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BBC News at 10 / News Channel - Technical problems 20/06/17

Split from BBC News Channel Presentation - 21/03/16 onwards (June 2017)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
IS
Inspector Sands
Steve in Pudsey posted:

If the full automation had gone down I wonder if the director was running everything manually from here rather than just hitting take next for everything?

Unlikely I'd have thought, if that 'bash box' control panel operates the automation and the automation is broken then it's not going to be any good

Automation just controls stuff, whether it's manually activated or part of a running order. That box will be for those occasions when they need to do stuff like breaking news without having to enter things into the running order first
IS
Inspector Sands
Rkolsen posted:

Sounds like a difference in terminology in the US a director would be coding the show's rundown.

Yep, here coding means either the writing of the software or encoding the video for transmission
MA
Markymark
mapperuo posted:
A 4 minute delay in getting backup systems working seems quite long. Could they have used the vision mixer and had Huw just read immediately? but maybe wanted graphics back so tried a reboot?


I'm astounded no one grabbed the nearest X-Y router panel, and just routed something else (BBC World, a caption, black and silence, or anything !) to air ? The station router surely wasn't totally locked out, was it ?
Steve in Pudsey and Rkolsen gave kudos
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
James Vertigan posted:
Andrew posted:
Well the BBC One announcer handled that like one on ITV would have done, rather than apologising for the fault, like one of the old timers would have done, she just robotically launched into reading a menu as if it was a normal feature.


Perhaps a menu and script were more readily available than the apology caption?


The menu is there for when there is a breakdown during a junction (e.g. a trail refuses to play), I expect it was used in this instance because it was right at the start of the programme.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Just a shame it wasn't regionally safe for the Wales schedule
RN
Rolling News
BBI45 posted:

Let's hope things run more smoothly on June 20th 2034.
IS
Inspector Sands
Markymark posted:

I'm astounded no one grabbed the nearest X-Y router panel, and just routed something else (BBC World, a caption, black and silence, or anything !) to air ? The station router surely wasn't totally locked out, was it ?

I'm sure something could have been done technically, but maybe procedurally it's a bit more complicated.

Channel TX chains aren't a thing you'd have on a X-Y router panel, for obvious reasons they're seperate from the rest of the routing, more complicated and only available in a few places!
JA
JAS84
Jon posted:
Not sure why it's daft.

Because...
JAS84 posted:
Daft thing is, the idents were a capella, but the performances on the show itself were not
MA
Markymark
Inspector Sands posted:
Markymark posted:

I'm astounded no one grabbed the nearest X-Y router panel, and just routed something else (BBC World, a caption, black and silence, or anything !) to air ? The station router surely wasn't totally locked out, was it ?

I'm sure something could have been done technically, but maybe procedurally it's a bit more complicated.

Channel TX chains aren't a thing you'd have on a X-Y router panel, for obvious reasons they're seperate from the rest of the routing, more complicated and only available in a few places!


Indeed, but I'd have thought someone (not necessarily at NBH either) should have reasonably quick access (and be empowered as such) and control of those final Tx outputs, if for no other reason than security !

I'll just leave this here....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31051114
DO
dosxuk
Inspector Sands posted:
Markymark posted:

I'm astounded no one grabbed the nearest X-Y router panel, and just routed something else (BBC World, a caption, black and silence, or anything !) to air ? The station router surely wasn't totally locked out, was it ?

I'm sure something could have been done technically, but maybe procedurally it's a bit more complicated.

Channel TX chains aren't a thing you'd have on a X-Y router panel, for obvious reasons they're seperate from the rest of the routing, more complicated and only available in a few places!


But because the NC doesn't run through a Pres gallery, there should be an easy way to throw up a technical difficulties slide from the galleries. (/ elsewhere if there's a problem at NBH). They've been able to do it in the past, so my guess would be the 10 team were busy talking to BBC One pres, getting things sorted enough to carry on, and getting the extra people in place and the NC output just got forgotten in the chaos.
IS
Inspector Sands
Yes, as you say it can be done from the gallery but they were a little busy! To do it from elsewhere might have taken longer than the time it took them to get their backup up and running especially with everyone working on the issue
MA
Markymark
Inspector Sands posted:
Yes, as you say it can be done from the gallery but they were a little busy! To do it from elsewhere might have taken longer than the time it took them to get their backup up and running especially with everyone working on the issue


The BBC News Channel is a live national channel, on PSB 1. Because of that, someone really needs to be
sitting on its Tx output, should 'the unexpected' happen. Because it's live, it needs to be treated as a 'reactive'
channel. From last night's incident, it appears to be treated as something non reactive like Dave or True Movies, and allowed to 'hang' in the event of a failure etc.

It didn't matter last night (in the grand scheme of things), but it doesn't take too much imagination for a scenario where it would have mattered !

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