TV Home Forum

VERA, Logogen etc

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
IS
Inspector Sands
TIGHazard posted:

I assume Valley meant a royal death. Diana died just before the Balloon look and the Queen Mother died just after Rhythm & Movement launched so if it was also intended for this purpose, it was never used in that fashion.

Even if it had happened during that time, they wouldn't have broadcast the National Anthem with the balloons! It would have been with the appropriate flag (and they were on tapes, kept ready in a safe location). They definately wouldn't have a button on the desk for something like that
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 26 March 2021 11:46am
MarkT76, UKnews and valley gave kudos
VA
valley
Inspector Sands posted:
TIGHazard posted:

I assume Valley meant a royal death. Diana died just before the Balloon look and the Queen Mother died just after Rhythm & Movement launched so if it was also intended for this purpose, it was never used in that fashion.

Even if it had happened during that time, they wouldn't have broadcast the National Anthem with the balloons! It would have been with the appropriate flag (and they were on tapes, kept ready in a safe location). They definately wouldn't have a button on the desk for something like that

Thanks! Interesting.
UK
UKnews
Also I think it’s a different (slower) arrangement of the National Anthem than would have been used during closedown.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
There was a button for the Family ident though. Possibly requiring a change of disk?
IS
Inspector Sands
Steve in Pudsey posted:
There was a button for the Family ident though. Possibly requiring a change of disk?

Unlikely, it would delay things somewhat when it was needed. Easier just to put it on the ends of the discs



Incidently, what is VERA?
CO
commseng
TIGHazard posted:
UKnews posted:
valley posted:
Presumably the Anthem one was for certain "events"?

You mean Closedown? Wink


I assume Valley meant a royal death. Diana died just before the Balloon look and the Queen Mother died just after Rhythm & Movement launched so if it was also intended for this purpose, it was never used in that fashion.

I had no idea that the Queen Mum was so affected by the loss of the BBC balloon idents.
JA
james-2001
Inspector Sands posted:
Steve in Pudsey posted:
There was a button for the Family ident though. Possibly requiring a change of disk?

Unlikely, it would delay things somewhat when it was needed. Easier just to put it on the ends of the discs



Incidently, what is VERA?


The BBC related VERA I know of was the experimental videotape format the BBC developed in the 50s, that this clearly isn't that.
MW
Mike W
deejay posted:
Most other English regions had a piece of kit called 'VERA' which did much the same thing, though I don't think they used LaserDisc machines to provide the symbols. I can't remember if the BBC One West/South etc logo was burned into the backgrounds or added by VERA - it's possible some centres had the ability to change to a non regionally-branded symbol so that multi-region opt outs could occur (BBC South didn't have it's own Sunday political ptrogramme for many years for example, it was made by Bristol).


Only reference I've managed to find on what VERA was.
MW
Mike W
Steve in Pudsey posted:
There was a button for the Family ident though. Possibly requiring a change of disk?

Looking at the embedded tweet, it appears the Family ident is on the first disc with English 1.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
It was the fact that it is on the same button as Eng1 that made me think the disk got switched when required.
DE
deejay
The discs were double sided so they had to be ejected and flipped over. The “family” ident was the BBC Blocks with the ribbons behind it, also used for BBC Video at the time although it was mute.

The anthem for obits was a different much more solemn arrangement and was only on the obit video tapes with the appropriate flags. The anthem on the laserdiscs was, as has been pointed out, used for the nightly closedown until News 24 started to be shown overnight.
DE
deejay
VERA referred to here, was not the steel tape video recording equipment from the late 50s (?) but the replacement for laserdiscs that was usually found in the regions. I think it was a small profile server or similar? It will have stood for something (all these things in the BBC do!) but I don’t know the details.

Newer posts