TV Home Forum

Switching control to Birmingham

A thread about the BBC switching test, and what happened when they did it for real. (February 2016)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
GE
thegeek Founding member
Rob_Schneider posted:
There's quite a few threads in the archives here from previous RBS tests, with some screengrabs still working. Worth a look.

I was on shift in CCA for one, and keeping en eye on here and various other forums - the people from BBC Distribution started off the night saying that people were a bit sad for staying up all night to watch - but a few hours later were quite appreciative of the screengrabs that people had been posting.
It was also a rare opportunity to pull the red U-links for the network distribution chains - and give them a bit of a wiggle to try to clean them when plugging them back in!
MA
Markymark
Steve in Pudsey posted:
Not in the same way, but ad-hoc arrangements were made on occasion. The politics of ITV (and the IBA) made it less viable for the way ITV worked.


Meridian had Astra 28E back up for its main transmitters, and C4 Hannington had RBS back up from Mendip, ( same macro region rather than the far better technical choice of CP)

I'm sure there were other examples, but as Steve says lots of politics and ad regions to consider ( or ignore)
SP
Steve in Pudsey
deejay posted:
If the whole of TVC was out of action, Pebble Mill was the next port of call. News, weather and presentation could all be run from BM, using Studio A, Gallery A, the pres studio and various edit and VT suites. I've still got the documentation somewhere about who went where. It was rehearsed every so often and I seem to remember it all being a rather nice day out Smile


Just stumbled across the details of who went where, which you kindly shared in the thread about the 2010 RBS test!

http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forums/post671811#post-671811
RI
Richard
Rob_Schneider posted:
There's quite a few threads in the archives here from previous RBS tests, with some screengrabs still working. Worth a look.

Did ITV ever use RBS? I recall seeing LWT's text service in the Central East region on P6xx one Saturday night in 2000/2001.

On a related note, bizarrely for a time LWT Plus appearing during GMTV's hours in Northern Ireland 7 days a week due to UTV not providing regional news for GMTV (at that time Reuters provided it)
MA
Markymark
Richard posted:
Rob_Schneider posted:
There's quite a few threads in the archives here from previous RBS tests, with some screengrabs still working. Worth a look.

Did ITV ever use RBS? I recall seeing LWT's text service in the Central East region on P6xx one Saturday night in 2000/2001.

On a related note, bizarrely for a time LWT Plus appearing during GMTV's hours in Northern Ireland 7 days a week due to UTV not providing regional news for GMTV (at that time Reuters provided it)


That's because GMTV were bypassing UTV's studio, and feeding Divis directly, so they probably left the 'London' 6XX pages on the feed. UTV's teletext service (p600-699) was generated at the studios, while the main Teletext Ltd pages were inserted directly at Divis (which is how they appeared regardless of feed video)

Newer posts