BBC World News from New Broadcasting House

Back at television centre, world pres used to create a core service of BBC world, with the famous Breakfiller in all the breaks. In those days a pulse would be sent out to trigger breaks (a VBI pulse I think) and partner stations would play in ads locally. There were in addition cue dots added by pres and a talkback count to breaks as a backup or for any stations which were operating manually. That talkback feed was carried on one audio leg of the output, but stripped off by the partner stations. Occasionally it did slip out to air if things were incorrectly patched! World Pres in those days used to do European opts themselves and ads to South America, but all other streams were dealt with locally. It meant a lot of phone calls should there need to be a news report during regionally opted programmes! Since the move to the Broadcast Centre, all streams have been dealt with by the playout suite.

I'm thinking a situation where the NC could take the aerials from G-TAKE (who named it that) while world would have the aerials and a map on screen.

Back at television centre, world pres used to create a core service of BBC world, with the famous Breakfiller in all the breaks. In those days a pulse would be sent out to trigger breaks (a VBI pulse I think) and partner stations would play in ads locally. There were in addition cue dots added by pres and a talkback count to breaks as a backup or for any stations which were operating manually. That talkback feed was carried on one audio leg of the output, but stripped off by the partner stations. Occasionally it did slip out to air if things were incorrectly patched!

World Pres in those days used to do European opts themselves and ads to South America, but all other streams were dealt with locally. It meant a lot of phone calls should there need to be a news report during regionally opted programmes! Since the move to the Broadcast Centre, all streams have been dealt with by the playout suite.

I did hear that at the time the BBC handling adverts wasn't allowed or thought to be a good idea

That was during a power cut or something wasn't it?

There are no pulses or trigger tones used. In almost all cases, live programmes going out on BBC channels are in talkback contact with the presentation suite for the channel they're broadcasting on. Timings for on and off air times are usually confirmed before transmission. As the BBC UK services don't have ads (and therefore commercial minutage restrictions to worry about) live programmes are usually given some leniency as to their off air time, so have always been taken off air manually by the pres director. This can come as something of a shock to staff members who have come from virtually all other broadcasters where an off air time is fixed and absolute unless there's a dire emergency!

Now on World, where there are ad breaks (and regionally split breaks at that) things are slightly more complex, but still done in quite a "BBC" way.

The gallery making programmes for World output themselves to the Pres, who listen to the gallery talkback. The on air time is always the top of the hour, pres play the countdown. Now let's consider the centre break. The timing for this isn't fixed. The news director gives usually at least a minute's warning, then manually calls "opt out opt out" at the appropriate time. Pres will opt out all regions scheduled to switch to advertising, opt unsold regions to a Breakfiller, or sometimes regions will actually stick with the news gallery for the This Week in History Breakfiller that is played out from news. Occasionally the centre break is longer than a minute, so news run a sting, then cut back to the presenter for an intro and a package. This all has to be carefully back-timed so that the end of the package and the cut to the studio wide shot happens at the same time the end of the break occurs for the other regions. To help with this, there is a counter in the news gallery which gives the duration remaining on the break.

Things get more complicated overnight, where the news gallery is making bulletins for World and sustaining the news channel. World Pres continue to do all the opting and switching for the world regions, but the news gallery fill with uk back half hours, uk trails and countdown. A sequence of particular complexity is at 0540ish. World Business Report finishes, world pres opt out, news cut back to the news presenter who reads an intro to a uk centric package, then the rest of the break is filled by a trail for BBC One's Breakfast programme, before news offer a wide shot of the studio, World pres opt back in time for the Quarter Heads and the newspaper review.

Incidentally, Red Bee were taken over by Ericsson some months ago and they have renamed themselves Ericsson Briadcast Media Services.

Is the newsdirector that runs the show the one that's in communication with Ericsson or is it someone else in the booth? Wouldn't it get complicated for the director was the sole person conveying a message to the presenter, others and Ericsson? I assume certain cues such as the countdown to break / opt out point for World while NC stays on could be sent to the presenter and play out simultaneously.

I assume the bottom of the hour weather forecasts are recorded and played out from Ericsson as well when the director gives the go ahead ?

I guess so adverts don't go out on the wrong service by accident?

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However is there any reason why those automated /machine break triggers weren't installed? It seems like it would be a lot of work for a little bit of automation.