Why are these so-called tests still encrypted then?
I would imagine they are encrypted because the BBC has not yet moved to FTA broadcasting, hence BBC One is still officially nationally restricted until July 10th. (If the tests were FTA then viewers in Scotland, Wales and NI would be able to watch the bulk of BBC One England via the regional feeds)
If the Beeb broadcast these tests un-encrypted before July 10th then it is possible that they would be in breach of sports and other rights issues (which may have been re-negotiated for FTA, or DSat blanking agreed, only post-July 10th?)
oh yes, how clever of them to have uplinked a few channels. if friendly tv can do it, anyone can bloody do it.
There speaks someone who has no idea...
You're not kidding me.
noggin posted:
Backhauling 22 regional feeds to London (and presumably ensuring the correct subtitles and aspect ratio switching comes with them), and muxing them for uplink is a damn site more difficult than booking a single vision circuit to a third party uplink provider.
As others have stated - it seems likely that the feeds being backhauled to London over ATM are fixed rate MPEG2 derived in the region, not sure if this is the same MPEG2 encoder used to derive the fixed rate DTT service, or a separate encoder fed from the SDI digital baseband (i.e. uncompressed) output of the opt-switch... The latter would be more expensive, but allow DTT and DSat feeds to run at different data rates.
I'll see if I can find out on Monday how they're doing it ... I would imagine, considering the speed they've done this in, it could be the DTT feeds - but don't quote me on that.
Yep - they are definitely using the DTT feeds to source the feeds (and this has meant introducing a "DTT" feed for the Channel Islands where there is no DTT currently!)
I guess the question is whether the DTT video (SDI or PAL) feed is being encoded to MPEG2 specifically for DSat using a different MPEG2 encoder, or whether the DTT MPEG2 encoder output (which is running at a fixed rate) is being used.
ISTR that there were plans to put separate DSat MPEG2 encoders in each region when the aim was to carry all the main regions on the BBCi regional service. The BBCi 4xregional service used 34Mbs - non-MPEG2 - contrib circuits 1730-1900, but this could not be sustained if all the regions were backhauled over the 34Mbs circuits network, as it would lock out news and programme feeds! Therefore plans were in hand for quite a while to fit a separate MPEG2 (over ATM) chain to derive the BBCi service. Not sure if these were fitted...
Is it just me or are BBC NT - Look North(NE&C) should be EMT
BBC NO- East Midlands Today should be LE
BBC NC- Look East should be LN(NE&C)???
No - it seems just the EPG is incorrectly mapped. In BBC speak :
NT=Newcastle
NO=Nottingham
NC=Norwich.
When I flipped through last night "BBC One NO" carried East Mids Today vision and sound (correctly), "BBC One NC" carried Look East (correctly). However the EPG information was giving the wrong regional programme names.
I suspect someone somewhere has been confused by the abbreviations (and mapped the wrong EPG info to the relevant video and audio feeds) - to a non-Beeb lines bookings trained eye NT would make sense for Notts, NO for Norwich and NC for Newcastle - however these are not the correct abbreviations.
I expect the "BBC ONE ##" naming convention for the test channels will change when they join the EPG - so that they make a bit more sense. (The current ## suffixes make sense to engineers in the BBC , and as these are not public tests it makes sense for them to use the most relevant naming systems for their purposes?)
I would hope that they will become "BBC1 ######" (not sure how many #s) to allow for "BBC1 West" etc. rather than wasting letters on the "ONE"
ISTR that there were plans to put separate DSat MPEG2 encoders in each region when the aim was to carry all the main regions on the BBCi regional service. The BBCi 4xregional service used 34Mbs - non-MPEG2 - contrib circuits 1730-1900, but this could not be sustained if all the regions were backhauled over the 34Mbs circuits network, as it would lock out news and programme feeds! Therefore plans were in hand for quite a while to fit a separate MPEG2 (over ATM) chain to derive the BBCi service. Not sure if these were fitted...
Were these not the encoders that got "redirected", shall we say, for the Freeview launch?
ISTR that there were plans to put separate DSat MPEG2 encoders in each region when the aim was to carry all the main regions on the BBCi regional service. The BBCi 4xregional service used 34Mbs - non-MPEG2 - contrib circuits 1730-1900, but this could not be sustained if all the regions were backhauled over the 34Mbs circuits network, as it would lock out news and programme feeds! Therefore plans were in hand for quite a while to fit a separate MPEG2 (over ATM) chain to derive the BBCi service. Not sure if these were fitted...
Were these not the encoders that got "redirected", shall we say, for the Freeview launch?
Very good point! (I guess more could have been ordered...)
Bristol also edit and transmit from Profile servers (using Lightworks VIP for editing?) I believe - though they still have a 4:3 PAL analogue gallery and studio infrastructure.
Absolutely right. We've also got a few Fast Purple stations, which we edit "PDP" pieces on (ie, the ones the reporters have gone out and shot)
We also use Fast Purple to edit Inside Out, rather than tying up an edit suite.
IIRC all the regions have some sort of server playout even though they are tape based. Fast Purple (or Final Cut Pro) was supplied to al the regions for video journalist/PDP use.
Soon it will be replaced with the all singing, all dancing Quantel system (unless the BBC change their mind by the time it gets round to Bristol)
ISTR that there were plans to put separate DSat MPEG2 encoders in each region when the aim was to carry all the main regions on the BBCi regional service. The BBCi 4xregional service used 34Mbs - non-MPEG2 - contrib circuits 1730-1900, but this could not be sustained if all the regions were backhauled over the 34Mbs circuits network, as it would lock out news and programme feeds! Therefore plans were in hand for quite a while to fit a separate MPEG2 (over ATM) chain to derive the BBCi service. Not sure if these were fitted...
Plans changed several times, a few weeks before the big D-Sat announcement, I read about the plans for the BBCi-ing of all the regions into 3 default regions, each having 4 alternatives.
Bristol also edit and transmit from Profile servers (using Lightworks VIP for editing?) I believe - though they still have a 4:3 PAL analogue gallery and studio infrastructure.
Absolutely right. We've also got a few Fast Purple stations, which we edit "PDP" pieces on (ie, the ones the reporters have gone out and shot)
We also use Fast Purple to edit Inside Out, rather than tying up an edit suite.
IIRC all the regions have some sort of server playout even though they are tape based. Fast Purple (or Final Cut Pro) was supplied to al the regions for video journalist/PDP use.
Soon it will be replaced with the all singing, all dancing Quantel system (unless the BBC change their mind by the time it gets round to Bristol)
Yeah, we all know what they're like!!!
We're supposed to be getting the Quantel system, but the last I heard we're not getting it for a good few years yet.
Bristol also edit and transmit from Profile servers (using Lightworks VIP for editing?) I believe - though they still have a 4:3 PAL analogue gallery and studio infrastructure.
Absolutely right. We've also got a few Fast Purple stations, which we edit "PDP" pieces on (ie, the ones the reporters have gone out and shot)
We also use Fast Purple to edit Inside Out, rather than tying up an edit suite.
IIRC all the regions have some sort of server playout even though they are tape based. Fast Purple (or Final Cut Pro) was supplied to al the regions for video journalist/PDP use.
Soon it will be replaced with the all singing, all dancing Quantel system (unless the BBC change their mind by the time it gets round to Bristol)
Yep - all regions were supplied with a single channel of cheap non-linear editing for the PDP/Rosenblum stuff. However this was normally either a Fast Purple, or an Avid Newscutter DV or Xpress type system. This is not really a server - just a replacement for a single tape suite - and the kit supplied for PDP is not really up to networked working (in the style of an Avid Unity or similar system) It is just a cheap editor that thus allows more time to be spent by journalists editing. (If it were an expensive system they would have to work quicker!) ISTR that PDP was only agreed with the unions on the basis that it was not used as a replacement for existing editing systems and ENG crewing, only a supplement?
Most regions already had Lightworks, or Avid based editing (either on- or off-line) to replace older obsolete 3or 4m/c 1" based suites used for features, and the 30min documentary / Inside Out type strands ISTR? (I think Plymouth and So'ton also have some DigiBeta kit that was purchased for features / graphics)
However servers for transmission AND editing (on the same platform) are only in service in Tunbridge Wells, London and Nottingham. Servers for transmission (but not editing) are in use in Southampton/Oxford and Leeds/Hull. Not sure if the Bristol Profile and Lightworks VIP system are linked tightly or not - but could fall into either camp I guess. (Oxford is a strange hybrid - Avid editing in Oxford, played down the line to a Profile in Southampton... Can't really class that as server transmission AND editing, as they are on different platforms that are not linked apart from by a human being AFAIK...)
The Quantel system that is being rolled out by BBC regions is very similar in hardware terms to the server infrastructure also being introduced to BBC National News. AIUI Norwich will be the first region to move to it when they start broadcasting TV from the Forum building later this year. Birmingham and Leeds will also be using it, as I expect will Hull. Other broadcast centres will be moved onto it, or a similar system I guess - as these things are normally put out to tender in waves - as they are digitised and refurbished or re-located. The move from 4:3 analogue Beta/DVCam/stand-alone non-linear to 16:9 digital server based systems is tied into the refrubishment of the whole regional centre to 16:9 digital working (that includes the studio cameras, gallery, graphics, central technical infrastructure, station routing, editing etc.)
If the BBC One regions on DSat start dropping into 4:3 12F12, and don't display as 12P16, then they must be MPEG2 encoded separately from the DTT services, as the DTT services are permanent 16:9 with AFDs to trigger aspect changes in the receiver when 12P16 or 16F16 is broadcast.
Sky receivers don't support AFDs so for DSat broadcasters have to produce a signal that is either 12F12 or 16F16. This could not be derived from the same MPEG2 encoder - as the ARC would need to be before the coder. Also using split encoders would allow the DSat feeds to be dogged independently of the DTT feeds. (I would not be at all surprised if the Beeb dogged the DSat feeds initially so that viewers were aware which one they were getting on 101...)
If the BBC One regions on DSat start dropping into 4:3 12F12, and don't display as 12P16, then they must be MPEG2 encoded separately from the DTT services, as the DTT services are permanent 16:9 with AFDs to trigger aspect changes in the receiver when 12P16 or 16F16 is broadcast.
Sky receivers don't support AFDs so for DSat broadcasters have to produce a signal that is either 12F12 or 16F16. This could not be derived from the same MPEG2 encoder - as the ARC would need to be before the coder. Also using split encoders would allow the DSat feeds to be dogged independently of the DTT feeds. (I would not be at all surprised if the Beeb dogged the DSat feeds initially so that viewers were aware which one they were getting on 101...)
