If BBC1 South West HD did launch, it would be the first English Region to go HD, wouldn't it?
North West and London (and maybe others) have HD studios but HD output can't be seen by viewers.
Cambridge
Although can Cambridge produce HD to air while Norwich can't yet?
None of the English regions can produce "HD to air" as they don't have HD opt-chains (so they can't put HD sources to air themselves) (BBC London can reach air in HD if their HD output is cut-up by a show on an HD network)
AIUI all (or most) of the English regions got Dirac Pro encoders that let them feed HD contributions fed to other HD-capable bits of the BBC (Salford, London, Glasgow etc.)
Dirac Pro is light form of compression that takes un-compressed HD and compresses it (quite lightly and with low delay) so that it can be carried on the same circuits that would carry un-compressed SD. (It was in widespread use to route HD around TV Centre internally)
This allows Football League rushes to be sent from the various English regions in HD. The output from the regional centre is still an SD-compatible signal so it can be routed over SD Raman (the BBC internal vision routing system) circuits. If you see the signal in SD you actually get a very noise 2-bit SD version of the HD signal, as the HD content is actually contained in what looks like noise. (This is very useful as you can read
VT clocks, the idents on bars etc. without needing a Dirac Pro decoder)
However only a few English regions have had HD down-the-line cameras, and the required plumbing for HD live contributions from these cameras. However none of the ER's could take these cameras to air in HD themselves, as they don't have any HD opt possibilities.
Last edited by noggin on 9 December 2014 6:20pm
