UTV IVC in 16:9

My first non-self promotional post...

I've noticed UTV have finally switched their IVC links to 16:9 (about 18 months too late!) at the weekend, first I saw was with Julian on Saturday night, at last no more awkward switching from 16:9 trails to 4:3 IVC to 16:9 ident.  They've had some more links with Audra Thomas, in-vision, tonight, with the new set backdrop seen for the first time, a bank of images of UTV programmes, the UTV logo is in one of the windows.  Very impressive.  Unfortunately I have no stills at the moment so you'll have to take my word for it!

Along with a new sofa and a new wooden table, the table reminds me of the one used on the continuity set c.1987.  Is this coming from the new Transmission Control facilities upstairs?

Shame the Watch to Win captions were created in 4:3...

Also, any other viewers notice Julian's link into TV Nightmares, while the ident was playing, the signal cut back to Julian who said something to the TC director and was walking off the set before switching back to the ident?  At least it shows UTV still maintains live IVC links...

Yes, and I've noticed that non-Julian IVC links are definitely much more common now -- perhaps because they don't seem to be self-opped like they were before. Hopefully this is going to be a more common occurrance now -- certainly UTV's continuity now seems a lot slicker than it was before -- we now have large-station standard switching with small-station friendliness -- an ideal mix!!

Yes I did see the cockup before TV Nighmares, and also the joke he made about it afterwards. Yorkshire Television? Bah! This is how you do continuity....

(Edited by jason at 12:00 am on Mar. 26, 2002)

I missed that joke...

Did it involve any innuendo?

UTV In-Vision links were not (and are not) self-opts. They don't even control their own mic.

In answer to Colm...it would certainly seem that they've moved 'upstairs'.

Julian was not on this Fri was he? I was watching out for his classic link into Corrie and there was no sign of hin :{

Well that is surprising, because just lately it did definitely appear as if Julian was pressing a button at the exact moment he disappeared... Ah well maybe not then.

No the joking around didn't include any innuendo at all, most unlike the lovely Mr Simmons lol

James, Julian wasn't on duty on Friday, I think it was Audra (she did the voiceover to the Kelly promo at the end of Coronation Street but I didn't watch UTV much on the Friday night...

...and I certainly didn't watch BBC ONE NI despite of their new Friday night trailers.  Talk about flogging a dead horse, especially if it includes Daniel O'Donnell...

Yes it was Audra, and she appeared at least 3 times that night. Like I say hope this is a sign of UTV strengthening their commitment to IVC when all around have lost theirs -- good on them!!

Julian and Audra are the only announcers at UTV who do their links in-vision on a regular basis these days. Gillian Porter and Robin Taylor pop up from time to time, they were on regularly over Christmas. The shyest of the bunch is Aidan Browne, not only does he not say much but I've only seen him reading the news the past few months.

In other UTV 16:9 matters, I had thought UTV Live had also switched to 16:9 as I noticed a news update tonight going out in widescreen, but it seems someone forgot to switch screen ratios as there were some flat looking politicians...

Oh well there's always January 2003, a perfect time for a widescreen UTV Live relaunch.

Hmmm, I have to say that of UTV's announcers Aiden is probably the one I like least, he hardly ever appears except to read the news, very often he'll be there the whole night and not actually give out any announcements, voiced or in-vision and to cap it all he has something of a strange voice! I think he'd be better moving over to the newsroom and let the other 4 do their thing...

He reminds me a lot of the late Border/Tyne Tees announcer Allan Cartner. He never appeared at all, even when he read the news (they just had a 'News/with Allan Cartner' caption on-screen ) and he had a strange voice as well. Tes has a vidcap from TTTV 1984 on his site, you'll see what I mean....

(Edited by jason at 2:06 am on Mar. 26, 2002)

The new studio is what they call 'The Penthouse Studio' yet Julian looks as grey as ever propped up against that podium.

More and more of UTVs programming is now going to Widescreen, anything new is now done in 16:9 such as Healthcheck, and some of the sports programming is soon to be changing.  Kelly changed at the beginning of the current series.

UTVs kit is fully capable of doing widescreen, as when they upgraded to DVCPro, they chose the widescreen compatable cameras and currently shoot in both 16:9 and 4:3 depending on requirements.  

The same cameras are also used for ENG, meaning the reports can be shot in 16:9 if needed, which could be sooner rather than later.

Look at the schedules for the week beginning 1st April all through the week and see if you spot anything unusual.



(Edited by peterrocket at 2:50 am on Mar. 26, 2002)


(Edited by peterrocket at 2:50 am on Mar. 26, 2002)

Ah.... is that who that guy is! You learn something new every day.
er... of course I...um already knew that thoughhttp://members.lycos.co.uk/tvrevision2/forum2/images/openbb/smiley/embarrassed.gif