BBC North West Tonight

They have broadcast across the whole region from Cambridge before, but not sure if they can do it without the involvement of Norwich?

Yes, I've lost track whether Camb's output goes via Norwich to the Code/Mux, or if they have their own path, and tielines between themselves and Norwich ?

If you remember when Plymouth had those major power problems, Jersey were taken off the air too, because
their output and opt is arranged at Plymouth. Plymouth's transmitters were re-patched to Bristol (at the CMM), but Jersey ended up showing the News Channel sustaining feed I think. Whether that was an oversight or deliberate , who knows !

Oh yes, Jersey has to use Plymouth to get their bulletins out. They still put them out on Facebook if that happens again.

Oxford can opt pan-regionally for the South, and probably will in the next week or so actually, as Christmas week opts has been shared between the two sites in recent years. Keep your eyes peeled!

Ta ! Does anything need to be reconfigured at the C&MC for that, or can Oxford just do it at will, using some form of offer/accept switching ?

No, it's an extension of the system installed that allows Oxford to opt from network proper at the beginning of the 1830 opt and opt back to Southampton (while they're opted) at 1840.

Stupid question from an American but why is there a sub opt from BBC South to BBC Oxford when according to Wikipedia (always reliable) Oxford has it's own studio?

The Oxford element is a sub-region. The main South Today programme is broadcast from three transmitters (and their small relay transmitters) to the coastal counties of Southern England. The Oxford transmitter serves
the city of the same name, plus its county (Oxfordshire). There is an opt out within the main South Today programme for 10-15 mins presented from the Oxford studio, and only seen on the Oxford transmitter, with Oxfordshire news for the benefit of people in that area.
There's not the resources (nor the news) to provide Oxford with it's own free standing region, and 30 min news programme. The Oxford transmitter used to form the old London and South East region (Using Crystal Palace, Dover, Bluebell Hill, Oxford). About 15 years ago, a new South East region was formed, by using Dover, Bluebell Hill, and Heathfield (taken from South Today region). London became free-standing using just C Palace, and Oxford got bolted onto South Today as a sub region.

However the Oxford studio, (as deejay has said) is capable of feeding all four transmitters directly, as well as the normal config where it just feeds its local transmitter.

Here's a map, South Today is carried on Rowridge, Midhurst and Hannington. You can see Oxford to the north of Hannington's area. (Ignore the colour coding, it denotes ITV regions, which differ slightly)

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/mapsys/anatv/index.php

Was it Oxford or Cambridge that often did the Friday mid afternoon opt for the whole region while the parent region studio recorded Sunday Politics?

All the BBC sub-regions have their own studios (the BBC don't pre-record sub-opts as ITV does).

Initially Oxford came from a second studio & gallery at Southampton, but they've had their own studio & gallery in Oxford for ages now. Hull also used to be a sub-region, and worked with a studio in Hull but with the second gallery at the old BBC Leeds as control room. Jersey and Cambridge have always had their own studios and galleries. (And much earlier - Nottingham was a sub-opt from Birmingham - but again with a studio and gallery in Nottingham I think)

The sub-regions are not full programmes because of a budget limit, which means a limit on production staff and facilities in most cases - they simply don't have the money and thus the kit and personnel to produce fully separate opts every day (and for every junction)

I think all sub-regions have historically produced their own 2128/2225 bulletins - though it'll be interesting to see how Jersey cope with the extended regional news at 2225 (they have by far the most limited facilities of all the sub-regions). Cambridge probably have the best production facilities - as I think their new building was scoped to be able to do a full programme from the start.

Certainly Oxford did the 1500 opt pan regionally on Fridays for a couple of years when the politics opt was recorded in Southampton. Cambridge was (is?) often used to record the East's politics opt in total, as it is easier to get local politicians to Cambridge than Norwich.

For many years, Oxford produced its own fully separate half hour opt out on Friday evenings at 1830, with Weekend Sport and Weather lookaheads. As far as I know, the sub regions have always produced their own fully distinct late bulletins.

Cambridge has toyed with producing their own full 30 minute bulletins - usually only when the news agenda makes it worthwhile. Though there was at least one occasion the entire programme was split on occasions with no obvious reason and they had two presenters in Cambridge.