BBC National News: Presentation

From the end of the Six on BBC One Scotland on (not a) Bank Holiday Monday:

http://www.theidentgallery.com/misc/misc/BBCNEWS-BANKHOL-SCOT-1.mp4

(For Neon users, if the video's play button doesn't appear, use right-click/context menu to play)

Video seems to play fine here using the usual way.

I know the play button doesn't appear in 'Preview Post', but it has also happened just when viewing the page.

As audio and vision are controlled separately, how do the get title music to sync up with the sequence? Just a general question, not specific to BBC News.

Not sure about the BBC, but at ITN music is stored and played out from the Spot-On computer system. In fact for things like title sequences, the sound mixer doesn't actually cue the music at all; when the vision mixer cues the titles, the music automatically plays from Spot-On. And for ITV News, the voiceover is automatically played following the titles (the sound mixer must ensure that the correct v/o has been selected though). The only bits of music the sound mixer actually cues him/herself are things like headline beds, stings and closing themes, ie those without visual elements. In years gone by, the titles and music would have been in sync on videotape or server, and the sound mixer would look after the audio levels etc. At that time, ITN used to use rudimentary hard disk players called Instant Replay for playing out other bits of music, which were pretty limited. And going back even further it would have been 1/4" reel-to-reel tape! Spot-On has revolutionised broadcast sound playout.

Oh right, I understand! For the BBC, is the headline bed restarted for each headline, or is a thunderclap ovelaid onto the bed?

Restarted.

One thing I've wondered about since the 2008 revamp is whether the vamp is restarted automatically when the transition kicks in. It seems to restart perfectly on time with the transition, and sometimes the vamp starts unexpectedly when a transition is used. For example it happened yesterday during the BOTH headlines; the last transition was welcomed with the TOTH vamp.

It's perfectly possible, as that's how ITV's bongs are inserted - the wav on Spot-On is triggered each time a wipe/transition is fired by the vision mixer.

Incidentally, Spot-On was the kit that allowed ITV's bongs to be randomly inserted over the headline music. Before it was first introduced at ITN, the bongs had to be fixed. It's incredibly flexible.

The Spot On can be driven from a GPO (*) (sometimes called a GPI) generated by the mixer - which can be assigned to a particular ME bank. When a transition is made on the bank, the GPO fires, and Spot On performs a specific action (i.e. starting a bed with a crash at the top)

The BBC have used GPOs to drive Spot On since the One / Six / Ten introduced variable length headlines, quite a bit before 2008, though the News Channel didn't get them until later ISTR.

Prior to the arrival of Spot On BBC News used MiniDisc players (with hotstart panels) to play audio beds / stabs etc. (And in the era of the 'Sydney Opera House' titles, the audio - as well as slaved key+fill came from a Stingray, which also generated GPOs and could be used to generate wipe transitions that triggered mixer transitions 'underneath'. Liquid News used one for their headline wipe)

(*) GPO = General Purpose Output. GPI = General Purpose Input. Most kit has both - the GPI allows a device to be controlled by an external input (usually a GPO from something else), the GPO allows a device to control something external (usually by feeding a GPI on an other device)

That's right - I remember seeing BBC News 24 music being played out from MD in 2001-ish. I'd forgotten about that. I don't *think* ITN ever used MD for any of their transmissions. They got SpotOn in 2003/4 and before that it was definitely Instant Replays. Not sure what format they used immediately before those, but one assumes 1/4" tape? If so, I wonder why the BBC and ITN used different formats at the same time? Did BBC News ever use Instant Replay?

I'd hazard a guess that BBC News first got SpotOn around the same time as ITN... I recall the policy of re-starting the headline bed being introduced in about 2004. Like noggin said, though, that did not extend to BBC News 24 or World as I think they used fixed headlines for quite a while after... maybe even as late as 2008?

I've never heard of GPO being used (other than what BT and the Royal Mail were before privatisation)

Surely it's simply GPI for inputs and outputs; General Purpose Interface ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Purpose_Interface