Maybe it's because I'm watching this on a different TV to usual but are the VTs between the performances being filmed a bit differently? I don't know what it is but the parts where they're following the contestants (rather than the judge talking heads) seem different.
Some of it looks like it was shot at 25p on a DSLR (or similar) large sensor camera. Often done for artistic reasons and to take advantage of the shallow DOF 'film' look.
Any technical bods around tonight? If it was indeed a problem at BT Tower, are there any backup events for the lines themselves going down? I mean you can prepare for studio powercuts etc, but the facility connecting studio to TX? They sorted it out somehow so I'm guessing they got lucky or have another (more expensive?) backup for events such as this? Losing a whole show would have been a disaster. Though very worse case scenario could Fountain record the show as normal and run the tapes to ITV TX?
Thanks for reading this probably naïve posting!
I hope I can indeed point you in the right direction as I was deal with the lines from Fountain's end and it was indeed a power failure at BT Tower at around 20:00 this evening that caused the problem. All lines were lost out of the Tower to Chiswick Park. We have 2 main circuits straight into Tower then are passed onto Chiswick, one for ITV1 and one for ITV2 then we have a Switchable Back Up Microwave Link circuit which goes via Crystal Palace, BBC Television Centre and into Tower then onto Chiswick.
As the problem was with Tower this evening we very swiftly uplinked via Satellite from TVC into Chiswick and Chiswick also latched onto a Satellite feed intended for TV3 in Ireland. By the time the first break was reached in the Emergency VT however power had been restored at Tower and our main circuits were available again. Chiswick had an extra 2 Back Up circuits up for the entirety of the two shows from TLS Lines and the aforementioned Sat feed intended for TV3 which didn't go anywhere near Tower for fear of a repeat of the problem. We are always able to re-route signals so the show would have gone to air anyway if the Tower problem had continued and the Satellite back up was the next option on our list.
On site at Fountain we run a back up generator so any national grid power cut shouldn't be noticed at all with the generator picking up the entire load for the show.
Quote:
Anyone here a DS member here? If so, would it be possible to put those idiots saying that tonight's show wasn't live right? They're also saying it's never completely live, as in a delay like Big Brother. X Factor is always 100% live.
To be fair, 'technical problems' is a meaningless phrase that continuity announcers use when they don't know or can't say what is happening.
Yes, but to tell your audience what is actually happening isn't really the right way to go about it either. I doubt either the announcer of the TX controller would have the full story about why at that point, their priority is to get it on air and fill with something appropriate in the meantime.
It's not for them to give the audience a full explanation about why the programme had failed to appear, not only would most of the audience not care/understand it's also very bad form to apportion blame. You can imagine the consequences if an ITV announcer went on air and told the country that it was all the fault of BT and it wasn't
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 13 November 2011 2:02am
Well at least we know they do have emergency tapes handy incase of big fault. I'm pretty sure there was a wide shot of the X Factor studio before the ITV 1 logo came up.
Live programmes for any channel will always have something scheduled as a standby in case they don't happen. They're not always the same programme that they're replacing but they'll be something suitable for the slot
I notice that the ITV2 repeat of The X Factor doesn't have subtitles. Is this normal?
The subtitle file for this evenings show would be wrong so this might explain why the ITV2 showing is subtitle free.
Surely subtitling for live shows done live? I admit I don't know much about subtitles but I would have thought the judges comments aren't set in a subtitle file made before the programme airs?
Surely subtitling for live shows done live? I admit I don't know much about subtitles but I would have thought the judges comments aren't set in a subtitle file made before the programme airs?
I don't watch The X Factor but I would expect it to be normal practice for the ITV1 show to be subtitled live and then the same subtitles played out again for the various repeat showings. This evening, the subtitles for the ITV1 programme included 15 minutes of filler at the beginning and an apology from the ITV1 continuity announcer in the middle. I assume neither of those things were part of the ITV2 repeat, so the subtitles would need to be edited before they could be used for the repeat.
The lack of subtitles on the repeat makes me think that no one edited the subtitle file in time, but I am only guessing as I don't know if the ITV2 version ever has subtitles.
I'm basing the above on common sense, but I remember when Lenny Henry swore on The Paul O'Grady Show a few years ago. The swear word was bleeped on the morning repeat but instead of just editing the subtitle file to reflect that, the repeat was subtitled again as if it was a live programme. This didn't seem like common sense to me, but I expect there was a good reason for it. You could tell that is what happened because the subtitles on the morning repeat had different mistakes to the version shown the previous night.
Last edited by David on 13 November 2011 3:33am - 3 times in total
Any technical bods around tonight? If it was indeed a problem at BT Tower, are there any backup events for the lines themselves going down? I mean you can prepare for studio powercuts etc, but the facility connecting studio to TX? They sorted it out somehow so I'm guessing they got lucky or have another (more expensive?) backup for events such as this? Losing a whole show would have been a disaster. Though very worse case scenario could Fountain record the show as normal and run the tapes to ITV TX?
Thanks for reading this probably naïve posting!
I hope I can indeed point you in the right direction as I was deal with the lines from Fountain's end and it was indeed a power failure at BT Tower at around 20:00 this evening that caused the problem. All lines were lost out of the Tower to Chiswick Park. We have 2 main circuits straight into Tower then are passed onto Chiswick, one for ITV1 and one for ITV2 then we have a Switchable Back Up Microwave Link circuit which goes via Crystal Palace, BBC Television Centre and into Tower then onto Chiswick.
As the problem was with Tower this evening we very swiftly uplinked via Satellite from TVC into Chiswick and Chiswick also latched onto a Satellite feed intended for TV3 in Ireland. By the time the first break was reached in the Emergency VT however power had been restored at Tower and our main circuits were available again. Chiswick had an extra 2 Back Up circuits up for the entirety of the two shows from TLS Lines and the aforementioned Sat feed intended for TV3 which didn't go anywhere near Tower for fear of a repeat of the problem. We are always able to re-route signals so the show would have gone to air anyway if the Tower problem had continued and the Satellite back up was the next option on our list.
On site at Fountain we run a back up generator so any national grid power cut shouldn't be noticed at all with the generator picking up the entire load for the show.
Quote:
Anyone here a DS member here? If so, would it be possible to put those idiots saying that tonight's show wasn't live right? They're also saying it's never completely live, as in a delay like Big Brother. X Factor is always 100% live.
Again - I can vouch for this - we're 100% live!!
What a great post from someone in the heart of the action! Many thanks, and good luck with tomorrow's show.
I'm pretty sure there was a wide shot of the X Factor studio before the ITV 1 logo came up.
You're actually quite right - this was the last frame that was going out on the main ITV1 line to Chiswick before Tower failed. They were re-rehearsing Little Mix as there were lots of last minute changes in the Camera Script.
I hope I can indeed point you in the right direction as I was deal with the lines from Fountain's end and it was indeed a power failure at BT Tower at around 20:00 this evening that caused the problem. All lines were lost out of the Tower to Chiswick Park. We have 2 main circuits straight into Tower then are passed onto Chiswick, one for ITV1 and one for ITV2 then we have a Switchable Back Up Microwave Link circuit which goes via Crystal Palace, BBC Television Centre and into Tower then onto Chiswick.
As the problem was with Tower this evening we very swiftly uplinked via Satellite from TVC into Chiswick and Chiswick also latched onto a Satellite feed intended for TV3 in Ireland.
Ta for the explanation! (Always nice to hear from people in other MCRs - I'm in CCA in TVC, though was safely in the pub by the time this all hit the fan.)
The radio link via CP & TVC is great, but it does still keep BT Tower as a single point of failure. But BT Tower
never
fails, does it? It looks like my colleagues actually sent the CP feed up to Arqiva to do an uplink - though if there's already a distribution feed on satellite for TV3, then I'm a bit confused why Chiswick aren't already downlinking that as a matter of course. Maybe they will from now on!
Surely subtitling for live shows done live? I admit I don't know much about subtitles but I would have thought the judges comments aren't set in a subtitle file made before the programme airs?
I don't watch The X Factor but I would expect it to be normal practice for the ITV1 show to be subtitled live and then the same subtitles played out again for the various repeat showings. This evening, the subtitles for the ITV1 programme included 15 minutes of filler at the beginning and an apology from the ITV1 continuity announcer in the middle. I assume neither of those things were part of the ITV2 repeat, so the subtitles would need to be edited before they could be used for the repeat.
The lack of subtitles on the repeat makes me think that no one edited the subtitle file in time, but I am only guessing as I don't know if the ITV2 version ever has subtitles.
I'm basing the above on common sense, but I remember when Lenny Henry swore on The Paul O'Grady Show a few years ago. The swear word was bleeped on the morning repeat but instead of just editing the subtitle file to reflect that, the repeat was subtitled again as if it was a live programme. This didn't seem like common sense to me, but I expect there was a good reason for it. You could tell that is what happened because the subtitles on the morning repeat had different mistakes to the version shown the previous night.
That all sounds about right.
The delay will be because the if live subtitles are repeated there wouldn't be a file, they'll be recorded with the programme for the repeat. To produce a normal subtitle file for it as they would for something pre-recorded takes some time to do, it's not an overnight job (and of course the subtitling supplier might not have someone on shift to do it). The easiest way to do it is just to get a live subtitler to do it
I hope I can indeed point you in the right direction as I was deal with the lines from Fountain's end and it was indeed a power failure at BT Tower at around 20:00 this evening that caused the problem. All lines were lost out of the Tower to Chiswick Park. We have 2 main circuits straight into Tower then are passed onto Chiswick, one for ITV1 and one for ITV2 then we have a Switchable Back Up Microwave Link circuit which goes via Crystal Palace, BBC Television Centre and into Tower then onto Chiswick.
As the problem was with Tower this evening we very swiftly uplinked via Satellite from TVC into Chiswick and Chiswick also latched onto a Satellite feed intended for TV3 in Ireland.
Nice to know the inside story, thanks for that. I assume the microwave link is SD, is the TV3 feed?
It looks like my colleagues actually sent the CP feed up to Arqiva to do an uplink - though if there's already a distribution feed on satellite for TV3, then I'm a bit confused why Chiswick aren't already downlinking that as a matter of course. Maybe they will from now on!