RT
Yes it is a bit confusing, it does catch out those new to the operation. Although the News Packages are NP (or RP for a radio package) and presumably a packaged report is PKG which helps.
The name comes from the fact that all the various bits of the live are packaged together. It's a term that comes from the video router system used, although I think it might be used on others too so its possibly a common term. I've heard of 'packagers' on other systems
Thing is I can't think of another suitable term - it's several circuits all wrapped up together, what else could it be called that doesn't mean anything else either
Just to add to this, the package side of this brings the sound/vision from the location (remote DTL/Satellite truck/regional centre) with the clean feed/IFB back to the guest. That 'package' can then be routed to an Outside Source (OS) in any studio, and if that studio is the one at the top of the clean feed queue the reverse sound will get back to the guest 'as if by magic'. There's less confusion than posters mention, as the news packages just get referred to as an NP (eg "pick up NP58")
BBC News – Behind the Scenes
OK... why would they coin the term "package" to describe the bundle of comms circuits? Surely that's asking for confusion when the running order contains a VT package and a live hit from the same source? "Have we got the Kuenssberg package yet?"
Yes it is a bit confusing, it does catch out those new to the operation. Although the News Packages are NP (or RP for a radio package) and presumably a packaged report is PKG which helps.
The name comes from the fact that all the various bits of the live are packaged together. It's a term that comes from the video router system used, although I think it might be used on others too so its possibly a common term. I've heard of 'packagers' on other systems
Thing is I can't think of another suitable term - it's several circuits all wrapped up together, what else could it be called that doesn't mean anything else either
Just to add to this, the package side of this brings the sound/vision from the location (remote DTL/Satellite truck/regional centre) with the clean feed/IFB back to the guest. That 'package' can then be routed to an Outside Source (OS) in any studio, and if that studio is the one at the top of the clean feed queue the reverse sound will get back to the guest 'as if by magic'. There's less confusion than posters mention, as the news packages just get referred to as an NP (eg "pick up NP58")