What up with BBC One playout?

Typical of today's breed of jumped-up know-it-all techno freaks who think a whizz bang computer system is the be all and end all of broadcasting. Radio and TV have had muted alarms in live mic areas for decades, but the lot who rule the roost nowadays think everything "old" doesn't count any more. End of old-fart rant.

Didn't Chris Moyles have such a problem when the loud fire alarm went off in his old studio and they had explained to the listener on air with the alarm on in the background that they had to play the emergency tape again (which at that time had Outkast's Hey Ya as the first song after the jingle)?

I too thought that the announcements were pre recorded and that everything was automated - and that there wouldn't be any need for many staff, only a tech op to check up every now and again that the automation was working properly, hence the comment about telling them to go and kick the computer, as I thought it had fudged up or someone had not put it in correctly on the system.

But goods to see that the CAs still are live. Are they live all the time then?

And what's this evacuation message? Is it actually spoken (as in: evacuate, evacuate, get out of here etc) or is it just a loud fire alarm?

The fire alarm went off twice. The first time it was a silent alarm and everyone left - no-one would have noticed listening as Outcast played as normal. However it went off again and the studio went into emergency mode and the alarm sounded. So they had to play Outcast again! Listen to it here.

The BBC channels (along with all the others) have been automated for many years, but they always have someone (a director or transmission controller) there. It can't be left to get on with it - there needs to be someone there to change the schedule, deal with live programmes, and take over when the computer screws up.

Think it was, I suppose if it had been from TV Centre then the programme wouldn't have gone out at all.

As for getting it to air via somewhere else - I wouldn't have thought that the line from the TV Theatre would have gone anywhere else but TV centre

Exactly - the only reason it was an audible alarm was becuase the system thought there was continuing danger. The first alarm, as is logical in a radio studio, is usually a pulsating strobe light thing that tells them to put the emergency tape on and get out. The audible alarm is the one that says "I've just told you to get out" and, in theory, nobody should be talking on the radio when that one goes off.

It's very interesting to hear they didn't think of the alarms for the new Broadcast Centre. You'd think it would be one of those first-on-the-list specifications when you spend millions of pounds on new facilities. Clearly not! I'd imagine a slight change in design now they've had that experience!

Yes, usually lights flash as a warning if there's an alert (i.e. a smoke detector has gone off, but there's no human confirmation) but all the alarms go off if there's a problem (the detector has actually found a fire or a human has pressed a 'break glass' alarm.

AFAIK it's quite normal to have alarms in studios, but only for an absolute 'get the hell out of here' type alert

And if anyone knows about evacuation procedure, Inspector Sands is the guy!

Indeed

Oh yes it did! Broadcasting House Switching Centre for one.

Nothing should surprise you when you find out that the first time the cleaners arrived they realised there was nowhere in the pres areas to plug in their vacuum cleaners. The very first retro-fit job was AC sockets!