Channel 4 pre-1993 regional opt outs

Yes and no. Idents at the start of an ad break coming off 35mm film would simply have a film optical spliced on the front of the break. It was simply called ‘the optical’.

Ad breaks coming off the ACR would be preceded by the same optical but originating from the 35mm film optical. However, the optical was sourced from a telecine machine that could be especially ‘adapted’ by pulling out a specific processing card that ‘inhibited’ the normal clamping of the Blue signal and lifted it much higher - including the peak Blue signal representing the white part of the Southern star. The video clipper on the Blue channel was then wound back down to clip the Blue signal to be the same as the Green and Red channels. It was a very effective ‘tweak’ but not quite 100% and left the white ‘star’ with a very very slight yellow tinge. As you will see on numerous YouTube examples the result is a nice clean Star animating in front of a very clean Colbalt blue background.

Your YouTube clip is a perfect example, the ident (it was referred to as a ‘rolling ident’ to distinguish it from a ‘static’ ident), is coming off the ACR and mixes through to the clock which is monochrome and passing through a Cox colouriser. There was more than one colouriser by the way.

Personally I know of no video cart machine available in the 60’s.

The reference was to what happened in the first few hours of 1993 if the new distribution for Channel 4 wasn't put into line until after 3am and the old setup via ITV was kept - did it go via the South Bank or Thames? If the former than LNN had a few hours of it passing through.


When did LNN take over LWTs playout operation, and staff, sometime between the last weekend of 1992 and new years eve? I assume the actual playout suite etc was used for LWT before it launched Carlton on new years day?

It was a Thursday into Friday though. Therefore BT would have effectively brought the usual ITV line switch from Euston to South Bank forward from 17:15hrs to 00:00. I suspect C4 continued being carried via Thames until sometime between 03:15 and 06:00 hrs. Just as it probably was too at TSW Plymouth ?

I wasn't suggesting there was !

Yes, as I suggested a few pages back.

I'd assumed that the switching for the two channels were ganged together and switched together

Oh, I see your logic now. We need that DeLorean badly !

LNN had no involvement with C4 - this was handled by TLS facility-wise. It was a long time ago and my memory not so clear after all this time, but I see no technical reason for the usual LWT/C4 ad inject system not to work as it always had until C4 ‘took it back’. I will try and ask someone who would know, but like me, may not remember too much detail after all these years. Why do you think LNN had any involvement with C4? Perhaps you were not aware that all lines into and out of South Bank went via the TLS area? - even those into and out of LNN. And of course the 1st was a Friday and LWT’s involvement with ads and C4 finished the previous weekend.

LNN were rehearsing in their new transmission suite a couple of months, maybe 3, before taking over their official transmission duties on behalf of LWT/Carlton and GMTV. They did not take over any staff from TLS, although TLS staff were welcome to apply to join LNN if they wished - it was their individual choices - LNN was a completely separate company from LWT and Carlton. So, LNN came on-air at midnight 1/1/1993, they did not take over LWT’s transmissions before that date and I’m not sure why you might think they would? By this stage LWT’s transmission was coming from the ex-original C4 transmission suite and was completely self contained and separate from LNN.

Indeed, as I said a few pages back

Ahhh, right. I had assumed that LNN was just some bits of LWT that were spun off into a new jointly owned company, after all a lot of the staff and on screen talent of LNN were ex LWT. I also assumed that they just upgraded the existing transmission areas and used them for LNN rather than build a completely new one.


If both those were the case then of course they'd have to have been LNN involvement before 1993 as it would have had to have been operational a while before, as it was for piloting

TLS existed in 1993?

TLS did exist back then, it was the studios of LWT, the south bank studios.

As an aside to this, the regional set up for adverts in the 1980s on C4, could that have, if needed, have allowed for regional opt outs for something else, such as a news report on something that was more of regional interest as opposed to national interest? I know C4 did broadcast a Scotland soccer match one morning, during TV-am airtime on ITV, on behalf of STV, but I think that was networked.

I doubt the smaller regions in particular would have been able to broadcast live regionally (at least not easily) , but if it were on tape it would be technically possible. But I would have thought that, especially in the 80s Union agreements would prevent anything like that; you'd effectively be asking TCs to provide a full playout for a second channel and I can't see that going down well.