The Newsroom

BBC News – Behind the Scenes

Questions about the technical side of BBC News (March 2021)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
RE
RyanE
deejay posted:

For graphics, there are various ways these can get to air. Viz can be set up to have several pause points in a sequence, so the director has to animate it when the presenter reaches the appropriate point in the script, or it can be an auto mixing sequence that changes every few seconds. Sometimes though they record a viz render onto the server and cut it into separate clips. This can be safer for some programmes and it can allow for more flexibility.


By animating it, I take it that this happens by pressing the take button on the automation?

What I saw must have been a render that had been put on the server, hence the confusion.
DE
deejay
RyanE posted:
deejay posted:

For graphics, there are various ways these can get to air. Viz can be set up to have several pause points in a sequence, so the director has to animate it when the presenter reaches the appropriate point in the script, or it can be an auto mixing sequence that changes every few seconds. Sometimes though they record a viz render onto the server and cut it into separate clips. This can be safer for some programmes and it can allow for more flexibility.


By animating it, I take it that this happens by pressing the take button on the automation?

What I saw must have been a render that had been put on the server, hence the confusion.


Yes, although it’s a different button to Take Next 😉

Back in the day, there would have been a graphics operator who would respond to the call to “animate” from the director. Most directors still say “animate” because although they’re pressing the button, it’s a good cue for the presenter to know stuff has changed on screen.
HA
harshy Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
IIRC The lower thirds are generated live from cues in the script, by Viz engines downstream of the studio so that the graphics can be different on different outlets, BBC One can lose the ticker or a package can have generic branding one hour and a branded programme title the next.

I think there are separate Viz facilities which are sources into the gallery.

Still looking forward to the day they fix the pinkish BBC World News logo at the start of the bulletin Smile
IS
Inspector Sands
Here's a little video made by BBC Output Operations which some might find interesting:



SP
Steve in Pudsey
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?"
TR
trevormon
The term News Package describes the live source which can be made available to any studio. Once it's been picked up by a studio it will be allocated to an Outside Source channel within that studio and be referred to as OS3, or whatever number OS it has been allocated to. When that studio has finished with the News Package it may be selected by another studio and be given a different OS number.

Anyone in the building can see what's on a particular News Package but within the studio using it they refer to it by its OS name.
Last edited by trevormon on 23 March 2021 2:35am
IS
Inspector Sands
Steve in Pudsey posted:
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
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 23 March 2021 6:36am
DO
dosxuk
I've heard similar things called a bundle before, but package seems to fit just as well in this scenario.
DE
deejay
It’s actually never caused confusion as far as I know. Editorial teams deal with packages as part of their programme running order and technical teams deal with “news packages” for a live contribution. Note that the latter is always referred to as a “news package” and never just a package, so that’s probably why it’s never caused confusion. Also, as has been pointed out earlier in this thread, once a news package has been assigned to an OS, usually within the gallery it’s then referred to as “the OS” or “OS4” or even just by the correspondent’s name.
UKnews and Steve in Pudsey gave kudos
CH
chaose

Thought this might fit in here. Is it acurate?
CR
Critique
An indication of how little Studio B is used these days - the screens in the Gallery still have the US 2020 branding on them!



Alfie Mulcahy and Willz gave kudos
NE
News96
Well i'm assuming it will be used more in the next few weeks considering we have the Local Elections in May (and for the rehearsals before hand)

Newer posts