New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

Yes - most English regions have 'remote' cameras but not 'robotic' cameras. 'Remote' camera mountings allow for remote control of pan, tilt, zoom and focus, and in some cases elevation (i.e. height) - but only robotic cameras allow the camera ped to actually relocate within the studio. Robots are much more expensive and have a lot more safety restrictions. (Remote cameras on track like Furios - as used in many of the studios in NBH - are a kind of half-way house - they can only reposition themselves along the length of their tracks, and these tracks can be easily seen so reduce some of the safety issues involved)

When BBC News was based on the 6th floor at TV Centre, N2 had robotic cameras (used for the 'virtual' One, Six and Nine O'Clock News, and Business Breakfast/Breakfast News before they moved to TC7). N1, where BBC World was based, had remote cameras - as did TC7.

Repositioning remote cameras on the studio floor requires an additional person in the studio - which I guess Southampton are trying to avoid.

It's a rather niche question, but does anyone know if South Today is the only BBC region with 'static' graphics which don't animate, apart from a simple dissolve? I expect they're generated by a very old Aston. Also, their intro sequence is missing the animated headline text. It's always been a slight pet hate of mine, but to be fair, I'm sure it's a hardware limitation...

It was mentioned here a while ago. I think it was because of old equipment.

Thanks, and apologies for the duplication

There's a few that simply dissolve on and off; slowly regions without Viz (only London, Plymouth, Cambridge and Salford actually have Viz) were upgraded to have a CasparCG setup - Caspar is an open source, HTML driven character generator - it was trialed at the Mailbox after their Aston was finally giving up.

Those that don't probably use an Aston branded product, I remember reading that Oxford had to add Reith via floppy disk to get their aston to display the right style.

Those in the know, can CasparCG be driven by BigTED or has the bear finally retired?

EDIT: I think only Leeds and Birmingham use the CasparCG solution at present, presumably that's set to change.

CasparCG can be driven by BigTed but the project was put on hold after its trial at the mailbox so there isn’t a “one solution fits all” template that can be rolled out unfortunately. Sites that have since chosen to install CasparCG have gone it alone slightly in how its set up and configured and most are using it as a graphics playout device for full frame items and screen images, rather than lower thirds.

You’re right that hardware limitations prevent most regions from implementing the fully animating style of Reith lower thirds, with Astons being still the main character generator used across the country. It wasn’t quite a floppy disk, but a Magneto-Optical disk (quite hard to get these days!) although for the most part it was possible to get the new data into the Aston directly via a bit of ancient file management software that still works!

Leeds have the network style animation on their lower thirds, fwiw.

A reasonable job of replicating the network style of animation can be achieved by putting the text on as part of the edit using a template. That’s how Oxford do it.

Why don’t Southampton do the same, out of interest? Even more archaic kit, or editorial preference?

Unrelated but I think the coffee desk should replace the desk for good

Well it has in my life

The current BBC South studio set up with the low table and sofas looks fine.

Just wish it was in HD - not going to start that discussion again though!

It is simple but it works fine.