NG
How do digital delays make them meaningless? In the case of the football on the opening night of ITV4, they were there to cue breaks.
There is a digital delay, but that delay effects both the end of the part and the beginning of the next part, so there is nothing meaningless about them!
The studio will put the cue dot on until 5 seconds before the break (or whatever ITV4 have agreed) and both pres and the studio will know that a fixed duration break will go in the gap.
For arguments sake, lets say the break is 3 minutes. Pres won't roll the break until the cue dot goes and the studio won't start their next part until 3 minutes (or 3 minutes + 5 seconds) have gone.
But when it is used the other way round, as the BBC used to do - i.e. London cueing in a studio or outside broadcast, a digital delay does matter.
Imagine an OB in Scotland (golf is a good example) These days there is a good chance that they'll be monitoring off air via DTT or DSAT. The director in london cues using dots 5 seconds before the OB is due on air, but the OB might not see them till 3 seconds later. So the OB will run their titles 3 seconds later and at the moment when London is due to cut them to air, the OB is still sending a VT clock.
Yes - this is why the BBC no longer use cue-dots as a "Pres to Studio/OB" comms device - as they don't work as an off-aire signal.
The ITV "OB/Studio to Pres" comms device model still works fine - and indeed the BBC use it at Wimbledon to signal to non-BBC broadcasters that a court feed is about to become "dirty" with a BBC interview.
noggin
Founding member
Inspector Sands posted:
Ebeneezer Scrooge posted:
How do digital delays make them meaningless? In the case of the football on the opening night of ITV4, they were there to cue breaks.
There is a digital delay, but that delay effects both the end of the part and the beginning of the next part, so there is nothing meaningless about them!
The studio will put the cue dot on until 5 seconds before the break (or whatever ITV4 have agreed) and both pres and the studio will know that a fixed duration break will go in the gap.
For arguments sake, lets say the break is 3 minutes. Pres won't roll the break until the cue dot goes and the studio won't start their next part until 3 minutes (or 3 minutes + 5 seconds) have gone.
But when it is used the other way round, as the BBC used to do - i.e. London cueing in a studio or outside broadcast, a digital delay does matter.
Imagine an OB in Scotland (golf is a good example) These days there is a good chance that they'll be monitoring off air via DTT or DSAT. The director in london cues using dots 5 seconds before the OB is due on air, but the OB might not see them till 3 seconds later. So the OB will run their titles 3 seconds later and at the moment when London is due to cut them to air, the OB is still sending a VT clock.
Yes - this is why the BBC no longer use cue-dots as a "Pres to Studio/OB" comms device - as they don't work as an off-aire signal.
The ITV "OB/Studio to Pres" comms device model still works fine - and indeed the BBC use it at Wimbledon to signal to non-BBC broadcasters that a court feed is about to become "dirty" with a BBC interview.