BBC2 Clock

Hmmm - did the Norwich Close Up contain only Norfolk, Sufolk and Essex News? Thats really bad if it did.

Do you have loads of aerials or live in a cross-over region?

I get Elstree via CP and So'ton (not Oxford) via Hannington. So'ton didn't apologise at the top of their opt - where Oxford would normally be - so I assume they were OK.

Thinking about how So'ton/Oxford works, as long as they can split the transmitter distribution of BBC Two they would be all right, as both opts come from the same building, where Network Two is available. (Unlike Cambridge, where only Network One is available, and the opt-switch is remotely controlled into BBC One only at the transmitter....)

At the time when Close Up was supposed to be there was a lot more West related news. It seemed weird not having the opt out, even though the West news was still there!

BTW, I have a large aerial with a masthead amplifier that rotates. Allows me to pick up a fair few transmitters.

I do actually live in a crossover region between Sutton Coldfield and Waltham. That means I can get Midlands and East Midlands without any extra real equipment. (if my main aerial was pointing at Waltham it would pick up fine!) It just so happens that I receive pictures from Sutton. I get equally good pictures from Waltham though.

But, I digress...

Did you notice the News update at 7.29pm on BBC One this evening

I missed most of this excitement!!

I had set the video for the news anyway, but of course later discovered that it had changed channels!!!! Aaaaarrrrggghh!!!!!!

If I'd have known this I could of been flicking between Wales, Scotland, NI, UK Today, and whatever BBC2 analogue was showing!

(Edited by Aaron J Tibbett at 9:23 pm on July 6, 2001)

Oh, were the regional news progs (NSE e.t.c.) going out in any sort of widescreen on analogue, i.e the fake bars they normally put on top, unlike a proper widescreen programme?

Well :

1. The English regions will only have gone out on analogue, cos BBC Two doesn't have English regional opts on digital. Therefore the English regions can't have been broadcast in proper widescreen - there is no digital outlet, and digital is the only widescreen outlet...

2. The letterbox bars were still masked on on So'ton and Elstree. As the regions were still opting out and in to a 14:9 programme (the News) on analoge, they are likely to have kept their masking in. Also the regional weather is 14:9 - so would have looked odd if they had switched the mask off. To be honest - as the masking is done on the studio output, it is likely to have been retained irrespective of the network they were opting in and out of. (The masking on analogue is independent of the 14:9 pillarbox added for BBC One digital when opting on One I believe)

Well - I wasn't watching So'ton closely enough it seems... According to a post in uk.tech.broadcast :

Additionally they apologised to 'viewers in the north of
the region' for their lack of local news.

i.e. No Oxford sub-opt

So it seems that Oxford didn't opt after all...

Can anyone here confirm this?

(Or should I stop thinking about this and get out more? Don't answer that!)

South Today did NOT have an opt out for the Oxford transmitter.

When it was normally on, they were covering lots of stories that weren't close to Oxford. A Bournemouth story was there so it was not AS regional as Look East which mixed its West stories throughout the programme.

I only seen about 5 minutes of South Today, the rest I was watching East Midlands Today and Look East but during those 5 minutes I didn't see a news story in the Oxford opt out region.

Did they have a Southampton only bulletin then? I.E. No Oxford related news within the main programme? If that was the case then it was pretty bad, at least Look East did something to sort out the problem!

Noggin, did you see any Oxford related stories?

Sorry - I'm afraid I only watched the opening sequence - and assumed that as they didn't apologise that everything was OK. I was too busy surfing Wales Today, Reporting Scotland and Newsline on DSat.

If they didn't do any Oxford news then Yes, that is pretty shoddy, especially as they are in the same building, so would easily have access to the ' VT' (though now really server) reports...

Suppose it will do!!! Cheers.

Oh, and someone tells me Nick Witchell did a news update at 7.30 on BBC One. Did he and was he doing the Ten? I was out!!

I am privilaged to own an atomic clock as used by the D-day landing boats and noticed that the BBC 2 clock was 2-3 seconds out of sync.

Whats become of this institution, it used to be seen at closedown and now is rarer than a continuity announcement from Andy Crane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EDD the duck rules!!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm... Were you watching on a digital service? If so then the likelihood is that you were observing digital delay. One of the reasons the BBC uses clocks less often (really only before the One/Six/Ten News) is that they all arrive at peoples TVs at different 'real' times, even though they are 'right' at TV Centre.

The delay on analogue TV is much less than that on digital, hence digital appears to be running late. The delay is inherent in the way digital TV works - the MPEG standard requires that the encoder used by the broadcasters stores a large number of frames to analyse the movement in the picture. This adds a delay. On BBC One digital terrestrial there are two encoders, one in London, and another in the region, more than doubling the delay!

This could be as much as you noticed if you were watching on digital terrestrial, or if you were watching on satellite there is also the satellite delay to consider.

However most BBC on-screen clocks run a little fast I believe (up to .5') - so that you actually see the second hand hit the top of the hour - if they didn't run fast the transmission system would cut away just as the hand hit the top of the hour!

(Actually - most BBC on-screen clocks in England are played in from VT by the region - so the time on them could easily be wrong if the director or PA runs it slightly too early or too late. I think most people run the clock at 1 minute before the top of the hour and cut to it as required)

Incidentally, this variable delay in the programme chain is why the BBC no longer use 'cue dots' to give timings to live programmes (they used to disappear at 10' to transmission and re-appear at 5' to transmission - I think) as the off-air signal received in a gallery/OB unit could be hugely delayed, causing the programme not to start on-time.