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A question regarding breakdowns

How are they dealt with today (February 2020)

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SP
Steve in Pudsey
Did BH have satellite downlink in that period or was it all at TVC? I think Birmingham did have so they might have been an easier option.

Or get BT to do it at Goonhilly and route it to either BH or Brum?
NL
Ne1L C
robertclark125 posted:
Many thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps I was wrong to say South East was the default region by then. Certainly in the 1980s and early 1990s it was.


It was in the 1980's I remember that instead of seeing Look North (Leeds) we got Newsroom South East for a couple of days. Its fascinating to see how back then the Beeb (IMHO) totally reliant on the London feed. Was that the same for ITV and Thames?
SP
Steve in Pudsey
A couple of days?? Surely even if the Leeds studio was out of action they could have got a joint effort from a neighbouring region on air?

The network feed came through Manchester so it should have been possible to get Look North West (or was it NWT by then) instead of the sustaining feed from London and get them to include some North region material?
IS
Inspector Sands
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Did BH have satellite downlink in that period or was it all at TVC? I think Birmingham did have so they might have been an easier option.

BH almost certainly wouldn't have had the facility, but several BBC regional centres did (and still do) have dishes for receiving satellites, how movable the dishes were I don't know though.


Quote:
Or get BT to do it at Goonhilly and route it to either BH or Brum?

Or any satellite downlink provider. I doubt Goonhilly would be used even if it was done by BT.
IS
Inspector Sands
Ne1L C posted:
[
It was in the 1980's I remember that instead of seeing Look North (Leeds) we got Newsroom South East for a couple of days. Its fascinating to see how back then the Beeb (IMHO) totally reliant on the London feed. Was that the same for ITV and Thames?

No as ITV worked totally differently. They were self contained stations and no network feed, only programmes intended to be shown elsewhere were sent out of their station.
MA
Markymark
Ne1L C posted:
robertclark125 posted:
Many thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps I was wrong to say South East was the default region by then. Certainly in the 1980s and early 1990s it was.


It was in the 1980's I remember that instead of seeing Look North (Leeds) we got Newsroom South East for a couple of days. Its fascinating to see how back then the Beeb (IMHO) totally reliant on the London feed. Was that the same for ITV and Thames?


As Mr Inspector says, no, there was none such thing in ITV as a 'network sustaining' feed to use for replacement programmes. If a local ITV company suffered a catastrophe, all that would be seen would have been the IBA's blue card of death generated at the Tx site. If the local news at an ITV company couldn't be broadcast because of a technical fault with that news studio, then an alternative programme would have been played out (such as a quiz show)

In fact I recall Thames News not going out one night owing to an NUJ strike, and Thames played out a 30 min version of Kenny Everett's show instead.
VM
VMPhil
Markymark posted:
Ne1L C posted:
robertclark125 posted:
Many thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps I was wrong to say South East was the default region by then. Certainly in the 1980s and early 1990s it was.


It was in the 1980's I remember that instead of seeing Look North (Leeds) we got Newsroom South East for a couple of days. Its fascinating to see how back then the Beeb (IMHO) totally reliant on the London feed. Was that the same for ITV and Thames?


As Mr Inspector says,

Surely that should be Mr Sands, or the Inspector! Wink
NL
Ne1L C
Markymark posted:
Ne1L C posted:
robertclark125 posted:
Many thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps I was wrong to say South East was the default region by then. Certainly in the 1980s and early 1990s it was.


It was in the 1980's I remember that instead of seeing Look North (Leeds) we got Newsroom South East for a couple of days. Its fascinating to see how back then the Beeb (IMHO) totally reliant on the London feed. Was that the same for ITV and Thames?


As Mr Inspector says, no, there was none such thing in ITV as a 'network sustaining' feed to use for replacement programmes. If a local ITV company suffered a catastrophe, all that would be seen would have been the IBA's blue card of death generated at the Tx site. If the local news at an ITV company couldn't be broadcast because of a technical fault with that news studio, then an alternative programme would have been played out (such as a quiz show)

In fact I recall Thames News not going out one night owing to an NUJ strike, and Thames played out a 30 min version of Kenny Everett's show instead.


Did anything change in 1993 with the arrival of ITV Network Centre?
MA
Markymark
Ne1L C posted:
Markymark posted:
Ne1L C posted:

It was in the 1980's I remember that instead of seeing Look North (Leeds) we got Newsroom South East for a couple of days. Its fascinating to see how back then the Beeb (IMHO) totally reliant on the London feed. Was that the same for ITV and Thames?


As Mr Inspector says, no, there was none such thing in ITV as a 'network sustaining' feed to use for replacement programmes. If a local ITV company suffered a catastrophe, all that would be seen would have been the IBA's blue card of death generated at the Tx site. If the local news at an ITV company couldn't be broadcast because of a technical fault with that news studio, then an alternative programme would have been played out (such as a quiz show)

In fact I recall Thames News not going out one night owing to an NUJ strike, and Thames played out a 30 min version of Kenny Everett's show instead.


Did anything change in 1993 with the arrival of ITV Network Centre?


No, but from 1993 onwards playout started to merge. HTV Wales did Westcountry's playout, then
YTV provided Tyne Tees's, then Granada provided Border's, then those four merged to form what is today the Leeds playout centre. Also down south Meridian provided HTV West and Anglia playout, so although still separte regions, there was more scope for resiliance between sharers
IS
Inspector Sands
VMPhil posted:
Quote:

As Mr Inspector says,

Surely that should be Mr Sands, or the Inspector! Wink

No, it should be Sir..... Very Happy
NL
Ne1L C
Markymark posted:
Ne1L C posted:
Markymark posted:

As Mr Inspector says, no, there was none such thing in ITV as a 'network sustaining' feed to use for replacement programmes. If a local ITV company suffered a catastrophe, all that would be seen would have been the IBA's blue card of death generated at the Tx site. If the local news at an ITV company couldn't be broadcast because of a technical fault with that news studio, then an alternative programme would have been played out (such as a quiz show)

In fact I recall Thames News not going out one night owing to an NUJ strike, and Thames played out a 30 min version of Kenny Everett's show instead.


Did anything change in 1993 with the arrival of ITV Network Centre?


No, but from 1993 onwards playout started to merge. HTV Wales did Westcountry's playout, then
YTV provided Tyne Tees's, then Granada provided Border's, then those four merged to form what is today the Leeds playout centre. Also down south Meridian provided HTV West and Anglia playout, so although still separte regions, there was more scope for resiliance between sharers


So that explains why Kerrie Gosney presents the weather for both Calendar and Granada Reports...
MA
Markymark
Ne1L C posted:
Markymark posted:
Ne1L C posted:

Did anything change in 1993 with the arrival of ITV Network Centre?


No, but from 1993 onwards playout started to merge. HTV Wales did Westcountry's playout, then
YTV provided Tyne Tees's, then Granada provided Border's, then those four merged to form what is today the Leeds playout centre. Also down south Meridian provided HTV West and Anglia playout, so although still separte regions, there was more scope for resiliance between sharers


So that explains why Kerrie Gosney presents the weather for both Calendar and Granada Reports...


Sort of. Today all English, NI, and Welsh (and Border) regions are part of the same big happy ITV Ltd, so
there can be (and is) lots of resource sharing between sites.

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