ITV Schools on Channel 4 1987-1993

I think I'm right I saying that C4/Central had a computerised system for working out the timings on the rotomotion and cueing the tape appropriately.

At S4C it was all manual.

This isn't related to Schools on C4 but seems a good place to ask - was there a noticable sync error on Channel 4 as control was switched to LWT, or did the fact they were both showing the same picture mean they were genlocked? Did C4 have to avoid having an advert break at exactly 5.15, or would Thames/LWT just not show any adverts during that break if there was one?

Two very good questions! There was certainly an ad break just prior to 5.15 in very early days, as The Tube started at 5.15. This tended to be timed so the break finished before 5.15, so Thames will have provided the ads, with the next ad-break being handled by LWT.

Later the norm became to show a half-hour programme at 5pm, such as Alice, which had a commercial break about halfway through. The break would typically come at approx 5.10-5.13 (a pretty normal arrangement for any half-hour show) so perhaps C4 always made a point of not allowing a break to straddle 5.15 on the dot each Friday. I can't see that being too much of an issue unless a technical fault or late schedule change came into play.

There has been some discussion on this video uploaded by forum member Neil Miles. It contains footage of the ads played during a Good Friday Tube special in 1987, and appears to have been recorded in the London area. The first ad-break is only partially filled with commercials and we see a minute or so of a break-filler. Such break fillers were very rarely seen in London (or anywhere else for that matter as late as 1987), and one theory is that the break may have straddled the Thames/LWT switch, hence only part of the break being filled with ads from Thames. I've no idea what time of the evening this Tube programme was shown, so can't comment on whether or not this is a valid theory. [Both a horrible choice of lettering style and a bizarre choice of music in my opinion!]. Anyway, skip to about 4:30 for the caption:



I've no idea whether there was any visible 'jump' on Channel 4 London when the feed was switched from Thames to LWT.

Hopefully a Londoner will be able to give us some more information!

Presumably, the English part of Border also got Scottish school programmes on ITV Schools on 4 as well.

There was a picture disturbance on Channel 4 in London when the changeover happened, just as there was at 9:25 and 6am when ITV changed over to/from TVam

Most "horrendous" picture jumps which we see now on YouTube transfers of recordings actually are as a result of domestic VCRs not coping terribly well with sync changes. If you were watching a live TV set, you'd have seen and possibly heard a very slight blip and nothing more. They were pretty good at coping with sync changes. VCRs weren't. Also professional VTRs couldn't cope either, so off air (or PasB) recordings of some Election programmes (which often crop up on BBC Parliament) contain quite appalling picture jumps when they cut to and from OBs. Watching at home, you wouldn't have noticed these non sync cuts. Watching now, you'd be forgiven for assuming the technical quality of tv from the 70s and 80s was far lower than it actually was.

The only exposure I had to it was the TV-am handovers where the black and white television we had would make a 'pop' sound and the picture rolled for a fraction of a second as it would do if you changed channels using one of the push buttons on the front of the set.

To bring the thread back to point the only exposure I had to ITV Schools on Channel 4 was watching videos in Science at secondary school and wondering what the hell that was as the teacher fast forwarded through the roto and I could see both logos on screen.

I hated it when the teachers fast forwarded through those presentational elements

Yes, I'm sure Border England got the Scottish opts from Autumn 1988. During 1987-88, I don't think any of tbe Scottish programmes were seen on Border.

Talking of non-sync jumps on Channel 4, in the Tyne Tees area there was always a flicker or a picture roll at the start and end of ad breaks, or when they opted back to the sustaining caption and music. How bad it looked depended on your individual TV set.

Yes, you could genlock but it wouldn't make any difference as the physical switch was performed at bt tower not on any itv contractors premises. Comms breaks were always scheduled not to straddle 5.15pm for the obvious reasons discussed earlier in the thread. Both on itv and c4.

It surprises me that Tyne Tees's C4 suite wasn't synchronous to C4 network, and that the IBA didn't notice (wouldn't Emley have been monitoring?) and have something done about it. I thought the IBA were quite hot on technical issues?

Small pedantic point, Mr Bean would have come from Central.