i don't know if anybody watched BBC TWO this morning but they had a breakdown @ 5.58 this morning. there was no music played or anything just the "we aplogise for the break of this programme" slide.
i got it cause i was recording ceefax.
There isn't really any need for an announcement at 6am; they always used to go straight to Ceefax from the Learning Zone. No trails, just a programme support anno then the pages.
There isn't really any need for an announcement at 6am; they always used to go straight to Ceefax from the Learning Zone. No trails, just a programme support anno then the pages.
Apart from the TV Forumers, and a few other people, is anyone really going to get up and watch Ceefax? Surely this would be an excuse to treat us to a nice long, mostly clean, ident as no-one is going to be bothered that the programme is being held up by a yellow Two on screen? Some of the idents have been all right with, on Friday, the longest Self Portrait I have ever seen and also Big Read yesterday but others have been rather disappointing IMO.
There isn't really any need for an announcement at 6am; they always used to go straight to Ceefax from the Learning Zone. No trails, just a programme support anno then the pages.
Does it matter? It seems a lot more polite and indicating a continuing service if they tell you what's on in an hour, till then some music and Ceefax.
There isn't really any need for an announcement at 6am; they always used to go straight to Ceefax from the Learning Zone. No trails, just a programme support anno then the pages.
Apart from the TV Forumers, and a few other people, is anyone really going to get up and watch Ceefax? Surely this would be an excuse to treat us to a nice long, mostly clean, ident as no-one is going to be bothered that the programme is being held up by a yellow Two on screen? Some of the idents have been all right with, on Friday, the longest Self Portrait I have ever seen and also Big Read yesterday but others have been rather disappointing IMO.
Quite a disappointment - That Big Read yesterday was about 20 secs, alright but not great, and also after the fault this morning they played the long version of Logo but that wasn't too long either...
I didn't catch Self-Portrait, but they did play Fire once which was 2 or 3 seconds away from a full playout.
The Beeb do seem to have amazing double standards regarding Ceefax. They've dropped it (except for P888 s/ts and listings for foreign cable cos) from their D-Sat transmissions, yet still insist on showing pages on BBC 2 for an hour every morning. If BBCi is so wonderful (ha!), why not show pages from that ?
If they must broadcast Ceefax content, why not come out of the dark ages and follow what other European broadcasters do, stick the data through a proper CG with nice fonts, backgrounds, and push on-push off page transitions.
I would imagine Ceefax is still used because operationally, it provides Pres with something they can just show on demand when required. P152, once programmed, needs little or no maintenance. Something like ITV Nightscreen has to be specially put together.
In theory there's no reason why "BBCi in vision" can't be done on the regular service. But it would need to take account of special requirements such as full-screen pages and automatic page rotation. I don't know if BBCi is capable of the latter. Perhaps I am thinking wishfully, but would BBC2 be so keen to use News 24/other fillers if BBCi was an option?
I've always thought they should fill the time with some interesting telly-wallpaper type thing, along the lines of what the german channels (used to) do.
Either have some sort of looped or random images (a burning fire, or 'space night') or put a camera into a radio studio
I've always thought they should fill the time with some interesting telly-wallpaper type thing, along the lines of what the german channels (used to) do.
Either have some sort of looped or random images (a burning fire, or 'space night') or put a camera into a radio studio
Had to go an stay in the poor old Brighton Metropole a month ogo. Worst hotel I've ever stayed in now that its beet totally tatted and Hiltonised. But, the high point was the goldfish channel on the TV in the room welcoming you to the Metropole. It was so good we left it on all night, a gurgling soundtrack with fish swimming inside the set. Much better than looking out of the window and lamenting the fate of the poor old West Pier.
Wasn't there a landscape chennel on Manhatten Cable when Lawrie Pike made the seminal C4 series on the early '90s?
Oh blimey - Landscape and Music ... I'd forgotten about that! I'm pretty sure the BBC always had some similar landscape tapes available as emergency fillers in the event of a graded obituary having been announced and there having to be an interval before the "special programme" could be mounted...
No-one within the BBC (as far as I know) has ever seriously done any work on a "BBCi In Vision" sequence to be used as presentation filler material. It's possible, I'm sure and would IMO be much better come the analogue switch off, than simulcasting News 24 - a service which by then will be as available as BBC1 and 2.
