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and other self-op mixers (July 2011)

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BU
buster
The CBBC ident doesn't seem to match the audio (unless there were other versions knocking about at the time) - it sounds like this BFT one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLeUAI_MHTk but the visuals are the standard "Children's" ident of the time with the BBC logo burnt into the bottom throughout as per the globe/2s of the period, rather than appearing at the end, was this bit mocked too? Just curious as I've never seen that variation if it is real and it's curious that it fits perfectly!
DE
deejay
Inspector Sands posted:
deejay posted:
Schools shifts were also self-op by the announcer, hence the reliance on holding slides and countdown clocks into programmes.

How did the programmes get played out during schools when self-op? Were they played locally on Umatic like the OU ones or did they have to liase VT like the Network Director would?


AIUI during the Schools & Colleges dots clock, the announcer would cue the VT Op in the basement to run the programmes. In those days the announcer would announce the next programme over a slide "Words and Pictures is our next programme and follows in just over two minutes". The rest of the junction would be with music and at TX -1'00" the Dots Countdown. When the dots ended there'd be a cut or mix to the programme without any further announcement.
AS
Asa Admin
buster posted:
Just curious as I've never seen that variation if it is real and it's curious that it fits perfectly!

My mind may be playing tricks but I'm pretty sure I remember variant like that, especially with the BBC logo oddly always onscreen.

A very interesting clip, makes you wonder if anyone has done any similar filming at the Broadcast Centre.
MA
Markymark
Inspector Sands posted:
deejay posted:
Schools shifts were also self-op by the announcer, hence the reliance on holding slides and countdown clocks into programmes.

How did the programmes get played out during schools when self-op? Were they played locally on Umatic like the OU ones or did they have to liase VT like the Network Director would?


Surely in the 90s the OU progs were played off Betacam ? U-Matic would have looked awful, (and I don't recall the quality being that awful ?! )

Why did they not precompile the entire OU segment onto one C Format tape as a continuous 90 min (or what ever) recording ?
DE
deejay
Markymark posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
deejay posted:
Schools shifts were also self-op by the announcer, hence the reliance on holding slides and countdown clocks into programmes.

How did the programmes get played out during schools when self-op? Were they played locally on Umatic like the OU ones or did they have to liase VT like the Network Director would?


Surely in the 90s the OU progs were played off Betacam ? U-Matic would have looked awful, (and I don't recall the quality being that awful ?! )

Why did they not precompile the entire OU segment onto one C Format tape as a continuous 90 min (or what ever) recording ?


No, genuinely the OU was played from Hi-Band U-Matic until the NTA opened in 1995. There must have been some cost or staffing reason why they had to be played by Presentation and not VT. BBC Select was the last thing to be transmitted from OU Con. When the Learning Zone came into existance the tapes were transeferred to D3 and playout moved to the NTA.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
deejay posted:
No, actually that's exactly how Breakfast and Schools shifts worked (although I dare say they would normally have worn headphones). The yellow faders on the Con mixers were for Vision. The opening link on BBC-1 was done by the announcer and they mixed from Black, to Testcard, to Ceefax (running in some music), then to the BBC-1 Symbol, then to Breakfast. The on-air time for Breakfast was agreed in advance and was usually at a sensible time like 06:30:00. The annoucers may have been able to do cue-dots... not sure.


Thanks for that - I knew the entire network could be run from Con but I thought that was just a contingency in case the gallery had technical issues, I hadn't realised they routinely did it. But it makes perfect sense to not have a full team in for one simple junction.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
deejay posted:
There must have been some cost or staffing reason why they had to be played by Presentation and not VT.


I can't imagine the Union liked that!
DE
deejay
Steve in Pudsey posted:
deejay posted:
There must have been some cost or staffing reason why they had to be played by Presentation and not VT.


I can't imagine the Union liked that!


Maybe that's why they insisted it was on a non-broadcast format ...
ET
ETP
What were the turntables in those con suites used for? Was Ceefax/TCF music played off vinyl?
SW
Steve Williams
ETP posted:
What were the turntables in those con suites used for? Was Ceefax/TCF music played off vinyl?


The breakdown music certainly was, and I know that one of the jobs of the CBBC presenter when they arrived in the Broom Cupboard was to take the MOR standby record off the turntable and put a pop record on instead.
MA
Markymark
Steve Williams posted:
ETP posted:
What were the turntables in those con suites used for? Was Ceefax/TCF music played off vinyl?


The breakdown music certainly was, and I know that one of the jobs of the CBBC presenter when they arrived in the Broom Cupboard was to take the MOR standby record off the turntable and put a pop record on instead.


Ha !

The TCF/Ceefax music was on 1/4 inch tape when I visited the Pres area in 1985. I used to spend unhealthy periods of time with TCF on during the day in the 70s , and don't ever recall hearing the music jump, or scratch, so presumably that was always off tape ?

C4 was the same in the 80s. In fact they only had one 1/4in machine in the Pres area, which was why there was normally 5 mins of tone at xx:55:00 during their test card, while they rewound, and laced up a new tape to start at TTOH !
DE
deejay
All Testcard music was off 1/4" tape AIUI. There is also a rack of 1/4" Carts visible in most of the photos/footage I've seen of Con, was this for Interval music (I.e. individual tracks played between programmes while on "Follows Shortly" slides) ? I believe the Grams deck had the National Anthem on it too...

By the time the NTA opened, Breakdown music was off CD (I think) and Ceefax music was off MiniDisc.

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