ITV Network explained

Also, why if they kept on the Manchester suite, did they get rid of Granada's announcers? Never once have I heard any of Granada's old announcers since 1998!!!

So do Manchester and Leeds take turns at the seat then? And which annos are based where?

The Granada transmission IS controlled from Leeds. The same continuity announcer is used across all the regions. They have the ability to record the personalised announcements onto DAT, and play back to each region. You'll often find that most links are very generic.

I was in the transmission suite during the week, so did not see any references to LWT... does that come from LNN?

LWT has it's own continuity suite. It is totally independent of Granada and indeed Carlton London.

urban, any timescale for Meridian/Anglia to be absorbed into Leeds? Last I heard it was on the cards, but that was months ago.....

I thought the technology was a time-delay controlled by the video servers....

Anyway, maybe you can explain why some of the announcers make a lot of regionalised announcements, and others seem frightened of it...

LWT wouldn't be the same without its announcers

I'm no longer part of the fold, so sorry mate, I don't know

Yes I agree, but if Granada is replicating what Leeds is doing line-by-line and not adding anything of their own that is a waste of money. Obviously if they still had their friendly local annos that would be different. I'd be annoyed that Granada are treating themselves better than their neighbours but it wouldn't be a waste of money, as MillyMaster's portrayal of how Granada works most certainly is.

Anyway, I have now heard from 4 people who work at or have been in the Leeds broadcast centre, and they've all said that Granada is controlled from Leeds just like the other 3 GMG North stations. That's proof enough for me

Never mind, thanks anyway

Maybe you can answer another question then; why is the Leeds broadcast centre so crap? It has all the latest technology, they've spent an absolute mint on it, and yet the powers that be can't even stretch to one anno per channel. Did the staff see this as a problem or did they just not care? (I have been told evidence to support the latter...)

The transmission is fully automated (except during live programmes), but only the adverts / promos come from the server, with tape back-ups. The system has the ability to play events sequentially, i.e. after an elapsed amount of time has passed, or at a hard time. For example, the event will run whether the last event has finished or not.

During most of the day, one operator controlls all four regions. However instead of pressing buttons on four different keyboards, actions completed on the Granada tx system automatically trigger events on the other 3. The one exception to this is during live regional programming, when there are tx ops controlling each region.

One of the other cool things about the system is that when the advert to be played are sent directly to the system from the sale house, it automatically creates the advert playlists, creates a server file and records them to tape for back-up - all without the influence of a human being.

As for the continutiy announcers - they do write their own scripts. Maybe they're going for the network feel!

Oh, LWT's tx is controlled from London Studios on the Southbank.

Just out of interest, the transmission for Granada's satellite channels, Granada Plus, Breeze, Men & Motors and Wellbeing are controlled in a dedicated tx suite in Manchester!

I haven't seen the mistakes everyone else has, so I don't agree that the centre is crap. As for continuity, it boils down to money. One member of staff is cheaper than four, and with Granada in the state that it is, it needs to save money anywhere it can. I'm in the 'it doesn't really matter' camp - What will happen when ITV is one company? Will we get a london voice?

It is very flash. It just lacks the personal touch

It brings a tear to my eye thinking back to the old TTTV way of doing things; ad-breaks compiled manually, 2 transmission controllers+announcer, everything done on old equipment dating back to the early 70s in some cases And yet it was still cheaper than the current system. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

And yet they spend millions on branding that gets chucked out after a couple of years. These companies do not have their priorities right, it's as simple as that!!!

It is actually interesting to note though that the TTTV staff still seem to be sticking to the old ways. GMG periodically put loads of extra equipment into Newcastle that is never used because the staffing levels are too low to use it, then the live programme teams in Newcastle completely circumvent all that flashy stuff and stick a manual chalk-board VT clock in front of a camera instead of programming their computer technology. I love that

And I'm guessing that the sight of a manual 70's-style clock is enough to send all that technology in Leeds into a spin lol...

(Edited by jason at 4:18 pm on Nov. 2, 2001)

Sorry to disappoint you, but Granada's continuity does NOT come from the News centre in Manchester but the Northern transmission Centre at Leeds as does all the continuity for Tyne Tees, Border, Yorkshire. LWT's comes from the London Television Centre on the South Bank as does Carltons.

As for Carltons Central region that comes from Birmingham and NOT Nottingham. Hope that clears up the matter.