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When is a 'live' not a Live

(December 2001)

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AL
Alex
Can someone explain the use of the word 'live' on TV News.
News24 use it below pictures used during interviews but the pictures are not live - they play them time and time again! I think it must refer to the correspondent being live but it is placed below the pictures and it can be very misleading.
AG
AnneG
Good point Alex, I think it's very confusing.

Welcome to the forum by the way
CA
cat
Sky and CNN generally get around this problem by adding a live DOG somewhere. Sky normally put 'suchandsuch a place live' above the window and CNN have a special live dog specifically for windows.

Here's what I mean...

http://www.tvhome.f2s.com/upload/c7.jpg
AL
Alex
Thanks for that. It makes sense. Why don't the BBC do the same?
CA
cat
It's against BBC policy to innovate with regards to News 24.

Didn't you know?

Wink
AG
AnneG
Alex posted:
Thanks for that.  It makes sense.  Why don't the BBC do the same?


Why don't you email someone at the BBC. In my opinion the management there are all very approachable and willing to listen to any good suggestions
AL
Alex
Maybe NickyS can put a good word in for us Smile
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
AnneG posted:
Alex posted:
Thanks for that.  It makes sense.  Why don't the BBC do the same?


Why don't you email someone at the BBC. In my opinion the management there are all very approachable and willing to listen to any good suggestions

Err - I couldn't possibly comment on that! Smile

(Edited by Techy Peep at 12:52 am on Dec. 8, 2001)
NS
NickyS Founding member
News 24 only use a LIVE bug when the correspondent is live or the pictures are live ... if they 'float' pre-recorded pictures over the top of a live correspondent they will take the live off ... if they don't it's because it's been forgotten (sometimes it happens for a few seconds as the technical director can be doing a number of things at once).
They would not use LIVE unless it was LIVE ... also they tend not to use a live bug if it's an interview in the studio or a phono
NG
noggin Founding member
Yep - that was the policy as I remember it Nicky... When showing more than one picture on screen they all had to be live to keep the live bug up, otherwise it was misleading as to which picture is live... CNN get round this by having live bugs built into their box frames - a nightmare to vision mix/graphics mix I would imagine, unless it is automatic (which is possible)

However I notice increasingly on lives with the large and small boxes - with a live correspondent in the small top right box, and recorded pictures playing in the big box, that the LIVE bug stays up quite often, cos something, rather than everything, on screen is live.

I have often wondered why phono comps don't have LIVEs used on them though...
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
noggin posted:

I have often wondered why phono comps don't have LIVEs used on them though...


If you're talking about what I think you mean, don't BBC World use 'News Update' for that when it's live?
TP
Techy Peep Founding member
Blake Connolly posted:
noggin posted:

I have often wondered why phono comps don't have LIVEs used on them though...


If you're talking about what I think you mean, don't BBC World use 'News Update' for that when it's live?

Not necessarily Mr Connolly - News Update is used new information is coming in.

The original reason a LIVE DOG is used is because of history. Many moons ago, live links were very unstable & quite often would not work the whole time, so to flag a possible technical problem before it happened, a Live DOG was used. These days it's used mainly as an indicator that the information the Correspondent is giving is the latest, and if anything happens the studio has no control over it

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