The Newsroom

20 years of the BBC News Channel (BBC News 24)

Thursday 9th November 2017 marks 20 years since it's launch (November 2017)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
NG
noggin Founding member
Inspector Sands posted:
noggin posted:

HD Cam was the original BBC HD delivery format for a number of years - until it was replaced by HD Cam SR. It continued to be used as an intermediate format for a long time after this though - and I've seen it used in the last 2 years or so on HD productions ...

(Have a look at how many PasBs in the archive from some productions are not on SR...)

HDV on the other hand was so lousy - it used DV25 data rates to carry HD instead of SD content - both in picture quality and error correction terms (tiny bit of drop out could nuke an entire GOP - not just a single frame) it was a terrible choice for origination anyway.

I worked for a rival broadcaster/producer at the time who was all HD and I remember there was some hope that we might be able to sell some of our stuff to the BBC. Then the head of operations read the delivery requirements and they were so much higher than ours we had no chance


Ah - the BBC rules were (and are) pretty much identical to Sky and Discovery - not sure about ITV and C4.

Acquisition and edit codec rules are pretty much the same (the 50/100 Mbs is near-universal outside of News), as is/was the requirement for appropriate Tier-approved cameras. (Though the latter is tricky as more and more unapproved cameras are being used day-to-day)
NG
noggin Founding member
VMPhil posted:
Don’t they also say 16mm film isn’t good enough for HD?


The BBC still do - but I believe will grant occasional exceptions if you use the right film stocks... The issue with 16mm is that it can have high levels of grain, which is like video noise. This absolutely hammers H264 encoders - reducing the overall picture quality on the final encode in the chain for viewers at home, increasing blockiness, softness and motion artefacts (as data is wasted encoding random grain rather than real picture)

For similar reasons HD video cameras are only allowed a maximum of 3dB of gain in to keep them as noise-free as possible. (That's also in the specs - or certainly was)
UKnews, harshy and VMPhil gave kudos
EL
elmarko
But if it's a stylstic choice (like TWD on 16mm in the states) then surely it'd be acceptable? Or are you expected to add grain in post?
NG
noggin Founding member
elmarko posted:
But if it's a stylstic choice (like TWD on 16mm in the states) then surely it'd be acceptable? Or are you expected to add grain in post?


Neither. If you are broadcasting on a tightly bandwidth constrained platform (like DTT or DSat) that grain won't survive effectively (or will hammer other aspects of the image) you should be avoiding it and making other stylistic choices. If you're shooting for Blu-ray or cinema you can make different choices.

It's not the source of the grain that's the issue, it's the presence of it at all...
VM
VMPhil
Spencer For Hire posted:
I remember the DOG moved in the early days from the corner of the picture into the 4:3 safe area. Presumably this was when the channel became available in full widescreen (rather than just 14:9 letterbox) with the launch of digital TV and 4:3 cropping became a thing.


Jarv posted:
I seem to remember Clock, DOG and a web address top right?


The web address was added well after the 1999 rebrand, sometime in 2000 around the same time the BBC added its web address to BBC One/Two idents.

From what I can tell, the 1997 flags look started out with the DOG in the top left in the 14:9 safe area, and the 12 hour clock as a strap coming out from the bottom left. (This was changed to a 24 hour clock pretty quickly it seems, within a month judging by this clip from 9th December)

*

Then sometime around the launch of digital TV the idents were changed to feature a much bigger version of the logo, and the DOG moved into the 4:3 safe area, with the clock design changed from a strap to a simpler box.

Spencer and watchingtv gave kudos
WO
Worzel
The 1999 rebrand music on the titles was still the best music the channel's ever had IMHO.
BA
bilky asko
The 1999 countdown music is nice enough, but as you go through the headline sequence, the titles, and the shot after the titles, the style is inconsistent.

Personally, I've developed a soft spot for the original music.
JA
james-2001
VMPhil posted:



Interestingly that clip is from the actual broadcast launch (as you can see from the monitors behind them) and is in actual 16:9 and sans-clock, unlike the clips broadcast last week which had the clock and had been zoomed from 14:9, and the other clip they showed which was 16:9 but wasn't from the actual launch (presumably from a rehearsal)- as seen from the different footage on the monitor behind them.
RN
Rolling News
BillyH posted:
An amusing clip that sticks in my memory from the channel, around 1999-2000 (post-flags) is someone - possibly a comedian (Tim Vine?) - dropping a pen over the desk, climbing over the desk live on air and shouting "I'VE GOT THE PEN!! I'VE GOT THE PEN!!" while the newsreader awkwardly laughed next to him. Think it was on TV Home at some point recorded from an Auntie's Bloomers/Outtake TV type show.

Stuck in the mind because as a kid I didn't realise it was a comedian and thought it was just one of the regular newsreaders going completely insane on air.

Here it is, about 12 seconds in:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5lfu9t
IT
Ittr
Personally, I liked the 2008-2013 BBC News appearance and music.
CI
cityprod
thegeek posted:
I took this screengrab on Thursday afternoon, but then got side-tracked by work and forgot about it until now. This was from one of the archive headline sequences, showing Chris Eakin and Maxine Mahwinney in N9, the soft set opposite, and - my favourite bit - a sport or weather presenter caught mid-yawn on the wall monitor Smile

*


Which programmes actually used that soft set? I only remember Zero 30 using it, but was that the only programme to use it?
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Newsround 24 did, I think,

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