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BBC4 Fault

(March 2005)

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WE
welshkid
BBC4 are currently showing an ident instead of the programme that should be on. I don't have any way of getting any pictures uploaded, but basically it looks like two purple spotlights rotating

Si!

EDIT:
I have just realised the audio is there just no pictures
DE
denton
It does look like the BBC 4 symbol background.

Without any pre-recorded anno passing through the piece of kit that generates the symbol animation (Spikes and circles etc), you would get just a swirling background.

Opps! With that swirling background going out the Black and Silence Alarm would not be triggered. I wonder how long it'll take anyone at the Broadcast Centre to notice?
DE
denton
Ahhh that's better. The programme in question has finished. Now the automation has moved on to a different event and we have both sound & matching vision once again.
LO
lobster
denton posted:
I wonder how long it'll take anyone at the Broadcast Centre to notice?


i would have thought there would be somebody monitoring the output of all the networks all day long - this seems as though the bbc's minority channels are being run with little or no human intervention.
DE
denton
Dr Sigmund Mohammad posted:
denton posted:
I wonder how long it'll take anyone at the Broadcast Centre to notice?


i would have thought there would be somebody monitoring the output of all the networks all day long - this seems as though the bbc's minority channels are being run with little or no human intervention.


I think I'm correct in saying, that overnight there is not a dedicated director for each of the BBC channels. If the director is busy working on one channel s/he has to fall back on Black & Silence Alarms to monitor the output of the other channel. If, like last night, the problem is more complicated that just black and silence it may not be noticed for quite a while. More's the pity!
SO
SOL
Pardon my ignorance, but what is the black and silence alarm exactly?
KE
kenneth
SOL posted:
Pardon my ignorance, but what is the black and silence alarm exactly?


If I am correct, it is a device that checks if there is nothing on the picture going through it and then goes to a breakdown screen.

They don't always kick in (or aren't used everywhere).
LO
lobster
denton posted:
Dr Sigmund Mohammad posted:
denton posted:
I wonder how long it'll take anyone at the Broadcast Centre to notice?


i would have thought there would be somebody monitoring the output of all the networks all day long - this seems as though the bbc's minority channels are being run with little or no human intervention.


I think I'm correct in saying, that overnight there is not a dedicated director for each of the BBC channels. If the director is busy working on one channel s/he has to fall back on Black & Silence Alarms to monitor the output of the other channel. If, like last night, the problem is more complicated that just black and silence it may not be noticed for quite a while. More's the pity!


it seems absolutely astonishing, that even if there is say, one person monitoring all four of the bbc's main channels, why they haven't got what is tx'ed on dedicated monitors or something. how something like this can happen, for such a period of time is beyond belief.

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