noggin's posts, page 96

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NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Breakfast - 2018 Refresh

It's worth remembering that the BBC really only have staff designers in News - if you want to work on other genres (Factual, Entertainment, Events, Drama, Comedy etc.), you need to be freelance or working for an external graphics house.

The BBC stopped having an in-house general graphic design operation decades ago.
NG
noggin Founding member

The Sport Thread

Markymark posted:
dosxuk posted:
There's a sat truck on site (Irish registration number interestingly!), but the dish isn't up. They've used fibre for the primary BBC feeds for many years now.


Might be an OBS truck ( aka NEP IE) . It’s not unusual to still use an uplink truck, without its uplink, because it’s still a useful facility for processing and routing the output from the OB truck(s)


Technically the Irish arm is Observe and the UK-arm-of-the-Irish arm is OBS? (OBS set up in the UK before their parent company in Ireland, Observe, was sold to NEP?)
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

Markymark posted:
ttt posted:

There was a fader involved though as the cut to/from the commercial break was always done via a down-and-up, rather than the simple cut that most other regions employed.

.


You don’t need a physical fader to generate fades ! In fact probably 90% of fades etc you see on TV are not manually controlled via a physical fader


True - but on any multicamera show you don't see many people use the auto trans button for mixes - only for wipes (or to bring on keys) - though people may use macros or similar with mixes in them.

GVG mixers in the GVG200 era had the great option of PST-VIA-BLACK alongside MIX and WIPE - which would let you do a down-and-up (or 'V'-fade) using two paddles of the mixer T-bar. Great in English regions for leaving network.
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Broadcast Delay (Analogue TV days)

Rkolsen posted:
Would there be a delay if you were running in a strictly HD-SDI master control switcher using master control automation software?


There can be if the automation software has to figure in pre-cue delays for various bits of kit. The delays may be smaller - but they still exist.

But moving forward HD-SDI is an increasingly legacy technology, so won't be with us for that much longer I suspect. Playout is ahead of the game in moving to all-IP paths, but production is following.

(Though Quad 12G and the new fibre-based U-SDI standard are finding use in 8K Production, where baseband bitrates make IP less compelling in the short term...)
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Broadcast Delay (Analogue TV days)

Rkolsen posted:
denton posted:
thegeek posted:
Crikey. Someone was recently telling me that the market for playout systems ain't what it used to be, and Grass Valley ICE is about as good as it gets - but I'm sure that other broadcasters who use it don't have a three second delay when pressing a 'take next' button. Did the BBC procure a particularly low-budget version?


I seem to remember someone telling me that UTV, when using Morpheus (GV ICE) in their new Belfast play-out facility before it moved to England, actually had a 5 second delay! They had cleanish feeds to work off, so it wasn't too bad for them.

I can't honestly remember the exact reason for the delays in the Morpheus system... but it's not to do with cut price versions... I think it might be more a side effect of having additional functionality. There's also an additional complication for the network announcers, who have to start speaking a few seconds early in order to stop speaking a few seconds early... their voice is delayed. If they didn't do that, and only stopped speaking just before the programme started... the delay would result in their voice crashing in over the top of the programme. Luckily the Nations announcers don't have that setup.

I have to ask who at Grass Valley thought that was acceptable? I realize master control switching is designed to be more redundant and smaller than regular switchers used for news and sport which may have a few frame delay when cutting sources.


It wasn't really anyone at Grass Valley, they were with Snell / SAM at the time... Morpheus ICE is a former SAM product that GVG acquired with their merger/take-over of SAM. (In fact it's a ProBel heritage product AIUI)

The Morpheus ICE system is a 'channel-in-a-box' system based around IP, rather than HD-SDI, video, and it integrates server Playout, DVE, graphics, voice over etc. into a single unit (though some re-enter video+VO half-way through). AIUI the latency is related to how much processing you want to do 'in the box'...

You can run with lower latency if you do less AIUI... For a non-reactive Playout solution the economics more than justify the latency. Whether it's the right product for a reactive network - that's for others to say.
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

Markymark posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
Si-Co posted:

My memory is very hazy now, but I saw the Channel 4 area at Tyne Tees in 1987. It was a bank of about 4 monitors which showed the incoming raw C4 feed, their outgoing feed to the transmitter, and screens for previewing and cueing up ads. The “control panel” seemed to have a number of buttons but not faders (if I remember rightly - it was so long ago!)

That's all they'd need really, it's just inserting adverts. No need to have anything fancy, just the ability to cut a tape machine to air and run it.


Even simpler was the EastEnders gallery in the 90s, just an 8x1 router panel, I doubt it’s any more complex today ?


Indeed - AIUI EastEnders multicamera stuff is still cut on a router. No need for a vision mixer if you only need cuts only, and have a router that can provide tallies to cameras.
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Broadcast Delay (Analogue TV days)

Steve in Pudsey posted:
Do programmes on the BBC clean feed have VT clocks or just sit on a freeze frame of early vision? I guess hitting take early is much easier with a clock


Live BBC shows, or shows that are pre-recorded but played in remotely. are not allowed to run from VT clocks, they have to run from pictures (though most will start with a second or so of 'early vision'). ISTR that the 'no running from clocks' rule was introduced 15+ years ago when too many clocks were being cut to air... (Well it was one way of solving the problem)

(VT Inserts into shows can run from clocks, last frame slate, first frame pictures etc., as that is up to the production team making the show)
UKnews and Steve in Pudsey gave kudos
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC News Channel Presentation - 21/03/16 onwards

Inspector Sands posted:
SuperSajuuk posted:
davidhorman posted:
What's that device Rico Hizon is holding? It sounded like he kept clicking or tapping it at about 01:23.

Manually controlled autocue. Its a thing in some studios, such as during certain sports bulletins in Salford. Presumably meant to reduce technical faults with the autocue not working when it runs automatically by having it be manually operated

Aren't all autocues manually operated? The only difference is that some are done by the presenter and some by an operator?


Most prompters in use in news studios are either controlled by a separate operator using a control interface (usually a scroll wheel), or by the presenter using a foot-pedal or hand-controller (which can be cabled or wireless). There are voice controlled options that will follow presenters as they talk, but they are not good when presenters need to ad-lib or interview, so are only really used in very straightforward situations.
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Breakfast - 2018 Refresh

Andrew posted:
Has Naga Munchetty or Charlie Stayt ever presented any other BBC News output other than Breakfast? Maybe in their early days when they were based in London?


Naga joined BBC News as presenter of a relaunched 'Working Lunch' programme ISTR, which was rebooted a little while after Adrian Chiles left the show to launch The One Show.
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Broadcast Delay (Analogue TV days)

When digital TV was introduced to the UK, the BBC distributed Network 1 and 2 feeds to the Nations and the English regions using 9Mbs MPEG2 ISTR. That will have a codec delay.
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Broadcast Delay (Analogue TV days)

Markymark posted:
Si-Co posted:
There was definitely delays on the network feed - if you lived in an area where you could flick between two ITV stations, they weren’t exactly in sync even on networked content.


Thames (but not LWT) were about 200 milliseconds behind TVS in the early 90s, (yes, I did get that round the right way !) I know Thames built a new Pres suite 89/90ish, they must have had some digital gizzmo in the chain that introduced that sort of delay !


I wonder if Thames synchronised their incoming network feed to station syncs, and used a PAL composite synchroniser (which had to respect the PAL 4/8-field sequence) and potentially introduced more delay than a synchroniser that decoded to component would, or otherwise locking yourself to network incoming?
NG
noggin Founding member

E4, More4, Film4 and 4Music Rebrand:

Jon posted:

Incidentally I read on Bothers Bar, Hatrick Is to start producing Mastermind in Northern Ireland, but I doubt that means they now own the format.


That's correct. The BBC retain all rights to Mastermind, unlike regular independent commissions (where the indie retain the rights for their shows). The BBC in-house shows that the BBC is tendering to both BBC Studios and third party Indies are 'produce for hire' deals - where you are purely paid to make the show, and don't own it.