Anglia/East of England News Discussion

Yep - the experience of Plymouth confirmed that upgrading every region (which would have to be to HD) can't follow the Plymouth model.

As a result they are delaying upgrades (though I believe there is a stop-gap solution to replace dying Astons if need be) in the hope that a new opt-out model and new IP (semi-remote production) will be feasible and cost-effective. Effectively VILOR for TV...

But yes - many BBC English regions (other than Salford, Plymouth and London) are pretty much running on fumes. I've seen Thomson cameras with cheap LCD monitors stuck on to replace failed CRT viewfinders, and all sorts of bodges to keep kit running.

Some studios have been upgraded to Sony HD cameras I believe (running SD) - and they will work with whatever future production model is used.

HSC-300 I think ? Southampton has them (running in SD), as well as Plymouth (in HD). I assume the HD ' DTL' images we often see from BBC 'SD' regions, are HSC-300s running in HD mode feeding to London over a DIRAC codec ?

Why need a dedicated camera. Why not just hook up an ENG camcorder with an HD-SDI output?

Yes, they could do that too, I'm not familiar with the English regions current ENG kit ?

I just mentioned setting up an ENG camcorder because the current wiring/router in some of the regions may not be able to handle the full signal routing of a 1.48Gbps camera output.

Why would an upgrade be outdated in 12 months?

Because the entire BBC One opt-ing infrastructure is changing, and it's entirely possible that the English regions will be moving to remote IP production.

I see, thank you

Multiple ENG cameras always end up turning into Frankencameras once you implement remote tally, racking (aka paint/shading), reverse vision, prompter feeds and then add a fibre or triax conversion (most - probably all - BBC English regions have triax equipped studios)

Sure you can make them work - but you don't want to have to set-up that kind of build every day - so you'd end up buying PSC cameras and adaptors - which probably won't deliver much in savings, but will cause you more points of failure.

If you're thinking of taking the cameras out on the road during the day - that's probably not hugely viable when you have bulletins at 1330, 1830 and 2230 and regions as big as the BBC do (you can be driving hours each way to a shoot). Add into that the deep joy of having to lock off peds, dismantle and then rebuild a camera (even worse if you are using Radamec/Shotoku PTZ mountings) then it doesn't really make much sense. Then when you have to do pre-records it gets even more complex. (Sorry we can't do Sunday Politics opt-out recording on Friday as all our cameras are out shooting PSC?)

HSC-300s have the advantage of being triax based - so fit in nicely with existing cabling infrastructure. They are also the 'building standard' camera in NBH, so the BBC probably has/had a good procurement deal with Sony to get them at a decent price?

Don't know if they will have HSC-300s on Newsroom cameras though - they may be a cheaper brick-solution?

ah... so that's why BBC Look East looks like it's being played out from VHS??

Yep. Truly awful cameras. Millbank also had them until they went HD. Think Leeds and Tunbridge Wells are/were cursed with them too.