BBC regional news - Now with added Reith

As has been pointed out her several times the main barrier is not the cost of upgrading the regions themselves it's the creation and distribution of lots of versions of BBC One HD. If that was in place there'd be nothing to stop them up converting any regions still producing in SD.


The regions are long due a refit so the cost of upgrading them is just part of the regular refresh cycle. I believe they're looking into what technology they should have. It probably won't be what Plymouth got

It almost certainly won't be anything like Plymouth got, that's more or less based upon last century workflow and production, it'll be something I suspect that incorporates remote production technologies, and centralisation of some elements, which will then ease the opting on HD issue, (and the three existing HD regions brought into line with that)

Maybe get the regions with the most viewers in HD first like Look North Yorkshire?

Maybe their equipment powered by Windows 95 failed so they loaded their backup powered by Windows 3.1 and we saw the old graphics instead.


On a serious note does anyone there monitor the output, where’s the quality control even with out of date equipment it shouldn’t get to air like this.

I've often wondered this. Hull's studio shots have always looked so much better on screen than Leeds'.

Yorkshire ought to be near the front of the queue as it produces a show that gets a BBC Two repeat in HD.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, they could remove the Red Screen of Death right now for one in four viewers, by carrying London News on BBC 1 HD England, so I don't think population comes into it (much)

Is that the Super League Show? is that produced in Leeds with the graphics added in Salford?

When it's done, once they've decided what system to buy, I'd have thought it would be done in order of need. Those regions limping along with their old kit will go first. That said when they did the last big refresh in the early 2000's Leeds was one of the first along with Norwich and Birmingham. Nottingham have recently had a new system to try out, they've always been the odd one out as last time round it wasn't that old so went to the back of the queue


That's what's more important, how well the technology is performing

Is Plymouth really that out of date already? I know they have centralised servers not necessarily sitting in the south west.

Technically - yes. It's very much based on the late-00s/early-10s tech. You wouldn't start from scratch and build Plymouth's technical facilities the same way today.

BBC Wales new site and the planned BBC Belfast upgrades, whilst bigger, are both IP-based. HD-SDI still has a position in the industry, but it's nowhere near universal now, and IP (2110 and 2022-6/7) techniques allow for very different ways of working, and different ways of siting broadcast kit. Whether BBC English Regions go for this 'TV ViLor' approach or go for a simple 'one bay for all regions' model - I'm not sure. I think that even putting a traditional vision mixer (Sony, GVG etc.) into an HD region can't be taken as a given now that you can go for a Ross Graphite+Overdrive model, or a BlackMagic Constellation controlled by the NRK Sofie system.

That said - I wouldn't be surprised if the HD-upgrades to the regions were based on on-site HD-SDI installs, nor would I be surprised if centralised opting were implemented in a relatively traditional way (and in the end all that moves is the actual opt-switch)

Plymouth's setup is only about 3-4 years old isn't it? Apparently one reason they won't do the same elsewhere is that they used a lot of the same systems that BH's studios have, so it's rather over specced for a regional studio.