BBC 1 Globe laserdisc for sale on ebay

Yes, the ones I remember at TV Centre needed a damn good clean. They wouldn't play anything without severe blocking and this was about 8 years ago, long after they were taken out of regular service (by this point they were kept s backup for the copies held on server, but couldn't actually be used for that because they failed every time.

Incidently at that time the discs contained copies of the balloons and the '2s' - the panel in the tx suite had lots of buttons, each labelled with a diffrent ident ('england 1', 'wales 2','copper','water' etc)

There were a load of these things around at one point, there were a at least 4 at TVC and by the looks of it one in each region. The various companies that put adverts into BBC World also had one each too (the disc contained BBC World idents and breakdown slides).

They were adapted Sony Videodisc machines - souped up to broadcast quality. They only took discs in caddies so aren't really suitable for playing commercially available videodiscs

Looking at the pic on the listing it appears the region name is on the disc. It's possible that the Nations did the live overlays but the regions didn't. It'd be cheaper that way.

We used to take the discs out and wash them with soapy water now and then. That helped.

The panel was a Connolly Control unit. It stored an in point and an out point for each button. When it was left alone it was fine, but when it went wrong or you modified stuff on it, it had a habit of not working properly for a week afterwards which was rather a pain in the arse.

There was then a LogoGen which added the Nation name in the correct place, along with 888 and or Stereo.

If they want a sale then drop the reserve! Oh if only you could find out what other people are bidding.

I thought the COW was pulled before the listing ended?

Actually you may be right - although I think it may have been because the bids weren't as high as the seller wanted.

If you want high bids, you should start the bidding at a price you want, not bother with that reserve bollocks.

From what I understand with the Ebay reserve marlarkey. Should the price not be what the seller wants initially. He/she can advise the winner of the auction of the said price to see if they will match it. If this does not work out then the seller can then approach the next person in the chain of bidders.

AIUI all the English regions (apart from Elstree) had identical Sony CRV players and IPK Logogens which were simple (monochrome I think) image stores with a keyer.

The logogen added the regional ident - it wasn't burned into the disc. (ISTR that the CRV controller had options when programming it to allow you to inhibit the logo for each button)

Originally this was to allow network to supply identical discs to all regions - rather than having to version. However many regions used their laser discs to play opening titles etc. as well as idents - so burned their own local copies.

I think the BBC ONE and BBC TWO were burned into the disc - with just the "EAST", "NORTH WEST" etc. keyed live.

The regional CRVs were replaced in many regions with BBC VERA servers (though some regions had Profile etc. by this point so didn't need them) - and the VERAs were controlled from the same controller that previously drove the CRVs?

The CRV players weren't really "souped up" domestic laser discs - they were component video devices (allowing good quality chroma keying) - domestic laser discs were composite...

The "BBC" was on the disc, with the nation/region name added by the logogen.

We did record our own discs too. When the balloons came along there were more than fitted onto one disc, so we recorded the selection we wanted onto one disc.

If we're talking about the 1991-1997 era, I'm pretty certain that the BBC logo was not burnt on to the symbols or clock background.

I seem to recall a number of occasions where idents appeared minus the '/B/B/C/' logo and regional identifier. Indeed, the BBC Two 'Paint' ident appeared with no BBC logo on its first outing.

I'm almost certain BBC Northern Ireland had problems on the day that the new symbols were introduced. The clock into the news following 'Grandstand' and the symbols that evening went out without the BBC logo and identifier.

The positioning of the logo and identifier also varied during the year. I remember that the BBC Two Network symbols and clock had the BBC logo badly off centre for months c. 1993/1994.

A few years ago, someone sent me an article about the technology used.

Oh well, there you go, my memory is crap.

BBC1 South West rebranded itself as BBC1 South for a time in 1992. A case in point which seems to confirm this theory.