It's perfectly possible for breakfast bulletins to be done with just one operator - in fact many regions do it with only one in the gallery. When things go wrong during breakfast bulletins, that's why they often go spectacularly wrong, as in this case! It's certainly good of N6 to fill with the papers and it would appear hit the opt-in point reasonably accurately so that it didn't compromise everyone else. In the past where Marylebone High Street (Or Elstree in the didtant past) have had serious problems and have had time to warn N6, then there has usually been time to arrange for Southampton or Tunbridge Wells to be put on the desk and act as the sustaining feed. Clearly this didn't happen on this occasion!
In the past where Marylebone High Street (Or Elstree in the didtant past) have had serious problems and have had time to warn N6, then there has usually been time to arrange for Southampton or Tunbridge Wells to be put on the desk and act as the sustaining feed. Clearly this didn't happen on this occasion!
No, it's only a 4 or so minute bulletin and they gave up about a minute into it. By the time a feed from elsewhere was arranged the opt out would have finished!
In the past where Marylebone High Street (Or Elstree in the didtant past) have had serious problems and have had time to warn N6, then there has usually been time to arrange for Southampton or Tunbridge Wells to be put on the desk and act as the sustaining feed. Clearly this didn't happen on this occasion!
No, it's only a 4 or so minute bulletin and they gave up about a minute into it. By the time a feed from elsewhere was arranged the opt out would have finished!
Yep - though sometimes it is possible to know in advance you've got problems (No presenter has turned up, you've got no power, there has been a major equipment failure etc.) and warn network, who then have time to arrange for Southampton or Tunbridge Wells to be available as the sustaining network feed.
In the mid 90s it was almost regular as clockwork for Newsroom South East to miss the 0625 Monday morning opt - usually because their presenter hadn't turned up. South Today's Pauline Brandt was a regular fixture on Newsroom SouthEast screen's as a result...
(One fateful day neither Elstree NOR Southampton had a presenter at 0625, and Look East were warned to standby, but unfortunately they couldn't sort out a technical/operational issue in Norwich - so the opt was dropped, causing many letters to Ariel (the BBC weekly internal newspaper) from the regions who were all there waiting to opt)
You're assuming there's more than one person in the gallery at that time of morning!
There'll be more thean one person but a bare minimal number.
The bulletins are automated with all the cameras and cut items lined up in order and then taken manually. Chances are that if they were caught unawares they might not have reloaded the automation list from rehearsal and therefore when the director pressed take; an iten from another part of the programme appeared
That's not how it works in some nations / regions - where I know for a fact a producer (ie. non technical person) has to take the role of doing all of the gallery output single handed.
You're assuming there's more than one person in the gallery at that time of morning!
There'll be more thean one person but a bare minimal number.
Not always - some (many?) regions run Breakfast on a single operator and the presenter. The operator does everything technical (camera, sound, lighting, graphics, vision mix, picture edit etc) and the presenter produces themselves (writing, checking police mesage banks, travel news updates etc., also sometimes picture editing, as well as usually rolling their own autocue).
Some regions may also have some radio personnel in - as well as an engineer - and also towards the end of the morning some of the lunchtime people will be arriving - but the core breakfast staffing working directly on the Breakfast opts can easily be just two people in some regions. (In Norwich in the mid 90s it was 3 and that was with NO automation - as there was a separate picture editor in addition to the presenter and director, after they got rid of the producer and autocue operator role that had previously left the head count at 5. There was also an engineer - but they were shared with Radio Norfolk over the road)
Many regions have used the very low staffing model for Breakfast since it launched regional opts - because most regions had pres desks designed for self-op bulletins, which could easily be used by an operator with a separate camera in another location for the slightly longer Breakfast output (which had VT)
Leeds, famously, had Peter Levy self-oping Breakfast in-vision... (With a VT operator following his script for VT runs, and I guess an SA playing in graphics)
Quote:
The bulletins are automated with all the cameras and cut items lined up in order and then taken manually. Chances are that if they were caught unawares they might not have reloaded the automation list from rehearsal and therefore when the director pressed take; an iten from another part of the programme appeared
Not every region uses full automation either - it is quite possible to drive a presentation or full vision desk manually or in semi-automatic mode, with either an integrated or separate audio mix option. Some regions have two separate galleries, some have just one, some have a hybrid. Some run full automation, some run semi-automated, some run almost entirely manually. (Some use Columbus automation with Leitch server and full or partial mixer control, some use IBIS with Quantel or Profile and either partial or no mixer control, I think most have ditched the original Quantel Janice front-end)
I think BBC London has a single gallery with Columbus and Leitch - with a second sound desk - and may well operate fully automated. From memory Tunbridge Wells (built at the same time) has Columbus and Leitch, but they may have a full mini-gallery for their short bulletins? (As many regions do - this is often sited in the graphics area)
Mini-galleries are more likely to run manually or semi-automated, because they are designed for single operator operation (larger galleries are more cumbersome to manually operate with a single operator - your arms are only so long! - so are more likely to be heavily automated)
The bulletins are automated with all the cameras and cut items lined up in order and then taken manually. Chances are that if they were caught unawares they might not have reloaded the automation list from rehearsal and therefore when the director pressed take; an iten from another part of the programme appeared
I think BBC London has a single gallery with Columbus and Leitch - with a second sound desk - and may well operate fully automated.
The bulletins are automated with all the cameras and cut items lined up in order and then taken manually. Chances are that if they were caught unawares they might not have reloaded the automation list from rehearsal and therefore when the director pressed take; an iten from another part of the programme appeared
I think BBC London has a single gallery with Columbus and Leitch - with a second sound desk - and may well operate fully automated.
Yep, they run the bulletin as I described above.
You don't say...
However other regions work differently, there isn't a "standard" model - and if there was it is unlikely the BBC London model would be it... That was the jist of the bulk of my post which you quoted a small chunk of.
However other regions work differently, there isn't a "standard" model - and if there was it is unlikely the BBC London model would be it... That was the jist of the bulk of my post which you quoted a small chunk of.
Yes, they're all diffrent no matter how much they try and make them all work the same way!
