The Newsroom

BBC World/BBC News - Technical Issues Again??

20th October 2018 (October 2018)

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CH
chris
The Six is currently available on iPlayer. Unless I am very much mistaken, is there a relic from the 1999-2003 package to be heard right at the end of the coming up sequence? (See approx 12:50 in...)


Don’t suppose someone could capture that? Out of the country so can’t get iPlayer?
DE
deejay
It’s OpenMedia in London that’s having problems, not mosart, not the cameras, not viz, not the servers. it’s still possible to make programmes in the studios, it’s just harder to prepare running orders. Other OpenMedia servers are running, hence why it was a sensible decision to move the nationals to Millbank. I am guessing most of Beyond100Days was prepared in Washington on their system.

The reasons the integrated headlines at 6 and 10 were dropped were to simplify the opening slightly and also stop 15 other galleries trying to log into OpenMedia to check Out words and so on. Talkback can be sent to the regions from anywhere (Elstree is routed for Children in Need for example).

Given the circumstances, I think they’ve done a tremendous job keeping things running as well as they have. Must have been a rotten shift.
RK
Rkolsen
It’s OpenMedia in London that’s having problems, not mosart, not the cameras, not viz, not the servers. it’s still possible to make programmes in the studios, it’s just harder to prepare running orders. Other OpenMedia servers are running, hence why it was a sensible decision to move the nationals to Millbank. I am guessing most of Beyond100Days was prepared in Washington on their system.

The reasons the integrated headlines at 6 and 10 were dropped were to simplify the opening slightly and also stop 15 other galleries trying to log into OpenMedia to check Out words and so on. Talkback can be sent to the regions from anywhere (Elstree is routed for Children in Need for example).

Given the circumstances, I think they’ve done a tremendous job keeping things running as well as they have. Must have been a rotten shift.


That’s what I was assuming about Open Media. A few questions:

Is there a live back up server off site (I’d expect there’d be one if not surprised) and what stopped them to switching to it?

How many times has ENPS has gone down?

Could a show that was preloaded into Mozart and the prompter software continue to go on air as it’s loaded?
DE
deejay
ENPS failed quite a lot in its early days too, it’s been in use by the BBC since the mid 90s so I’m not sure records of all failures have either been kept or are available. All systems fail once in a while, and all systems are designed with back up and resilience built in. Clearly there will be some mopping up to do after today.
RO
roo
There is a failover, but it didn't quite work (not entirely sure why but cascading badness with downstream MOS servers wouldn't be a surprise).
SP
Steve in Pudsey
It's going to depend on the nature of the issue. If your database gets corrupted and that (or whatever transaction caused it) then gets mirrored to the back up, you're in trouble.

It sounds like they have implemented it in such a way that each area has its own instance of the software (but they can all talk to each other) rather than putting all of the eggs in one basket, which meant that Millbank and the regions could continue.
BK
bkman1990
If the News Channel is still having problems with OpenMedia later on Thursday; what will happen to BBC News at 1 by then?

Will that bulletin come from E or from Millbank?
CL
clh
Must say it was certainly the right choice to do the ten from Milllbank.

Even if systems had been fully fixed in time, it's just not the programme you want to go wrong - imagine the papers if it did.
IS
Inspector Sands
All systems fail once in a while, and all systems are designed with back up and resilience built in. Clearly there will be some mopping up to do after today.

Yes in my experience with working on new systems.like that, you can normally expect them to spectacularly fail once in the first few months.


Thing is though that everyone learns from it. So either changes are made so it doesn't happen again, or the support teams know exactly what to do when it does and can get it back up quickly
Ittr, UKnews and Rkolsen gave kudos
RK
Rkolsen
Since Media City is the backup site and runs Mozart, could they have built the show while connected to Media City’s servers? I imagine for the next few days people will be copying and pasting their scripts in emails.
MA
Markymark
Ant posted:
An excellent effort getting the Six to air. There's been some out of place fades, and the astons were missing the BBC News logo but all very minor.

Indeed. Viewers outside of this forum probably wouldn't even notice.


I must confess, some viewers 'inside' this forum failed to realise the severity. I switched on the telly at 10pm last night, and saw Huw sat in what I assumed to be another NBH studio. I just thought the regular studio must have some problem, and he's decamped there. I'll have a read of TV Forum in the morning to see what happened.
WH
what
Since Media City is the backup site and runs Mozart, could they have built the show while connected to Media City’s servers? I imagine for the next few days people will be copying and pasting their scripts in emails.

that sounds feasible.

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