I read on a mailing list that South Today was shown for a while on analogue before BBC London news came on - I'm assuming South today would be on the RBS feed, but wouldn't Spotlight have been a more appropriate region to fall back on - considering it covers pretty much the same area (Somerset and a bit of Dorset)....
Interesting to see they had enough power for the Christmas lights - perhaps that overloaded the generator so it finally gave up!
I read on a mailing list that South Today was shown for a while on analogue before BBC London news came on - I'm assuming South today would be on the RBS feed, but wouldn't Spotlight have been a more appropriate region to fall back on - considering it covers pretty much the same area (Somerset and a bit of Dorset)....
No Hannington is Mendip's RBS fallback. All RBS sources are 'back' towards London. If Stockland were Mendip's RBS source, where would Stockland get its RBS from ?
[quote="James Vertigan"]wouldn't Spotlight have been a more appropriate region to fall back on - considering it covers pretty much the same area (Somerset and a bit of Dorset)....
/quote]
There is a lot more to the West region than the south somerset and north dorset overlap - how about Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire?
It always amuses me how the West region is so glibly dismissed as small and insignificant when it covers twice as many counties as say BBC South East and a far more significant population than BBC Lincs & East Yorks and one of the country's major provincial cities.
wouldn't Spotlight have been a more appropriate region to fall back on - considering it covers pretty much the same area (Somerset and a bit of Dorset)....
/quote]
There is a lot more to the West region than the south somerset and north dorset overlap - how about Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire?
It always amuses me how the West region is so glibly dismissed as small and insignificant when it covers twice as many counties as say BBC South East and a far more significant population than BBC Lincs & East Yorks and one of the country's major provincial cities.
Rob.
Well the former Grampian TV region used to be the size of Belgium before we fell into the melting pot that is now STV.
I think population is the main thing, and while the West of England has more folk thanTayside, Grampian and Highland areas of Scotland - many will just see it as a quaint wee backwater. Sad but true in business terms.
It does seem as though crashing off air in one way or another (technically or editorially) would be the inevitable result. However good on them for giving it a try
There is a lot more to the West region than the south somerset and north dorset overlap - how about Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire?
It always amuses me how the West region is so glibly dismissed as small and insignificant when it covers twice as many counties as say BBC South East and a far more significant population than BBC Lincs & East Yorks and one of the country's major provincial cities.
Rob.
I wasn't dismissing it, I was just saying that it would be better if Points West could rebroadcast Spotlight than BBC South Today, because Spotlight covers patches of Dorset and Somerset as well so it would be a bit more relevant... I know if they had rebroadcast Spotlight you wouldn't get stuff about Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol, but it would still be a bit closer to home for the majority of viewers! I've seen many a news story being shared between Spotlight and Points West in the past due to the overlap.
I wasn't dismissing it, I was just saying that it would be better if Points West could rebroadcast Spotlight than BBC South Today, because Spotlight covers patches of Dorset and Somerset as well so it would be a bit more relevant....
I suspect post DSO, that's what will happen, thanks to the new DTT code/mux arrangement. It's what would, and AIUI has happened when ITV West has failed ?
I wasn't dismissing it, I was just saying that it would be better if Points West could rebroadcast Spotlight than BBC South Today, because Spotlight covers patches of Dorset and Somerset as well so it would be a bit more relevant....
I suspect post DSO, that's what will happen, thanks to the new DTT code/mux arrangement. It's what would, and AIUI has happened when ITV West has failed ?
What, ITV picks up Spotlight?
I jest.
I think nowadays they would default to London, surely, as they control the opts rather than the region opting itself out.
I'm surprised it went to RBS. I always thought the regions were engineered so that in a power failure the network distribution would just pass through the building straight to the transmitter.
Power was restored by then, so AFAIK the 8 and late bulletins were unaffected, though doubtless staff had to stay late to reset equipment that hadn't automatically swicthed back-on or resumed in the right mode, plus I would imagine that some journalists would have had to stay to complete editing projects that were put on hold by ther power failure earlier in the evening.
It looks like Bristol did a pretty good job IMO of staying on the air during what must have been very difficult circumstances. Most regional centres are engineered in such a way that essential bits of kit are put on a maintained electricity supply that can be isolated from the incoming mains. In most cases, this means a local generator.
As for Mendip switching to RBS, not sure what might have happened. It definitely should be the case that a power failure at Whiteladies Road shouldn't affect the feed to Mendip and its relays, but clearly it did if reports are true that the transmitter to rebroadcast Hannington.
