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Playout systems

(April 2017)

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RT
Run_Telecine
Riverside posted:

LNN News was largely rebuilt between 1999-2001 by Sony Basingstoke (Newsbase) and ABE SI around the SX 30Mbps standard - The Betacart was sold to Meridian New Hythe in 2000. The NRCS migrated through Basys, AvSTAR to iNEWS. When LNN ended in May 2004 playout and live capture was based around MAV-2000 Servers controlled under Sony Newsbase with about 20 Desktop edit stations and 5 craft edits hanging off the MAV but also having tape decks.. It was all fully documented...


The Meridian New Hythe Betacart came from TVS, and was taken over to the News Shed in early 1994. It's possible that it went to Maidstone Studios, though I'm not sure what they'd have used it for. WIZJA may still have been there at the time (a multi-channel Polish satellite TV network)

Very differently from the current Pres playout systems, I can remember when TX Controllers would have to run each Promo, Break, slide, ID manually - backtiming when to roll the breaks/programmes from a 5" clock, and Pres Desks that only had a few items pre-programmed into them. Must have been quite a skill!
BL
bluecortina
Run_Telecine posted:


... Very differently from the current Pres playout systems, I can remember when TX Controllers would have to run each Promo, Break, slide, ID manually - backtiming when to roll the breaks/programmes from a 5" clock, and Pres Desks that only had a few items pre-programmed into them. Must have been quite a skill! ...


It was, my wife used to do it for a living during the period you speak of.
Last edited by bluecortina on 7 April 2017 12:21am
MA
Markymark
Inspector Sands posted:
TonyCurrie posted:
I seem to remember that at one point HTV had several services to manage - HTV West VHF (aka the 'General service'); HTV Wales VHF, HTV West UHF Colour and HTV Wales UHF Colour, each of which had a different schedule. Does anyone know if they were all played out from Culverhouse Cross?

Some information about that on this page:
http://www.hhg.org.uk/tech.html

The VHF variants wouldn't have been from Culverhouse Cross of course!



Culverhouse Cross's CTA was constructed within a giant Faraday Cage, because the
RF levels from the BBC VHF 405 line transmitter at very nearby Wenvoe Tx were huge.
The complex opened in Summer 1984, Wenvoe 405 was switched off six months later !

RFI was a problem in those days with kit, and into the 90s the use of mobile phones in technical areas
was frowned upon.

BTW I think playout and pres remained at Pontcanna for a few more years, after CC opened ?
NG
noggin Founding member
deejay posted:
Mr Kite posted:
What benefit is there in working with the network feed rather than the Southampton one? Is it because you'd have to wait for them to mix back to the network before you do and might be a bit too long? Think I might have answered my own question but would appreciate confirmation.


Oxford opt from the network clean for the symbol and 1800 heads, the 1815 halfway heads and the start of the opt. If they did this from the Southampton feed there's a good chance they'd see Southampton opt almost every time. It's pretty tight. Better to opt clean from the network. Network is available anyway as an option, as the late bulletin is always independent of Southampton.


Better than Cambridge was originally then... When the Cambridge sub-opt started, there was only "Norwich dirty" to opt-out of (and that wasn't a permanent feed - and was instead on a shared circuit with a microwave receiver used for the FRV terresrial links truck).

This meant that Cambs always had to opt-out first, and opt-back last to avoid clipping Norwich... Once DTT opting was installed, it got cleaner.
GO
gottago
deejay posted:
Yes, the Oxford opt started in 2000. It was originally part of the old (huge) South East region, the production centre for which being in Elstree. The South East region was broken up into full regions for London (MHS) South East (TWS) (though TWS didn't make their own Politics Show for a while).

Oxford was given to the South region as a sub opt. Southampton produced the programme from Studio-B until 2004, then the presenter worked from reception in Oxford for a while, still going through the pres gallery in Southampton, until the Oxford tv studio opened in 2005.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJwJYgZ-d2I
As for sub-opting, Oxford opts from network clean, then reconfigures the network while opted so it opts back to Southampton.

Good grief, look at that BBC logo 7 secs in!
HA
Hazimworks
From another thread, but might be related to what we're talking in this thread:
D.Page posted:
TonyCurrie posted:
Yes it's a clean feed but often Eastenders follows either The One Show or the 8pm news (both live and therefore of flexible duration) and therefore it has to be a manual event. Hitting the 'take' button frame accurately isn't the easiest thing in the world. The actual transition (in frames) is preset so there's no way of changing it once you start the junction.


This takes me back to a past VT operating job where I remember we had many series of a crappy American soap to transfer from 1"C to BetaSP. We manually assemble edited all eps. After a little practice, it's amazing how many times you do get the feel of when to hit Auto Edit, so that slave VTR's timecode is frame accurate to source VTR's VT clock, hitting TCR 10:00:00:00 for start of programme Smile No pressure of a live situation, like you, though.
DE
deejay
gottago posted:
deejay posted:
Yes, the Oxford opt started in 2000. It was originally part of the old (huge) South East region, the production centre for which being in Elstree. The South East region was broken up into full regions for London (MHS) South East (TWS) (though TWS didn't make their own Politics Show for a while).

Oxford was given to the South region as a sub opt. Southampton produced the programme from Studio-B until 2004, then the presenter worked from reception in Oxford for a while, still going through the pres gallery in Southampton, until the Oxford tv studio opened in 2005.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJwJYgZ-d2I
As for sub-opting, Oxford opts from network clean, then reconfigures the network while opted so it opts back to Southampton.

Good grief, look at that BBC logo 7 secs in!


Yes, I never liked that either. They were three small LCD "photo frames" built into that wooden surround. Remember that this was the BBC Oxford reception desk during the day. We used to wheel out the plasma and camera, pull blinds down and lock the front door. The photo frames showed publicity pictures of Radio Oxford and South Today on a loop during the day, and for the subopt, the letters B B and C, however the spacing between them wasn't right. Reception was home to the subopt for about a year in 2004 and again in 2014 when the current set went in to the tv studio.

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