The Newsroom

Changes to BBC Parliament & Political Programming

(July 2018)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
VM
VMPhil
I do recall reports on here of the DVD player screen appearing on BBC Parliament once or twice.
NG
noggin Founding member
a516 posted:

It’s a shame that there’s the law of impartiality. Could two channel focused on the conservative parties and labour work?

Of course once we move to the online world - impartiality and Ofcom regulation ceases to apply, Fake News proliferates etc.


Interesting that you mention this, because Ofcom's Sharon White has written a piece in today's Times calling for regulation to extend to cover social media sites https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-s-time-to-regulate-social-media-sites-that-publish-news-pxsg9t3fv


I think it's very difficult to argue against. With state manipulation of Social Media on a gargantuan scale, and - in some cases - the near total failure of platform operators to voluntarily address it, someone needs to step in. When InfoWars is deemed equivalent to the BBC you have a problem...

I notice that Russia appear to have been running local news bots for months on Twitter tweeting accurate news initially - but in preparation, it is thought, to start tweeting more biased, less accurate stuff that is advantageous to Putin...
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Of course the rest of 4Millbank isn't famed for great power supplies!
BR
Brekkie
So this thread is probably a good place to mention the former disaster recovery procedure for BBC Parliament.

Now also seems a good time to ask about the disaster recovery plan for Parliament itself! Very Happy
Steve in Pudsey, dvboy and BBI45 gave kudos
BB
BBI45
So this thread is probably a good place to mention the former disaster recovery procedure for BBC Parliament.

Now also seems a good time to ask about the disaster recovery plan for Parliament itself! Very Happy

What disaster recovery plan?
NG
noggin Founding member
Of course the rest of 4Millbank isn't famed for great power supplies!


Ah yes - remember THAT overnight programme. (Was it a By-Election or a Local Election show that was taken off by a Millbank power failure?)
SP
Steve in Pudsey
There was a particularly well timed power cut during the day on election day itself 2015!

Several episodes of the Daily Politics have been done from College Green or decamped to Studio A at BH, and This Week only just made it on air a few years ago after a power cut.
RK
Rkolsen


As for the bandwidth how much would it take for a holding slide with maybe using the existing audio stream transmitted? I was thinking of just using it to expand incrementally existing channels or a red button channel. However it would only be for the SD channels and apparently according to Digital Bitrate averages 3.4Mbs. Where channels that have a holding slide for part of the day like BBC 4 appear to average low for ALL is 0.5Mbps (and all the time shifted channels ALL lows are 0.9 Mbps CBBC or 0.5 Mbps CBEEBIES). I assume those lows are the holding slide. That would allow extra capacity in BBC A MUX.


An MHEG holding slide (as used for BBC 4/ Cbeebies down time) takes next to no bandwidth, and the actual AV stream could be quenched.


That’s what I was thinking and getting at. If it’s a holding slide could it periodically change with say political headlines.

It’s not used commonly here but Music Choice here in the US uses static images for their 50 channels with music playing. They change the image on screen every 15-30 seconds (with different layouts to prevent screen burn in, photos of the albums/artists and factoids), additionally it’s distributed
in a way for the 4:3 picture frame to stretch to 16:9 without any distortions, and the enitre selection of channels take up one cable channel. I believe they use MHEG broadcasting for the images while playing stereo audio.
NG
noggin Founding member


As for the bandwidth how much would it take for a holding slide with maybe using the existing audio stream transmitted? I was thinking of just using it to expand incrementally existing channels or a red button channel. However it would only be for the SD channels and apparently according to Digital Bitrate averages 3.4Mbs. Where channels that have a holding slide for part of the day like BBC 4 appear to average low for ALL is 0.5Mbps (and all the time shifted channels ALL lows are 0.9 Mbps CBBC or 0.5 Mbps CBEEBIES). I assume those lows are the holding slide. That would allow extra capacity in BBC A MUX.


An MHEG holding slide (as used for BBC 4/ Cbeebies down time) takes next to no bandwidth, and the actual AV stream could be quenched.


Sky boxes don't support MHEG5 and I don't think they support text for off-air services...

There are no holding captions - other than EPG - for Time Exclusive services on Sky unless I'm mistaken. I don't know if an OpenTV (or whatever Sky's interactive system is mow called) digital service would satisfy Sky. You could just do a holding caption - but again - that might not satisfy Sky's requirements.
RK
Rkolsen


As for the bandwidth how much would it take for a holding slide with maybe using the existing audio stream transmitted? I was thinking of just using it to expand incrementally existing channels or a red button channel. However it would only be for the SD channels and apparently according to Digital Bitrate averages 3.4Mbs. Where channels that have a holding slide for part of the day like BBC 4 appear to average low for ALL is 0.5Mbps (and all the time shifted channels ALL lows are 0.9 Mbps CBBC or 0.5 Mbps CBEEBIES). I assume those lows are the holding slide. That would allow extra capacity in BBC A MUX.


An MHEG holding slide (as used for BBC 4/ Cbeebies down time) takes next to no bandwidth, and the actual AV stream could be quenched.


Sky boxes don't support MHEG5 and I don't think they support text for off-air services...

There are no holding captions - other than EPG - for Time Exclusive services on Sky unless I'm mistaken. I don't know if an OpenTV (or whatever Sky's interactive system is mow called) digital service would satisfy Sky. You could just do a holding caption - but again - that might not satisfy Sky's requirements.

Now would the BBC if simply cease (signing off completely) broadcasting the channel on FreeView and FreeSat would users boxes require a retune when the channel signs back on? Or would they simply show a message unable to tune channel.
DV
dvboy
I would assume there would be a "channel off air" message generated by the box, same as on BBC Four during daytime and CBBC/Cbeebies overnight.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
I reckon they would probably leave a Barker running, like on BBC 2 overnight. They need the ability to get back on air with limited notice of Parliament gets recalled, so having the EPG channel taken down temporarily isn't an option.

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