ITV Breakjumper (Breakflash)

Since CITV came from Birmingham, that would tie in with the breakflash appearing on Central.

I believe that the introduction of the break flash in the central west region is due to a new system at birmingham, as also today CiTV began to broadcast all links and programmes in widescreen.

I apologise that's what I meant, my technical knowledge in this part is poor, but GMG North doesn't have the capability, I assume they are old systems compared to LNN and Carlton Central.

Are we talking about the short flash bit in-between each ad, and not the bumpers at the beginning of the ad break? If so, we've had this in the HTV West region since the new look last year too.

Inbetween each advert

AFAIK Even GMG North's servers are simply LMSs (Library Management Systems) that actually control a huge bank of VTRs.

This info may be out of date, but at one time every "event" in the schedule had to be programmed in, and if you wanted a 2-second flash of tape, this would have to be programmed into the schedule too.

Depending on how these things are set up, setting such a short "event" would either be (a) disallowed or (b) severely disrupt the cue-time for the next event, as you would basically be robbing another VTR the time to get the next tape and cue it to the right point.

This is why when ads sometimes fail, another VTR simply picks up the event by retrieving a backup tape, cueing it to the same place as the failed tape, then switch sources. At this point, the failed machine SHOULD be pounced upon by an engineer to have a quick wipe of the heads/check for tape mangling, etc. whereas these days this probably doesn't happen as quickly as it should. If the failed machine has an intermittent problem, then every event that ends up having its tape laced up into that machine will have a problem, leading to the other machines being late in getting cued up, leaving network output with either a blank screen, a freeze-frame of the last successfully played out event, or even the tape cueing itself up live on air.

As for break bumpers, Granada actually started using their own break-bumper when Leeds took over their transmission, so it was possible to programme these in. However, when all the other North regions came on-board, this practice ceased, presumably because of the reasons outlined above.

Sometime I think in late 1996 or early 1997, there was clearly a problem with one of the D2 machines in LNN's LMS system, as one in every 4 events, i.e. trailers, adverts or idents, would fail on air - it was happening repeatedly for quite a few weeks - the symptom would be not dissimilar to digital TV break-up, but the mosaics being a lot finer, and only occuring on every other quarter of the picture (in horizontal bands). This would have been caused by one of the four heads on the drum either constantly getting clogged and/or being worn. Equally one of the VTRs used for RECORDING the spots may have had this problem, meaning that when the tape was played on any of the other machines, the signal would not be read properly. It could even have been a problem with the control track (which could have been because one machine had a faultily aligned control track head, which would render any tape recorded on it unstable).

Anyway, I digress....!

From what I have seen on video and from what I remember they started using breakbumpers when they were at Manchester, I think they were introduced in late 1996 or early 1997. It was the one where a light went round and showed the G and went back into darkness, it wasn't a bad breakbumper. But when they moved to Leeds (I assume this was Autumn 1998) they switched to the heart breakbumper, I assume this was the start of something generic at GMG North.

The state of play at the time of the new look was that (i'm only counting ITV1'd regions here):

LNN did their own transmission
Central did their own transmission
Meridian did themselves, Anglia and HTV West
HTV Wales did themselves and Westcountry
Leeds (YTV) did YTV, TTTV, Border and Granada
Channel did themselves.

Only LNN and Meridian had facilties that directly supported the breakflash. Channel's facilties I don't believe do support it directly but they have got a workaround - it's been copied (in the wrong aspect ratio I might add) and in the copy it's held still for a moment thus making the event longer (it does visibly appear still on the screen before moving) but they could afford to do that with there being generally less advertising, the other regions could not and so didn't use it.

When HTV Wales transmission was closed down (along with Meridian) and moved to LNN that meant that Westcountry and HTV Wales were able to take it on (they've had it since the spring)

With Central now having it, that still leaves the Leeds transmitted stations without the breakflash.

So, is this new equipment at Birmingham (perhaps indicating that their facilties will be staying on for the time being) or has Central been moved to LNN?

GMG have taken all of TTTV's look and replaced it with their own, apart from the news. It uses the same music but doesn't work as well with GMG's graphics as with TTTV's, and the last thing I want to see is NE Tonight in an ITV style studio. Ugh.

It's also widely agreed that Tyne Tees's Programming is far supperior to what London can churn out. I'm sure London could create good programmes but even if they did the whole point of ITV is for regional programming, and that means Tyne Tees(or other regional broadcaster), not ITV.

Central Presentation has definitely NOT moved to LNN and there are no known imminent plans to move it! They are the backup centre for LNN Network pres and do a sterling job. You'd be surprised how many times the backup is or nearly relied upon. The appearance of the breakflash on Central is simply the result of tweaking their transmission system to talk to Leeds Pres scheduling system to accommodate it. The guys in Birmingham are all very professional and committed to their jobs and do their best to make the station look as good as possible and accommodate changes.

GMG North regions don't have the breakflash because, as has been said already, their transmission system is now somewhat outdated and can't accommodate it.

Ahh, but i have heard that as soon as the merger happens, Central transmission will come from (LNN) London.

Leeds will deal with the north, and the south and midlands - London!!

Actually it's known as a 'Break Optical'