The X Factor and Strictly

Possible, but still there is no reason technically why even when the 'Lottery HQ' studio moved to Pinewood, he could still be at TVC.
Do the annoucements for Strictly on the live broadcast, then 'off tubed' for the National Lottery draws. The delay in seeing the wrong balls to the numbers on my ticket (</rant) tumble out and saying which ones they were would be hardly noticable to the viewer at home.

Just had to make sure there was a high level of reslience with the feeds coming into the booth at TVC if it was done that way - if the main tx failed from Pinewood, the switch to the back-up would have to be instantainous and seamless.

What are the benefits of ISDN against high speed broadband these days?

Cost?
I know getting a ISDN installed by BT used to be fairly pricey if they had to feed a new line to the place where you wanted the wall socket to plug in the codec box into - and one of those new out of the box wasn't exactly cheap.
And of course, the other end, you had to have the same equipement to get what was being sent down the line. Although, most broadcasters and facilities houses had at least two ISDN receivers.

With high speed broadband, mic and headphone set into plug in pc/laptop and establish a connection with the receiver at the other end.

The only issue is that ISDN has/had a much better consistant sound quality as it was a permantly connected line. With broadband any slight 'drain' or dip on the line speed and it leads to a noticable drop in sound quality.

There's going to very little by 2025 as BT is planning to close all ISDN services by then.

With the reduced cost of fibre (unless something else replaces fibre optics) by then, that's not great a surprise.

Only flaw with ISDN, was the line gave no warning it was going to cut out (in the odd occasion it did) unlike the auidable cut outs of phone lines or stuttering of Skype. Just a ominous 'beep' on the line, and a mad scramble to the codec box in the studio/racks room to clear down the line so you could, or your football match commentator could dial the line back up.

Ahh, Happy days..

That's a pretty standard way of working for a lot of voice over artistes especially in the US with the distances involved. The guy who does Chris Moyles' voice overs does them from home, seems with him they get them done at least once a week as they're often topical.


There are some here too, handy for quick turnaround voiceovers. The big important jobs still use Clem Fandango style setups

I think it was said that even when the draw was at TVC Alan as in a dressing room used as a makeshift voiceover booth, so he was doing the commentary off-tube anyway.

Although a perfectly adequate commentary can be pre-recorded and played in as each ball appears Alan very much took control of the situation during various problems (eg the machine failure, Fathers for Justice protest and the 2000 Today shambles) which a pre-rec set of cuts couldn't do.

Indeed, his voice still features on the draws that they upload to YouTube (even with the familiar echo!), and whilst it does a perfectly acceptable job (apart from where they've rerecorded something and not put the echo on it), it obviously isn't as nice as when it was on TV and live.



Weirdly, in the video above Deadly doesn't announce the numbers, although in the Lucky Stars section the voiceover does suggest he's about to say what the number is. On the Lotto draw from Saturday, he does announce the numbers so god knows why it isn't done there. Quite an extravagant CGI set Euromillions has too (presumably because it's not Camelot running the draw). The Lotto draws mainly feature a shot of the draw machine with the LED strips behind it from the old TV set - there's also a CGI recreation of the last TV studio used during the 'those numbers again in ascending order' bit.

In regards to my original point, i knew that Strictly and the Lottery were done in different locations, but thought that he might have done one or the other off site if it was indeed live. I sort of wish I hadn't asked as knowing it's prerecorded has slightly spoiled the magic!

EDIT: Looking back at some previous online draws, and in-keeping with this discussion, I think for at least a little while (they may not do this anymore) they got Deadly to record some week specific voiceovers for the online draws, despite only seeing a tiny audience. There's definitely a few videos from the past few months which reference a specific jackpot being shared by a specific number of people!

ITV quite rightly prioritising the continually high rating I'm a Celeb rather than the falling X Factor this year (took them long enough to realise that!) and as a result next weeks X Factor final goes head to head with Strictly, both beginning at 7.05pm on Saturday, with I'm a Celeb at 9.10pm after Michael McIntyre finishes. The Sunday portion of the final has been cut to 1 hour 35 minutes, beginning at 7.25pm.

Don’t think it’s been mentioned but the finals will be taking place in Excel rather than Wembley. I’m surprised they’re still doing this, it will surely be the last time given the ratings. It seems like an unnecessary expense when there’s so little buzz around the show.

It’s a bit sad watching it now. Remember TV Burp followed by peak-era X Factor? That was a powerful combination.

Guessing the Excel is smaller and cheaper than Wembley but am surprised that wasn't axed - think with the new set they'd have got away with it. Wonder to if they'll have a new finale set.



All that head scratching, chopping and changing of judges and tweaks to the format and I think you may have just hit the nail on the head. Obviously the show can't stand up for itself without Harry Hill as a lead in.