BT Tower

Remember the tower was built as the centrepiece of the Post Office's microwave network in the 60s, with all the Cold War issues that implies. Indeed, for many years the location of the tower was protected by law! The cold war, and IRA campaigns, mean that security of the building, it's circuits and the information it passes have always been a concern. Indeed, even today, at ground level the tower resembles more a bunker entrance than an office block.

The Post Office also had many underground facilities, several built or extended around the same time. Some of those, now decommissioned sites, have details in the public domain. What we do know is that a LOT of money was being spent to secure communications across the country, even in the event of a nuclear attack (and the tower would have played a part in this).

(e.g. http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/k/kingsway/index1a.html )

In the base of the building more than the tower AIUI


It's not unusual in Europe at all. Dates back to the 60s when Microwave links needed tall towers and were the main links for broadcast TV (and also telephony) In many European countries the distribution of TV signals was handled, like telephone calls, telexes etc. by the state PTT company (in the UK the Post Office - aka GPO) and large microwave towers were commonplace for siting distribution and switching operations. In some European nations they are also used to site TV transmitters - but this isn't universal. (It's common in Germany though)

In many European countries these towers are open for visitors and have viewing platforms (often with cafes and restaurants) at the top. The Post Office Tower (now BT Tower) was similarly open (and has a revolving platform once used as a restaurant) but an attempted bombing by the IRA in the 70s meant it was closed as a visitor attraction. It is now open for occasional visitors and corporate events (with aircraft cabin level security)

It's heavily protected - like most sensitive locations.

Indeed the existence of the Tower was technically an Official Secret until fairly recently so it didn't appear on maps.

Kate Hoey in the Commons:

No! Only some of the day

(Anyway, how would we know if it was broken if we weren't watching it?)

Unrelated to BT Tower potentially but related to quality monitoring. If a live TV show was going to have a test card in it as part of a skit or joke, do they need to tell the folks monitoring the feed so they don't have a mini heart attack?

Only out of politeness.

CCA once got a call from SCAR asking if we had anything that could generate analogue snow. There was a domestic SVHS deck which did the trick, so we fed it down the line to them. An hour or two later, our monitoring of BBC One went all snowy, giving half the room the aforementioned heart attacks - turns out the request had been for a VT on Newsround.

On taped pre-recorded shows there is a part of the VTRR ( VT Recording Report) to notify presentation of things they should be aware of (such as simulated spooling, shash, fades to black etc.) and I believe there is often a space for this on delivery paperwork. I don't know if the DPP metadata extends to this, but there are usually areas in paperwork to report this (and it is requested that you do)

Live shows should do this, out of courtesy (and it is deemed 'the right thing to do') when you line up with presentation. I know many shows do this - and will sometimes also warn during their show when the item with a potential 'heart stopper' is about to happen. (Though increasingly the apparent indifference with which this warning is seemingly received can be a bit disheartening)

It's usually mentioned in the paperwork that accompanies every programme (or on live programmes mentioned on talkback), but that doesn't get seen outside of playout. To those downstream in the distribution chain it's unexpected.


Sometimes a trailer uses some effect that looks like a fault and you get used to it by the time it stops airing.


Static or snow is very difficult to generate or find. Later VHS decks and TVs blocked it and replaced it with a blue screen or similar. It is something that journalists always want for their packages though.


In a previous job I would clip up any I noticed on the end of a feed and keep in on the server. I took a copy of one and have it at home for any edit projects I need some. Useful stuff

I understand there’s the security perspective but I’m thinking of the worst case scenario if something were to bring the tower down and damage the surrounding buildings. During 9/11 a local Verizon switching center was near ground zero and suffered damage causing outages.

As for the productions warning about color bars and snow I saw a note on an NBC Contigency when they last had the Super Bowl in 2015. During the first commercial it showed a aerial of the stadium and a voice over with the video starting to break up. They had a note sent to all stations and their master control operators that it is a part of the commercial and not to switch to the back up feed.

The commercial was for a Chevy truck that offered a 4G WiFi hotspot built into the car. They then showed a person on their tablet watching the big game.

That's true of any building though. All businesses should have Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans. BT will be no different - and neither will their customers - like the BBC or ITV.

I recall the Manchester tunnel fire in 2004, that took out a load of copper and fibre.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/03/29/bt_fire_disrupts_emergency_services/

I seem to recall DTT feeds to Northern Ireland were affected by that ?

Well yes, that is a worry: