BBC North West Tonight

I thought that all the regional Torch programmes were always only going to be until 7.30. Would have thought it could have been sorted to join One Show a bit more smoothly though

How? Both programmes are live so they couldn't really do anything without making one of the programmes look ridiculas, with the The Torch Relay: North West having to fill and/or The One Show waiting on a caption or something similar while the North West opted back in. Better just to opt in to the programme already underway. Chris Evans welcomed viewers in the North West after the first report anyway.

The EPG said it ran until 8pm

It must have been an error (or perhaps it was just easier) as it was always supposed to be half and hour:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/bbc2012/torch/torch-coverage.html

At the beginning in his unnecessary apologies to viewers expecting The One Show he did say they'd be joining it "later in the hour".


Opting into live shows is nothing new at all - the BBC could easily have filled a bit longer in the North West to give a smooth opt to The One Show, while the One Show could easily have kept an eye on events in the NW to ensure any opt was done at the appropriate time.

What made it worse was there was no break between the two - it just crashed to the middle of a report as if something had gone wrong..

If only they'd had a presentational device of flexible duration. A globe, for instance...

Exactly.

It's essentially the same sort of situation as BBC Oxford News handing over to South Today at around 18:40. Both programmes are likely to be simultaneously slightly ahead/behind of their respective "on paper" running-order timings, due to nature of being live – and therefore out of synch with each other for naturally arriving at the opt-in moment simultaneously.

The Oxford presenter therefore often has to briefly "fill" with generic guff (e.g. a quick plug for the BBC Oxford local radio station, or similar), if South Today is, say, mid-report at that moment. The Oxford presenter is presumably instructed to have finished ad-libbing and have said goodbye to viewers at least, say, 4-seconds (or whatever) before the anticipated exact convenient opt-in moment within South Today's current live progress.

The BBC Oxford closing Sting covers the rest of those remaining seconds, and has plenty of spare (looped?) continuing subtle animation and music bed to ensure that any further seconds of "pregnant pause" are not silent and static ones.

With the right planning/effort etc, surely the NWT/One Show handover could have been similarly slickly orchestrated?

For example: End the coverage by introducing a montage of highlights of the day’s Torch Relay events set to suitable music, which can be easily faded out at any point. Possibly prepare far more second/minutes worth of montage than is likely to be needed (or make it a loop) just in case. When the anticipated convenient moment in the One Show is only very few seconds away (or they’ve run out of montage), fade out the music and mix to an NWT endcap (the fade/mix can be done quickly or slowly, as required). The encap can linger if necessary, with the music perhaps never quite fully faded down to total silence before the switch occurs.

I'd tweak that slightly so there isn't a crash into the network programme off the back of the NWT endboard.

The One Show provide the NW gallery with a copy of their opening titles. They also make sure their running order has a reasonably long VT ending at roughly the planned point that NW would join.

Once the One Show are into that VT they can give NWT an exact opt time (presumably they could have a feed of gallery talkback). At that point it's just a case of backtiming from that opt point for the duration of the One Show titles and a symbol before it. Get out of the local programme by going from the montage to end slide, play the symbol with suitable announcement and then play the One Show titles locally. Cut to network as their VT ends (holding on the end frame of the titles for a few seconds if they have to wait for network) and opt out at a suitable point. The One Show make sure that they come off the VT via a wide shot of the studio and their presenters welcome viewers in the NW before back referencing the VT and perhaps mentioning that viewers in the NW can see what they've missed on the iPlayer.

So viewers on network see nothing unusual, viewers in the NW see their programme finish, a symbol and continuity announcement, the One Show titles, a wide shot of the studio and then the presenters welcoming them, not too unlike the normal start of the show.

Precisely the same situation will arise with the Torch opts in NE & Cumbria, East Midlands and South - half hour programme against hour-long Friday One Show. Wonder if we'll see anything slicker from those regions?

[quote="Steve in Pudsey" pid="757004"]I'd tweak that slightly so there isn't a crash into the network programme off the back of the NWT endboard.

The One Show provide the NW gallery with a copy of their opening titles. They also make sure their running order has a reasonably long VT ending at roughly the planned point that NW would join.

Cut to network as their VT ends (holding on the end frame of the titles for a few seconds if they have to wait for network)
/quote]

They can't hold on the last frame, because it is keyed onto the studio, although I think there is a loopable 'hold' that revolves around the 'The One Show' text, so you could cut the loop in at what ever speed, then key the rest of the titles on at the end of the loop

You really haven't got the faintest what you're on about have you? Using words and terms like keying and opting might make you feel clever but unless you use them in a manner which makes sense it makes knowing what they mean even harder for you.

It's not exactly hard to hold on this is it (which is what he means):
http://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/547876_10150927794329761_21263239760_9533253_129805494_n.jpg
(West Mids was the only one I could find online, do apologise North Westies)

Which would be easy to do as there's a 14 second 'living hold' after each one of these sequences that was rendered...

The One Show on the other hand isn't hard either, take their titles and loop them off, the matte (which I think you are referring to by keying) is loaded into Viz and burnt onto the server titles however there are titles without the matte overlay on them that used to be used for closing the One Show in 2007, for a brief period.

You do realise you're just adding to his vocabulary of terms he doesn't understand but will use to make himself look smarter?