Westminster Security Incident: Firearms incident on Westminster Bridge - Page 16 - Post 1053139

MA

Markymark 23 March 2017 8:24am

The Westminster camera, while not a weather camera officially, was certainly very useful yesterday in getting the first pictures to air.

The camera on the roof of Millbank Tower (I think) that provided the horrendous pictures of the car driving across the bridge, I assume that footage came from a continuous loop recording device, that runs 24/7 (for just this occurrence) ?
Whose camera is that, the BBC's, pooled broadcaster one, or police/tfl etc ?

Maybe it was one of those horrendous IP cameras that use a standard internet connection shared by many others. They've become prevalent enough in the US and have been used by networks.

I think it's the same (broadcast, or near broadcast quality) camera that's been used since yesterday as a general shot of the bridge and HoP as a linking shot. Looked a bit ropey though at 18:45 last night, at the end of the BBC 1 6pm news, owing to dusk falling

SP

Steve in Pudsey 23 March 2017 8:42am

Blake Connolly posted:

James Vertigan posted:

I remember during the Docklands bombing in 1996, L!VE TV had a camera pointed out of one of the windows of Canary Wharf instead of their usual programming.

If I remember right, the building was evacuated and the last thing they did before leaving was to switch to that camera, so it was left up all morning the next day.

Can't entirely trust my memory, though, because my other memory of that had always been this front page, but looking at the date it was clearly an earlier and much smaller bombing:

I think the later Canary Wharf incident affected the Daily Mirror, however they were able to get the editor and key newsroom staff up to their sister title The Daily Record in Glasgow (possibly chartered a flight) from where they were able to get a proper together.

SW

Steve Williams 23 March 2017 9:03am

AlexS posted:

Tomorrows Business Live seems to have been cancelled in favour of an extended Breakfast simulcast- an utterly pointless move unless the presenters are needed for general news coverage.

I don't see how it's pointless - people tuning into the BBC's domestic news channel at a prime slot like that want news on what's likely to be one of the biggest domestic stories of the year, not whether Boggins Ltd might be buying Scoggins Ltd. No more pointless than dropping the sport or showbiz news.

LX

lxflyer 23 March 2017 9:03am

Victoria Derbyshire taking over on BBC News Channel and BBC World News at 09:00, with Adam Boulton on Sky News (who you can hear talking rather loudly in the background on the BBC!). Both at Millbank.

BB

BBCME Founding member 23 March 2017 9:03am

Victoria Derbyshire anchoring BBC News from Millbank. Looks like rolling news as opposed to her usual show on Two and News Channel just now.

CA

cat 23 March 2017 9:13am

Well, you can always rely on Fox News to choose a grotesquely inappropriate caption to sum up a story

JV

James Vertigan Founding member 23 March 2017 9:15am

Looks like they've switched Victorial Derbyshire from BBC Two to BBC One.

BB

BBCME Founding member 23 March 2017 9:17am

BBCME posted:

Victoria Derbyshire anchoring BBC News from Millbank. Looks like rolling news as opposed to her usual show on Two and News Channel just now.

Victoria now switched to BBC ONE.
Housing Enforcers moved to BBC TWO.

GE

thegeek Founding member 23 March 2017 9:54am

Markymark posted:

deejay posted:

The Westminster camera, while not a weather camera officially, was certainly very useful yesterday in getting the first pictures to air.

The camera on the roof of Millbank Tower (I think) that provided the horrendous pictures of the car driving across the bridge, I assume that footage came from a continuous loop recording device, that runs 24/7 (for just this occurrence) ?
Whose camera is that, the BBC's, pooled broadcaster one, or police/tfl etc ?

The camera on Millbank Tower is a BBC one.

Steve in Pudsey posted:

I've seen shots from the Westminster roof camera behind a generic and low-tech apology graphic when BBC Parliament has fallen off air on one of the pres sites.

That was the old CCA caption generator - no longer anywhere near the broadcast chain! The emergency standby for Parliament was later replaced by a DVD of 'last session in Parliament' (though the DVD player's menu screens sometimes made it on air), and then by a video server in SCAR.

Rkolsen posted:

Markymark posted:

deejay posted:

The Westminster camera, while not a weather camera officially, was certainly very useful yesterday in getting the first pictures to air.

The camera on the roof of Millbank Tower (I think) that provided the horrendous pictures of the car driving across the bridge, I assume that footage came from a continuous loop recording device, that runs 24/7 (for just this occurrence) ?
Whose camera is that, the BBC's, pooled broadcaster one, or police/tfl etc ?

Maybe it was one of those horrendous IP cameras that use a standard internet connection shared by many others. They've become prevalent enough in the US and have been used by networks.

It's a proper SDI link from there*. I think Markymark was probably referring to the content of the pictures - their quality wasn't great, though that's likely because it was a digital zoom of part of a wider shot.

[edit]
Someone who's more in the loop than me has PMed me to point out that Millbank Tower was not an RF receive point, and the SD camera has recently been replaced with an HD IP one.

Last edited by thegeek on 23 March 2017 3:20pm

IS

Inspector Sands 23 March 2017 9:57am

Mouseboy33 posted:

They are great arent they for immediate live pictures and very useful for weather shots and live breaking news. Some have derided tower cams on this site in the past, but they do prove to be a valuable source for getting pictures on air immediately. This serious incident was one such case that proves their value for a visual medium such as television. Until a reporter can arrive on scene or a chopper is scrambled to do a fly over these pics can be use to enhance coverage. These should be deployed in most major UK cities and at the major airports. (A couple atop the Shard in London, The Beetham in Manchester, Bullring in Birmingham, etc.)

They can be useful, if the incident they're trying to film is either very big (i.e. involves a plume of smoke) or just so happens to be in the right place.

Yesterday was a very rare example of the second. The problem with cameras on top of towers is that they're normally surrounded by low rise buildings. I don't know what you'd be able to film from the top of a tower in Birmingham (when you say The Bullring I assume you mean The Rotunda) except the roofs of the surrounding buildings.

The few BBC cameras in London were useless on 7/7 and 21/7 2005 for example. On 9/11 they could be used to keep an eye on the BT Tower for example

Last edited by Inspector Sands on 23 March 2017 10:09am

IS

Inspector Sands 23 March 2017 10:07am

cat posted:

A technical question: I noticed both Sky and the BBC almost immediately using their live Westminster birds eye cameras (don't know the correct term). Sky have had theirs in the same vantage point (top of QEII?) for years

Sky had theirs up straight away, meaning they had live pictures moments after the event happened, as the news broke

- how are these controlled remotely? It seemed to take Sky a few minutes to start moving their camera and zooming in to the scene

Presumably they'll just have a remote control interface for the camera in a control room at Sky. It's just a case of selecting the camera and move it

Quote:

and why aren't these more commonly used. It always surprises me there aren't similar arrangements at Heathrow or Gatwick, given the frequency of incidents/weather problems etc there

Even then would they actually get used much? There's really not that many incidents at Heathrow or Gatwick. The last crash I think was the BA one in 2006 (EDIT - 2008) and that happened outside the airport. Weather problems are more common, but it's normally fog and that's going to obscure the camera too.

I suppose it's just a case of how often it would get used and how much BAA would charge to put it there. These days with everyone having HD video cameras in their pockets, that's a far more likely to give a broadcaster footage of an incident at an airport than a camera on a rooftop

Last edited by Inspector Sands on 23 March 2017 10:32am - 3 times in total

MA

Markymark 23 March 2017 10:12am

thegeek posted:

I think Markymark was probably referring to the content of the pictures - their quality wasn't great, though that's likely because it was a digital zoom of part of a wider shot.

Yes, indeed, my use of 'horrendous' wasn't related to the technical quality. Thanks for the info Mr Geek

Westminster Security Incident

Firearms incident on Westminster Bridge (March 2017)