Switching to Birmingham

Does anyone know if the BBC still does its tests with test cards, wherby a swtich is thrown putting Birmingham in control,and they transmit different test cards, usualyl for about 15 minutes?

Also, why is it Birmingham they switch to if they need to evacuate TV centre in London?

Probably not



It isn't. and their channels don't come from TV Centre any more.

When it was Birmingham, I assume it was because Pebble Mill had the facilities - edit suites and studio galleries and a big communications area... but was nearer to London than Manchester.

Last time that happened was in 2000 when the BBC had the first of many Power failures, BBC One was on Regional News anyway, but on BBC Two, Birmingham opted in and showed a Great Railway Journeys programme instead of Star Trek, although there IIRC there was no pres around it.

No, all they did was chuck a couple of standby tapes in (BBC1 had a Dads Army on)

I believe it was part precautionary measure and part cock up as the presentation areas stayed on and working throughout - the other channels from there stayed on air throughout IIRC (except News 24)

I have been told they still do switching. It is a lot easier to do now a everything is digital and on a server. The MT Gallery can take over the main channels -Not 3 and 4 , CBBC and CBeebies- (I don't know about NC). I was told that if it all went wrong Bristol could do it.

EDIT: AIU Birmingham (Or Indeed Midlands) are the only region (Bar London and nations) to use Live continuity.

You're right in that it is a lot easier to provide a proper back up (i.e. not just a handful of random standby programmes) now everything's digital

However remember the BBC has washed their hands of playout, as far as I know there's no BBC facilities used for taking over in such an event (not within the standard procedures anyway)



Sounds highly unlikely. Why would they do live continuity? there's only about 15 seconds of regional announcements a day!

The version I heard was that the Mailbox has a role in getting the reserve playout/pres facility on air but I don't know the extent of that.

The last few times this was tested, it was done on a Sunday morning with a (BM) DOG put over Ceefax and News 24 rather than the unusual test cards.

Because they put really random presenters on and they change the V/O often and I read it somewhere.

That's a possibility, I'm sure there are several ways of doing it though

What is a BM DOG? (Well what does BM stand for?)

In my experience, what normally happens if there's not an appropriate announcement is that they get someone from the newsroom to record one!

If there's a voice you don't recognise it's probably some random producer or technical operator! I think I almost did one once