Acorns were used by the BBC Presentation department for many years, not least for CBBC. Before the broomcupboard BBC micros generated graphics live to air during junctions, with the usual BBC announcers voicing over them. They also created this CBBC ident when the in-vision 'broomcupboard' stuff first appeared in 1985.
http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images/bbcother/cbbc/childrensbbc1980s.jpg According to TV Ark an Archimedes computer was used to create idents live to air until 1990, though they ask if it may have been played out from tape or laserdisc rather than live to air.
Acorns were used by the BBC Presentation department for many years, not least for CBBC. Before the broomcupboard BBC micros generated graphics live to air during junctions, with the usual BBC announcers voicing over them. They also created this CBBC ident when the in-vision 'broomcupboard' stuff first appeared in 1985.
http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images/bbcother/cbbc/childrensbbc1980s.jpg According to TV Ark an Archimedes computer was used to create idents live to air until 1990, though they ask if it may have been played out from tape or laserdisc rather than live to air.
There are TV stations (dragging it back on-topic again) that use computers running the OS of a successor of the BBC Micro.
Acorn introduced the Archimedes computers as a follow up to the BBC Micros. These used the RISC operating system but were also backward compatible with the old BBC software.
Live and Kicking's DOG was generated from an Acorn machine, which was demonstrated when it crashed and rebooted on air. I remember having much more respect for the one we had at school in the media studies edit suite for creating captions after seeing that.
The captions for Gardeners World in the 80s came off a BBC Micro running BeebFont ISTR. (That was in the days when Gardners World was effectively shot in multiple as-live takes, with graphics added live in the OB truck. AIUI it was shot using Editec-ing - whereby you edited each take onto the master tape, cueing the presenters as the editor went into record after a 5 or 10 second pre-roll. If you needed to re-take, you just did it again.)
ISTR that Mastermind in the late 80s/early 90s also use Archimedes for their score graphics. They cleverly used the Red and Green channels of the analogue RGB output to generate the graphic - not sure which channel was also fed to the Blue video channel on the PAL encoder, with the Blue channel output from the Arc used to deliver a linear-key so you got proper antialiased edges. Very neat solution as long as you were happy with the restricted colour palette (white and yellow was the scheme ISTR)
Also - the original Who Wants To Be A Millionaire graphics were generated from Acorn machines. Millipede graphics made the special graphics kit ISTR - and were developing their own TV graphics motherboard based on ARMs/StrongARMs and Risc OS - but I think it went the way of all things and never got much further than vapourware. I doubt they still use them these days.
One of the main reasons that BBC Micros and Archimedes were used for on-screen stuff was that the BBC ensured that Acorn designed them (as they were BBC Micros then) to Genlock, which meant that they could be locked to the studio black and burst timing reference, and were thus scanning in sync with cameras, VTRs etc. This meant that they didn't flicker on monitors in-vision (great for Doctor Who etc. ) and also meant that they could be used for captions etc.
Making the Most of the Micro and I think Micro Live also used BBC Micros for their captions. (Usually Mode 7 double height... CHR$(141) anyone... Worrying that I can still remember that - and the colour attributes - 25 years after I first programmed a Beeb...)
The Beeb and Archimedes were also widely used in other applications in TV. The Arc was used extensively to allow the BBC to remotely colour balance and iris control (i.e. rack) single person radio cameras (which arrived around 1987/8 Without a camera cable or a specific radio camera control system (as was available with some Philips cameras) radio cams were usually left in ENG mode - so didnt' match other cameras in live multi-camera environments. The Beeb solved this in OBs by using a small radio talkback receiver on each radio camera, tuned to a single talkback frequency, with the talkback transmitter fed by a 300 baud modem. This modem was fed from an Arc and allowed a single Archimedes to remotely colour balance multiple radio cameras, with proper camera control knobs as the user interface integrated into the Arc. The ease of writing software (good structured Basic and built-in assembler from the first BBC Micro) and the ease of interfacing stuff made them a great solution for this kind of build - where you only need a few installations.
Acorns were used by the BBC Presentation department for many years, not least for CBBC. Before the broomcupboard BBC micros generated graphics live to air during junctions, with the usual BBC announcers voicing over them.
Ah yes, I remember Blue Peter ran a competion to design some of these. Sadly my entry never got chosen.
I believe the Arc was also used for various graphics on Noel's House Party, particularly Grab A Grand. Also for the ubiqitous 'Victory V lozenge' countdown clock (or was that a Model B?) as seen on Noel's, The Generation Game, and BBC2 Schools. It was definitely the same system, and you always got the same sawtooth-wave 'diddly diddly diddly' siren when the clock reached zero.
Without a camera cable or a specific radio camera control system (as was available with some Philips cameras) radio cams were usually left in ENG mode - so didnt' match other cameras in live multi-camera environments. The Beeb solved this in OBs by using a small radio talkback receiver on each radio camera, tuned to a single talkback frequency, with the talkback transmitter fed by a 300 baud modem. This modem was fed from an Arc and allowed a single Archimedes to remotely colour balance multiple radio cameras, with proper camera control knobs as the user interface integrated into the Arc. The ease of writing software (good structured Basic and built-in assembler from the first BBC Micro) and the ease of interfacing stuff made them a great solution for this kind of build - where you only need a few installations.
