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Yes they’d have had a connection to Eurovision - a single microwave feed back then, not sure when it began to expand. So that would only carry the biggest events, along with the news feeds.
I’m sure I’ve read RTE also had their own direct line from the BBC. Which would make sense given the amount of BBC programmes they took live (or near live) and that wouldn’t have been on Eurovision. Off air rebroadcast would have, I’d think, been a last resort.
Without digging out old diagrams, I'm fairly sure that the only feeds from the BBC to RTE back then would have been a single microwave link from Belfast. It may be that it was a main and spare which could be used independently if all was well.
Bear in mind that there was also the issue getting material to Belfast from England / Wales / Scotland - the BBC only had one link north from Manchester to Carlisle that also fed Glasgow and Newcastle.
It was possible to book at a high cost per minute a BT Protection circuit, but the idea that RTE had access to seperate camera feeds from Hillsborough is fanciful back in the 1980s. It would have been the scanner output - maybe a world feed if such a thing existed, but more likely not!
Indeed, by today's standards football coverage then was often quite basic, half a dozen cameras, and a single feed. The VT truck would have been there for iso cam shots to edit in later to 'repair' any missed action for the match highlights.
Four years earlier YTV had an OB truck at Bradford FC, and captured the fire, but I think someone had to drive the tape to Leeds, I don't think there was a live link from the ground? I remember seeing the footage during World of Sport's results segment at 16:45, I think the fire broke broke out an hour earlier? It was WoS that showed the footage, and not ITN in the form of a newsflash, which is interesting
A technician who worked in RTE from the late 60s until the mid 80s told me that in the 60s, 70s and 80s, RTE Television had access to the BBC and ITV feeds via the Eurovision connection, is that correct I wonder?
Also, they said they had used simple off air pictures from BBC and ITV transmissions from Northern Ireland and Wales when the Eurovision feed would not work or there was a fault.
Also, they said they had used simple off air pictures from BBC and ITV transmissions from Northern Ireland and Wales when the Eurovision feed would not work or there was a fault.
Yes they’d have had a connection to Eurovision - a single microwave feed back then, not sure when it began to expand. So that would only carry the biggest events, along with the news feeds.
I’m sure I’ve read RTE also had their own direct line from the BBC. Which would make sense given the amount of BBC programmes they took live (or near live) and that wouldn’t have been on Eurovision. Off air rebroadcast would have, I’d think, been a last resort.
Without digging out old diagrams, I'm fairly sure that the only feeds from the BBC to RTE back then would have been a single microwave link from Belfast. It may be that it was a main and spare which could be used independently if all was well.
Bear in mind that there was also the issue getting material to Belfast from England / Wales / Scotland - the BBC only had one link north from Manchester to Carlisle that also fed Glasgow and Newcastle.
It was possible to book at a high cost per minute a BT Protection circuit, but the idea that RTE had access to seperate camera feeds from Hillsborough is fanciful back in the 1980s. It would have been the scanner output - maybe a world feed if such a thing existed, but more likely not!
Indeed, by today's standards football coverage then was often quite basic, half a dozen cameras, and a single feed. The VT truck would have been there for iso cam shots to edit in later to 'repair' any missed action for the match highlights.
Four years earlier YTV had an OB truck at Bradford FC, and captured the fire, but I think someone had to drive the tape to Leeds, I don't think there was a live link from the ground? I remember seeing the footage during World of Sport's results segment at 16:45, I think the fire broke broke out an hour earlier? It was WoS that showed the footage, and not ITN in the form of a newsflash, which is interesting
That'll keep me amused when it gets quiet later on.