsson, will again work for a company called Red Bee.

However I guess other staff in other countries - and those former ITV / Technicolor staff - who work for Ericsson and have never worked for Red Bee, they will be Red Bee for the first time?
Last edited by noggin on 10 November 2017 9:55am
NG
noggin Founding member

Interesting and unusual uses of teletext

Spencer For Hire posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
The BBC had an internal teletext service called Telfax for a while, it was shown on screens in the lift lobbies of TV Centre
http://teletext.mb21.co.uk/gallery/ceefax/telfax100.gif


I have vague memories of a similar system at BBC Leeds when I worked there in the mid to late 90s. I think it might have been called Norfax, if I remember rightly, and I think it featured the canteen menu, and not a lot else.

I’m sure I came across it when flicking through the channels piped around the building to TV screens on the ringmain, having never seen it displayed anywhere before in the building.


Was that teletext (i.e. did you have to press the text button on your TV to see it) or was it just an analogue ring main channel containing the output of a computer which showed various pages of information? If it was the latter - lots of English regions had those - so that people across the building could see the lines and studio bookings for that day, canteen information, social club stuff etc. It was a bit like ITV Nightscreen I guess - but not really teletext.
NG
noggin Founding member

Interesting and unusual uses of teletext

davidhorman posted:
Doctor Who once used it as a, ahem, "special" effect:

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2016/10/18/bog-off-you-twit-ass-face/

(that really is a genuine link, you'll see why)


Was that teletext - or just a BBC Micro in Mode 7? ( BBC Micros used the same SAA5050 chip to generate Mode 7- as most teletext decoders of that era)
NG
noggin Founding member

Interesting and unusual uses of teletext

Markymark posted:
Riaz posted:
Did any countries use teletext in ways that were, by our standards, interesting or unusual?


There was Level 2 Teletext which the Beeb flirted with, but never officially transmitted. The Dutch, Germans, and Swiss all made limited use of it though

http://teletext.mb21.co.uk/gallery/ceefax/in-vision.shtml


Yes - still broadcast to a small degree in some countries. Many modern TVs have Level 2 decoders - you can generate a valid analogue video signal with a teletext VBI on the composite output from a Raspberry Pi - and there are data sources with valid Level 2 text pages in them. Our 2014 Sony set displays them Smile Connect the composite output from the Pi to the SCART input of the TV and you get a full teletext carousel.
NG
noggin Founding member

Sounds Like Friday Night

I suspect a large chunk of the Christmas TOTP audience will have no idea what SLFN is...
NG
noggin Founding member

Early days of NICAM Stereo

Inspector Sands posted:
Run_Telecine posted:

Part of the limitation of how Sound is mixed for News is due to the limitations of the kit. Basic News satellite trucks will have cheap Blackmagic sound/mixers which mix sources of embedded audio on SDI Video, plus an analogue audio input - but they can't pan/mono the audio, so it's fixed until it gets back to the studio end. Often the Sound will be panned left and mono'd, as that's the channel that the reporter's mic is on. Indeed, on the rare occasion that a stereo feed is being sent back, the Sound Op needs to know to put the channel into Stereo mode on the desk.

It's not really a limitation of the kit as much as split track being the convention. Mixing everything in stereo would be possible but just isn't any good if the footage needs reusing, revoicing etc.


That was the case when we were limited to 2-track audio - but these days we aren't. However the reality is that apart from stereo music added in an edit - there is no real source of 'real' stereo. Next to nobody in news captures stereo effects AFAIK. (Some dilligent regional news engineers might so I won't say 'nobody')

You'd need more than two audio tracks to do what news currently do but in stereo. (i.e. separate tracks for Sync and VO - to allow a very quick clean effects replay)
NG
noggin Founding member

Early days of NICAM Stereo

ttt posted:

Philips though, mentioned in the same sentence as Sony? Don't make me laugh. The tubes were horrendous, going dim within 3 or 4 years in many cases. Shockingly poor.


In the 80s I always thought Philips tubes and Sony tubes had different phosphor primaries. Philips sets vs Sony sets, when properly lined up, used to have nicer, more natural, fleshtones.

The Philips 14" sets in the mid-to-late 80s (and the sister computer monitors like the CM8833 and 8533) always looked pretty good to me.
NG
noggin Founding member

The New ITV & BBC Weather Thread

Inspector Sands posted:
Remember that the Met Office were ruled out at an early stage in the process. Not sure how true it is but I read elsewhere the suggestion that they were fairly complacent about the contract nd lost it partly because of that


That's my understanding too.
NG
noggin Founding member

The X Factor and Strictly

Pretty certain that Alan pre-records his voice overs for Strictly, just as he does for DWTS.

You can also tell that some of Tess's and Claudia's VO is pre-recorded as well as they are moving and not talking when you hear it (couples introduction at the top of the show). I imagine the phone numbers are also pre-recorded VO during the recaps.
NG
noggin Founding member

Dancing on Ice

all new Phil posted:
Not sure I’d agree that Strictly has updated itself. It’s pretty much the same show every week as it’s always been.

The reason Strictly is ahead is that it’s a more fun and positive show - something X Factor have clearly tried to emulate this year, hence the sing-off now being between the top 2 instead of the bottom 2. Think it’s too little too late though - the show’s reputation is that it is manipulated and exploitative.

It pains me to say it, as I’ve watched it since the first series and always loved it, but it really could do with a year or 2 rest.


Strictly have been amping up the production values series-by-series, and have also been aware of their 'positivity' factor for a while.

For a while, Strictly had started to become to feel a bit tired. It doesn't feel tired any more...

The changes to the X factor this year are just bizarre though...
NG
noggin Founding member

UK based broadcasters might have to move abroad

Inspector Sands posted:

I imagine this would also affect services from British broadcasters like Sky and UKTV into Ireland too, though that would be easier to get round


Suspect that bit will have to be included in the special agreements that need to happen between the UK and Ireland. Good Friday agreement issues may come in to play ?
NG
noggin Founding member

AppleTV 4K and Apple Video Services.

bkman1990 posted:
One issue that I find slightly controversial from Apple is that when you buy a title from iTunes in 4K; you can't download them to watch later on this new box; you can only stream them in 4K using your broadband connection. A lot of people posting online comments that I have read on this topic are not happy about attempting to stream 4K titles with limited broadband packages. I could also say this is because the broadband infrastructure all across the UK is not as properly well catered for when trying to stream video in 4K.

Are broadband speeds in the UK improving all the time from ISP's when they are moving onto online playback of UHD or 4K video?


ADSL2 speeds aren't significantly increasing - however more and more people are now in Fibre-to-the-cabinet areas (which uses VDSL for the final leg) which in many cases will offer higher speeds, so you can chose to move to a higher-speed package which is more suitable for UHD bitrates. Some are now also in Fibre-to-the-premises territory - a couple of colleagues of mine have 1Gbps connections at home, and quite a few more have 100/100Mbs connectivity via fibre.

I don't know about Apple's UHD content - but Netflix UHD stuff appears to be 15Mbs max (at least that is the highest that my Sony UHD Bluray player and NVidia Shield TV report), but also offers lower quality UHD resolution streams in the 8-15Mbs range.

Given the size of UHD movies (15Mbits/s Netflix highest quality equates to around 6.75GByte/hour) - and the relatively limited storage capacity - 32 or 64GB - in Apple TV boxes, I can see why Apple are streaming only. A 32GB ATV4K would only store 4.5 hours of UHD content at Netflix quality...