All the 1997 idents were made in widescreen. At that point - only a year before the public launch of digital TV, there'd be little point not future-proofing them.
Yes, there is a video of a speech Martin Lambie-Nairn on Google Video (there is a link on one of the YouTube Gold thread pages) and he showed some of his BBC work, including a couple of the 1997-2001 CBBC idents in widescreen. I believe it was the mouse running and turning himself into a bike one, and the frog one.
All the 1997 idents were made in widescreen. At that point - only a year before the public launch of digital TV, there'd be little point not future-proofing them.
All the BBC style 1997 UKTV idents were made in 16:9 aswell, but this was useful as the channels didn't start broadcasting in 16:9 until the mid 2000's.
All the 1997 idents were made in widescreen. At that point - only a year before the public launch of digital TV, there'd be little point not future-proofing them.
All the BBC style 1997 UKTV idents were made in 16:9 aswell, but this was useful as the channels didn't start broadcasting in 16:9 until the mid 2000's.
All the 1997 idents were made in widescreen. At that point - only a year before the public launch of digital TV, there'd be little point not future-proofing them.
All the BBC style 1997 UKTV idents were made in 16:9 aswell, but this was useful as the channels didn't start broadcasting in 16:9 until the mid 2000's.
Howso?
I think UKTV was broadcast from very old BBC1 transmission areas. There is a famous photo somewhere of a fan pointing at a server with a bit of A4 sellotaped to it saying "do not unplug this fan or UK Gold will fall off the air"
All the 1997 idents were made in widescreen. At that point - only a year before the public launch of digital TV, there'd be little point not future-proofing them.
All the BBC style 1997 UKTV idents were made in 16:9 aswell, but this was useful as the channels didn't start broadcasting in 16:9 until the mid 2000's.
I guess it's a similar situation now with the gradual emergence of HD simulcasts meaning most identities from around 2005 onwards were filmed in HD in anticipation.
Whether or not they will ever actually be broadcast in high definition remains to be seen, certainly BBC One HD just uses upscaled versions of the SD idents despite HD copies of some form existing. I believe C4's set were also produced in HD but only a few of the more recent ones are broadcast as such. Just a case of it being a lot easier than having to trawl back and produce numerous suitable re-edits/renders?
All the 1997 idents were made in widescreen. At that point - only a year before the public launch of digital TV, there'd be little point not future-proofing them.
All the BBC style 1997 UKTV idents were made in 16:9 aswell, but this was useful as the channels didn't start broadcasting in 16:9 until the mid 2000's.
Howso?
I think UKTV was broadcast from very old BBC1 transmission areas. There is a famous photo somewhere of a fan pointing at a server with a bit of A4 sellotaped to it saying "do not unplug this fan or UK Gold will fall off the air"
All the BBC style 1997 UKTV idents were made in 16:9 aswell, but this was useful as the channels didn't start broadcasting in 16:9 until the mid 2000's.
Howso?
I think UKTV was broadcast from very old BBC1 transmission areas.
No, same bit of TV centre but a different floor (I think it had been a telecine area years ago). But even so that's got nothing to do with the UKTV channels being 4:3, that was just a decision made by it's owners.
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 15 April 2011 12:22am
I remember seeing 16:9 images of the 1997-2001 and 2001-2002 or so idents of UK Style on Lambie-Nairn's website. There is also a video of Play UK's last set of idents in widescreen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4X9uC3cTW8
LoL! Haven't seen that photo before - it brings it all flooding back! The UKTV channels were transmitted from control rooms across the corridor from BBC World and BBC Prime. World, Prime and Arabic (the original BBC World Service TV Arabic) were transmitted from control rooms built in around 1994, using Beta SP tape playout, IBIS Landscape automation and one Odetics Beta SP cart machine. These suites were used continuously 24/7 until 2004/5 and were 4:3 throughout their life. The area eventually occupied by UKTV was originally a promotions production area for BBC Worldwide channels, but was redeveloped in c1997 in time for the launch of UK Horizons, Style Arena and Gold (when playout was brought to the BBC from an outside contractor). They constructed two 'reactive' suites with their own Continuity booths and a central playout area which was the first to trial playout of TV channels with a 'supervising operator' rather than a network director per channel. Arguably, this can be likened to the way the broadcast centre was built. UKTV used Digibeta and Flexicart machines plus a server for promotions, commercials and idents playout. AFAIK they were built 16:9 ready (there were certainly 16:9 monitors in the stack) but because the vast majority of programmes were 4:3 and commercial production was only switched to 16:9 after the channels launched, as Inspector Sands pointed out, the client preferred to stay with 4:3 all the way until the channels moved to the Broadcast Centre. The reactive suites were used for UKGold (as it was considered the premium channel) and the spare reactive was used for UK Play when it launched because it had live programming (The Phone Zone?)
Anyway, the point to all this rambling was they they all shared a single racks area (plus a flexicart room for UKTV with some kit in it) which had been built just for World, Prime and Arabic. I assume the aircon began to struggle a little when World/Prime added server playout in 1999ish and the UKTV channels started up, and eventually expanded to include more channels.
Whether or not they will ever actually be broadcast in high definition remains to be seen, certainly BBC One HD just uses upscaled versions of the SD idents despite HD copies of some form existing. I believe C4's set were also produced in HD but only a few of the more recent ones are broadcast as such. Just a case of it being a lot easier than having to trawl back and produce numerous suitable re-edits/renders?
That's because at the moment BBC One HD doesn't actually do any HD presentation of its own. The stop-gap solution to getting BBC One HD to air so quickly is that it just opts out of an upconverted BBC One SD feed for HD programmes. SD programmes, and all on-air junctions, are handled by BBC One SD. BBC One HD just switches the HD programme sources into circuit for HD viewers when the show is HD. That's why there is an annoying twitch at the end of HD live shows - as BBC One HD has to switch back to BBC One SD (upconverted) before the end of the show to avoid clipping the junction.
BBC One HD also opts out of BBC One SD for regional opts - often with either a holding animation, a preview clip, or a rotating choice of regional SD shows upconverted.
When BBC One HD becomes the master playout area, and BBC One SD is simply fed an SD downconvert, the HD channel COULD carry HD presentation as well as HD shows, though I don't know if the BBC are planning to switch or not. (This also has the byproduct that SD shows will have been upconverted and then downconverted for BBC One SD viewers)