https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/899835/ITV-fire-alarm-news-Tom-Bradby-Donald-Trump-evacuation
They “frantically” evacuated the building, according to the Express
The Express even quote someone joking about the voiceover man being left to die - despite being in a completely different building of course.
Of course they would. After all, like most of the rest of the press, they never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
I do wonder what journalism students are actually taught, considering all you need to do nowadays is see what people on Twitter talk about and screenshot at least 5-10 tweets from Joe Public.
Why does it take so long for people to evacuate at ITN & ITV? When the alarm went off on Good Morning Britain at ITV studios they sat there for about a minute wondering what to do. When it happened on BBC breakfast they went straight into a simulcast of BBC news I believe.
I presume they, like many major 'mission critical' operations have degrees of evacuation. A complex algorithm within the alarm system determining the validity and scope of the 'alarm'. In consequence critical staff will leave only once the alarm system determines a step up in the level of evacuation. Highly sensible. I worked in such an environment for my working life. Only once was a total evacuation of site ordered. Key personnel staying at post throughout normally.
Also some mission critical areas also benefit from extra fire detection and protection and may have exits nearby.
There was a case in the US with Nightly News where a fire alarm went off. They talked to the fire warden and were quickly able to determine there was no danger aside from a siren going off. I believe the reasoning was that duct work was being done in the building and dust or something triggered an alarm within the duct.
Okay, here's my capture of the breakdown. First half of the video taken from ITV +1: Tom Bradby introducing a report, which is when the alarm starts sounding. End of report into Bradby saying they'll have to go off air, followed by News at Ten slide and then breakdown caption with announcer. During this the recording switches to my live capture from ITV HD. The full length breakdown with announcements is included. This is followed by Tony Morris apologising to Granada viewers, and then the network apology into the next programme.
They really do need to have more than the one breakdown track looped ad nauseam. Considering most of the breakdowns ITV have experienced lately have been lasting around 10 mins plus, they need to at least have a mix of music available to them if there's no standby available. As well as trying to make the announcements more helpful rather than repeating exactly what it says on the screen every 30 seconds.
That said, I don't believe ITV have any standbys available anymore, other than the pre-recorded standbys that usually accompany the breakdown of Daytime programmes. ITV used to have Creature Comforts or TV's Naughtiest Blunders to fallback on, though I'd agree that neither of those would be a particularly suitable filler for News at Ten.
I understand they repeat the same vague apology over and over again to try and keep hold of the audience's attention, but I don't understand why transparency is something they can't comprehend anymore. A look back at a classic BBC breakdown will show the CA only popped up to tell the viewers of any developments (i.e. a film being switched to another machine) and that gives people an idea of how long it'll take for the fault to be fixed. A desperate plea to keep watching every 30 seconds come across more unprofessional in my opinion, and will more than likely result in viewers finding something else to watch if they're given no idea of what's actually gone wrong, and how long it may take to resume the programme.
Does it really matter if they only have one track? Hardly anyone is going to still be watching after about 15 seconds of breakdown anyway. The only alternative to a breakdown slide would probably be back to back trailers until the regional news, but they may not have known how long they were likely to be off air for.
I understand they repeat the same vague apology over and over again to try and keep hold of the audience's attention, but I don't understand why transparency is something they can't comprehend anymore. A look back at a classic BBC breakdown will show the CA only popped up to tell the viewers of any developments (i.e. a film being switched to another machine) and that gives people an idea of how long it'll take for the fault to be fixed. A desperate plea to keep watching every 30 seconds come across more unprofessional in my opinion, and will more than likely result in viewers finding something else to watch if they're given no idea of what's actually gone wrong, and how long it may take to resume the programme.
Tom told us what had gone wrong. Fire alarm went off, studio evacuated. CA didn't seem to know that though.
