noggin's posts, page 40

15,946 search results, most recent first

NG
noggin Founding member

Coronavirus - Impact on live/recorded shows



Quote:

Also is Luci Live just for radio or tv?


I've only come across Luci Live as an audio solution - but there are MVP and LiveU iOS solutions for video - which are in use.

Ah yes, think Luci Live is audio, there's so many different ways now I lose track.

What's the one that BBC employees can get on iPhones (annoyingly only iPhones) that allows them to do lives? Or is that Luci?


Luci Live is part of BBC Essentials for Live audio contributions.
NG
noggin Founding member

What was your favorite regional ITV station growing up?


That is reversed when it comes to satellite, because you can cover the whole country with a single transmission, but then they had to fudge the platform to match what terrestrial did


And now, with ad smart, advertisers (which, let's face it, are the prime motivator for ITV regionality on satellite these days) on Sky can target audiences without needing a channel to have multiple satellite variants - they can just pay Sky to cache their adverts and drop them in to demographically suitable homes invisibly. (Though I don't think ITV use it - C4 announced they will, as well as the BBC for customised trails?)
NG
noggin Founding member

Coronavirus - Impact on live/recorded shows

With lots of shows featuring many Internet fed video contributions. Anything special being done for this? Or just racks of PCs being plugged HDMI into the desk (with maybe cropping to hide controls etc) running zoom, teams, skype etc? Or any special broadcaster software or devices being deployed? I.e do they give people special software before their appearances?

Just interested.

For single contributions it is as you say just PCs running TV the software, either one with an SDI output or one with a convertor that makes it SDI* You can't really go about sending special software to contributors, you just use what they have, whether that's Skype or Facetime or WhatsApp. Reporters will have special software like Luci Live


I'm pretty sure that in a lot of cases where there's real time interaction, for example Have I Got News For You the recording is taking place via a Zoom chat or similar, but what you're seeing is recorded locally. The quality isn't studio quality but it's much better than streaming Internet quality.


*TV companies never use HDMI except for either feeding a domestic monitor or where they are using a domestic device like a STB or DVD, they are converted to SDI


I’ve seen some setups (often one man band kits that are now deployed as home studios) where talent US and abroad connect the HDMI out directly to the laptop or CNG.

Yes - HDMI can be used for connecting very cheap field cameras that don't have HD-SDI output to LiveU/WMT/PC capture devices etc. - but it's not a broadcast interconnect standard used in control rooms or MCRs. Sky did this a while back for their low cost Election count coverage kits I think. Most broadcasters wouldn't be using field cameras without SDI outputs (as very few cameras that meet EBU Tier approval are HDMI-only - an exception being the Panasonic GH5s) - but in emergencies or for very low cost live kits they may.


Or just racks of PCs being plugged HDMI into the desk (with maybe cropping to hide controls etc) running zoom, teams, skype etc?

For Skype most broadcasters will use a SkypeTX box which has SDI outputs, though FaceTime requires an Apple device and most people doing FaceTime in studios will use a MacMini with an AJA Region of Interest HDMI->HD-SDI scan converter. Zoom used live will need a PC with an HDMI output fed through a scan converter too - unless you have a relatively rare PC with an SDI GPU output.

No mainstream studio vision mixer (switcher) in use by most broadcasters has HDMI connectivity.

Quote:

Also is Luci Live just for radio or tv?


I've only come across Luci Live as an audio solution - but there are MVP and LiveU iOS solutions for video - which are in use.
Last edited by noggin on 2 May 2020 8:07am
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Breakfast - 16th July onwards

The loss of the regional bulletins is definitely hurting BBC Breakfast. 1.3m is low for it, no doubt about it. Last week, it was averaging 1.4m. It's on a downward trajectory.


Thursday 30th April
BBC One
0600-0900 1.6m/44.5% share BBC Breakfast
0900-1000 1.9m/31.7% share BBC News

ITV
0600-0900 0.8m/23.3% share GMB
0900-1000 1.2m/21.1% share GMB with Lorraine

Any show with a 44.5% share is pretty healthy... I'm guessing their coverage of Capt Tom Moore had something to do with that?
NG
noggin Founding member

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

While searching for a TiVO guide of all things I stumbled upon this image:
*
Thought it might be of interest, it appears to be from when Major Ingram appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Edit: And another one
*


Hard to believe now that the brand is associated with Virgin in this country but Tivo was available to Sky customers before Sky+ launched, but was quickly discontinued afterwards.


The original TIVO was available to anyone, you could even hook it up to record from analogue if you wanted, I believe.

I remember before it was discontinued there was a lot of controversy over it recording the first episode of "Dossa and Joe" whether people wanted it or not and couldn't even delete it.


The Tivo box had an analogue PAL+NICAM tuner built in ISTR, and RGB/Composite SCART inputs with an IR blaster for external set-top box control. It properly handled Pin 8 and Line 23 WSS widescreen switching too.

The link with Sky was that I think Tivo and Sky had an initial arrangement that meant Tivo's customer helpline was handled by Sky's call centres, and there may have been a bit of an investment from Sky.

I had one controlling my regular Pace Sky Digibox, and put an Ethernet card in it (which meant I could download listings via an internet connection rather than using the internal modem and program the Tivo from work via a web browser with TivoWeb), installed a larger hard drive in it, upgraded the recording quality to higher resolution, and eventually I could copy recordings from it. I still have it - and it still boots!

When Tivo finally pulled out of providing UK Listings, some enthusiasts managed to reverse engineer the EPG data and provide their own listings service.
UKnews, Inspector Sands and paul_hadley gave kudos
NG
noggin Founding member

International News Presentation: Past and Present

That is a gorgeous set. I love the (what I assume is some form of projection) tunnel. Very clever. The bright white, the key colours, the screens, the curves, it’s marvellous.


If you mean the large LED wall - that's a portion of their graphics in it - it looks like a tunnel in the still I guess, but it's more a globe with discs emanating from it.

Personally I find the all white design quite cold - and they are shooting it so wide in the YouTube clip you lose any form of connection with the host as she's so small in frame - but that might be because of the introduction to the new set. The set design feels very '60s Space Age retro' and a bit 2001 in some ways. Not really to my taste.

Looks like they have an LED-clad pillar in a similar manner to the SVT News studio in Stockholm.
NG
noggin Founding member

The BBC World News Thread

Pete posted:
PBS airings often omit the countdown, I imagine that's how most Americans gain exposure to the BBC. BBC World News carrier-ship on cable/satellite is much broader than it was 10 years ago, but it's definitely still a niche audience judging by the very upmarket ads on North American feed.

I can understand not getting the countdown, but he said he just sees the silent 'globe' animation at the start of the title sequence, before getting the final few notes of the theme at the end. Which seems odd.


I mean the obvious answer is the PBS station he's watching on is doing a sloppy opt into a dirty feed and fades the sound up after mixing the vision?


I wonder if they take the feed at the top of the hour precisely, ignoring any distribution delay?
NG
noggin Founding member

Virgin Media - V6 Recordings Query

Mute posted:
The way that recordings work on Virgin Media boxes is different to the way that Sky do it. My understanding is that whilst the Sky boxes record the encrypted signal as broadcast, the Virgin Media boxes decrypt the signal, but then encrypt it again before saving to disk using a different system and an encryption key that's unique to each box (which is why you can't swap drives between boxes, they wouldn't be able to decrypt a recording made on a different box).

As there is no connection between the encryption system used to broadcast the channels and the system used to save recordings then technically there is no requirement to still be subscribed to a channel to play back a recording. For many years this is how it worked and you could continue to watch recordings from channels that you no longer subscribed to.

At some point Sky decided they didn't like this and required Virgin Media to change they system so that it behaved in the same way as the Sky boxes. This is the point where it went wrong as Virgin Media implemented the new system badly.

The way it works now is that there are restrictions placed on the channels from Sky, but not other broadcasters. The Sky channels are flagged so that the boxes know which channels to apply the restrictions to. When you go to play back a recording the box checks to see if the recording came from a channel that Sky own and if it does then it will only let you play the recording if you still subscribe to the channel. Unlike the Sky boxes there is no technical reason for this restriction, it's a contractual requirement imposed by Sky.
If a recording is from a non Sky channel then the check to see if you're still subscribed isn't done, so you should still be able to play back recordings from non Sky channels that you no longer subscribe to.

The problem is that in order for this check to work the channel still needs to be broadcasting on the system. Shortly after introducing this system a channel closed down and lots of people on various forums complained that they couldn't watch recordings from that channel any more. Because it was no longer broadcasting the check to see if it was flagged as a Sky channel couldn't be done, so the box refused to play back the recording.

As a result, when a channel on Virgin Media closes down it isn't completely removed from the system. The broadcast stops, but the channel remains in the channel tables as a hidden channel for awhile so that any recordings can still be watched. After some time (normally a few months, but it can vary) the channel is completely removed and recordings can no longer be played back.

This can cause a lot of problems, not only when people try to watch old recordings from channels that no longer exist, but also when changes are made to which regional version of a channel is broadcast, or where a channel has gone HD only with the SD version closing. Whilst viewers can still receive the channel, if it's not the exact same version (with the same ID) that the recording was made from then the recordings can't be played back.


That makes total sense. Presumably the Virgin Media DVB-C subsystem has a CAM that can decrypt multiple streams simultaneously (many can) so that recordings can be decrypted from the broadcast encrypted streams whilst live TV is also being decrypted from a different broadcast encrypted stream.
NG
noggin Founding member

The BBC World News Thread

Jim Gaffigan, the US comedian and actor, is a regular commentator on CBS Sunday Morning, which is CBS’ weekly news magazine show (it’s great if you’ve never seen it). This week’s piece focused on his recent news consumption, and he expressed some affection for BBC World News pres:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePkJgy9aeXE


Though the presenters shown were BBC One bulletin presenters on the BBC One/News Channel set.


That’s a lot of BBC World News these days.


Ah - are they taking the One/Six/Ten domestic bulletins?
NG
noggin Founding member

Virgin Media - V6 Recordings Query

The viewing card is just a lump of plastic with a chip in it, like your bank card. The chip is probably what does all the work in a Sky box, as presumably they can be reprogrammed by the set top box software.


It's difficult to discuss viewing cards and how they work without getting into dodgy territory.

However changing out viewing cards for millions of subscribers is a very costly exercise - so they ensure each generation of card has a lot of 'room for the future'.

What the card does and what the CAM in the receiver do are intertwined - and how they communicate, pair etc. can be changed. In the case of receivers with integrated CAMs the CAM itself can often be upgraded via a box firmware update (particularly if the CAM is implemented largely or entirely in hardware, which then means the receiver design has to be secure, including the processor it runs on)

Quote:

Of course ITV Digital knew all about reprogramming viewing cards, considering they used an insecure system for the pay channels, and the method/technique was cracked. And never changed, presumably because it would cost a lot of money that OnDigital (as it was) didn't have - new cards, new boxes, presumably, and new software. Not cheap. Not that it really mattered in the end as the entire operation had other issues and fell over anyway.


Yes - though there is a difference between reprogramming a card with new entitlement data (which is effectively like editing a file stored on the card), and actually remotely uploading new code to run on the card's processor (which is like installing a new OS on the card),
NG
noggin Founding member

The BBC World News Thread

Jim Gaffigan, the US comedian and actor, is a regular commentator on CBS Sunday Morning, which is CBS’ weekly news magazine show (it’s great if you’ve never seen it). This week’s piece focused on his recent news consumption, and he expressed some affection for BBC World News pres:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePkJgy9aeXE


Though the presenters shown were BBC One bulletin presenters on the BBC One/News Channel set.
NG
noggin Founding member

The BBC World News Thread

Pete posted:
Working Lunch re-dressed this with clipped on PBUs


what's a PBU?


PBU is an abbreviation of Photo Blow-Up - but is used more widely to describe printed panels (whether they have a photo or a graphic on them) - though I guess you could argue both are printed 'photographically' usually.

In the days before large video screens, many shows would brand items or editions using large black and white or colour photos blown up and suspended from the lighting grid, or placed within set pieces, and the term has stuck.