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Networked ITV - 1990s and before...

(August 2010)

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MA
Markymark
About a week before C4 opened in Nov 1982, I was in Plymouth, I flicked over to C4 at about 5pm and there was the C4 test card, but with the audio from an edition of Countdown.

What became apparent was that C4 were having a full evening's schedule play-out rehearsal. Even a dummy edition of C4 News went out at 7pm.

Eventually, someone either at TSW, or the transmitter turned up and the audio suddenly cut, but not until about 9pm Laughing

The C4 Test card didn't have the two horizontal bars above and below the ident, so it was the locally generated version, and not from C4 at Charlotte St.
CR
ColonelRed
Border did have some amazing breakdowns - the one I remember from my childhood, was when they were showing an episode of Home and Away, and there was no part 2 on the tape
WE
Westy2
ColonelRed posted:
Border did have some amazing breakdowns - the one I remember from my childhood, was when they were showing an episode of Home and Away, and there was no part 2 on the tape


Did Border transmit that themselves or did it come down the line from elsewhere?
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Markymark posted:
The C4 Test card didn't have the two horizontal bars above and below the ident, so it was the locally generated version, and not from C4 at Charlotte St.


I thought the tramlines were a later addition to the generator at Charlotte St, originally the tx sites and pres had identical versions.
CR
ColonelRed
Westy2 posted:
ColonelRed posted:
Border did have some amazing breakdowns - the one I remember from my childhood, was when they were showing an episode of Home and Away, and there was no part 2 on the tape


Did Border transmit that themselves or did it come down the line from elsewhere?


They were part networking it to half the country, which made it worse, as in more embarrassing, for them !

This is how Tyne Tees dealt with it

http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/mivana/mediaplayer.php?id=750276d6719cb5f3bfb55d4a7bccf456&media=tttv_fault_invision&type=mp4

In Border land it was a programme rundown for ages, a clip of camel racing (not kidding - that's why I remember it !) and then a programme rundown for ages again.
Last edited by ColonelRed on 23 March 2012 8:51am
TC
TonyCurrie
robertclark125 posted:
Here's one. If there was a newsflash that had to be read out over an ITN Slide, and it was networked, was it the responsibility of each region to read the same script to their area, or did Thames/LWT read it out to everyone? A video exists on TV-Ark of Phillip Elsmore reading out a newsflash over an ITN Newsflash slide in 1981. Would this have been networked, or did each region get the same script, and do it locally?


ITN would dictate the script over the red phone and each regional announcer would read it locally. I remember having to read the newsflash for the death of Mao-tse-Tung. We had a special ITN box of slides of world leaders and royalty to be used in the event of their death. Unfortunately the Mao slide had a huge crack in the protective glass, and we only got it remounted in the nick of time.
TC
TonyCurrie
Steve in Pudsey posted:
TonyCurrie posted:
The odd Chalkface problem - here's what might have happened.

It wasn't uncommon for programmes to be made sans company logos, and often these were added on transmission. However, in order to do that the local CTA would either have to originate a dirty feed and then clean it up once the programme had started; or feed the slide scanner to network and then do a cut at the start of the programme. My guess is that's what happened, and CCA fed the audio from the preceding programme to accompany the slide - either in error, or because that's how the switcher was configured!


Wouldn't such a practice have been a good way to annoy the rest of the network, because the VT clock they were seeing would be wrong?


No, because the rest of the network didn't see the VT clock - they saw the static company slide.
MA
Markymark
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Markymark posted:
The C4 Test card didn't have the two horizontal bars above and below the ident, so it was the locally generated version, and not from C4 at Charlotte St.


I thought the tramlines were a later addition to the generator at Charlotte St, originally the tx sites and pres had identical versions.


Edit :

Ah, You might be right, I do recall the IBA Eng Announcements prog saying that if you were getting music then the signal was originating at Charlotte St, if not, then it was the primary regional Tx site.

Some regions were a bit late having the BT circuits fully wired up from London all the way.

CP had the C4 feed on Aug 2nd, Rowridge Aug 5th, but Mendip was almost into September ISTR.
Last edited by Markymark on 23 March 2012 11:09am
JW
JamesWorldNews
TonyCurrie posted:
robertclark125 posted:
Here's one. If there was a newsflash that had to be read out over an ITN Slide, and it was networked, was it the responsibility of each region to read the same script to their area, or did Thames/LWT read it out to everyone? A video exists on TV-Ark of Phillip Elsmore reading out a newsflash over an ITN Newsflash slide in 1981. Would this have been networked, or did each region get the same script, and do it locally?


ITN would dictate the script over the red phone and each regional announcer would read it locally. I remember having to read the newsflash for the death of Mao-tse-Tung. We had a special ITN box of slides of world leaders and royalty to be used in the event of their death. Unfortunately the Mao slide had a huge crack in the protective glass, and we only got it remounted in the nick of time.


Was the "red phone" really red, or was that just a term used?
TC
TonyCurrie
It was red.
SO
Steven O
ColonelRed posted:
In Border land it was a programme rundown for ages, a clip of camel racing (not kidding - that's why I remember it !) and then a programme rundown for ages again.


Camel racing? Shocked Border never did do things by halves... Laughing Laughing Laughing
JJ
jjne
TonyCurrie posted:
It was red.


Think I've mentioned this before, but at Tyne Tees (at least when I saw it) the 'phone' was a button on the desk rather than a physical phone. It was backlit red though.

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