Does Millbank have the facility to receive sat truck broadcasts? During the recent power cut in BBC News there was a live from the usual position with TC1 in the background into the News24 service coming from Millbank, would that have been done just by Millbank or would the SNG have been received at TC and sent to Millbank? I think some power had been restored by this time
Does Millbank have the facility to receive sat truck broadcasts? During the recent power cut in BBC News there was a live from the usual position with TC1 in the background into the News24 service coming from Millbank, would that have been done just by Millbank or would the SNG have been received at TC and sent to Millbank? I think some power had been restored by this time
Millbank has links to the BT Tower I believe. This would allow the BBC to downlink either via BBC Birmingham (and then route to Millbank via BT circuits) - or use a commercial downlink service in London, again linked via BT to Millbank.
I don't understand how anyone could even think that they 'throw cables out of thr window'. Where would they be be plugged into? The back of the vision mixer? Don't be silly.
They would connect to a tie-line in the central apparatus room, vis a socket in a nearby wall (there are all sorts of connections in rooms and corridors)
When programmes do lives in the courtyard (the bit with the fountain) they do pass the cables out of the windows on the first floor (where the galleries are)
Yep - this is all possible. However most of the wallboxes are designed for Triax cameras (like those used in studios) - not ENG cameras (which either output composite or SDI) used for News lives. Sure there may be composite video tielines as well - but they will be normally used for other things. Add to this the requirement to provide clean feed and or 4 wire talkback, and a return audio, all without working into a main block studio, and it all gets very nasty - especially if you have to do it quickly. Most of the TVC Wallboxes work to specific studios, which would then have to re-plug to CAR, who in turn would have to re-plug to SCAR, all do-able but not a recipe for a quick set-up.
If you have a sat-truck parked in a carpark at TVC anyway - then why not use it ? The set-up is quicker and more reliable - as you appear to be any other news link (which every one is used to dealing with) and you have more control and monitoring of video and audio signals than with an inject point.
Breakfast can do the weather easily because their studio is a main-block style studio - so easily able to access the triax points around the place - and they are able to deploy a Triax camera of their own. Add to this that it is a regular requirement so easily planned and probably semi-permanently plugged - and the difference is pretty clear.
If you have a sat-truck parked in a carpark at TVC anyway - then why not use it ? The set-up is quicker and more reliable - as you appear to be any other news link (which every one is used to dealing with) and you have more control and monitoring of video and audio signals than with an inject point.
If you have a sat-truck parked in a carpark at TVC anyway - then why not use it ? The set-up is quicker and more reliable - as you appear to be any other news link (which every one is used to dealing with) and you have more control and monitoring of video and audio signals than with an inject point.
It costs a heck of a lot more though
Does it? If you have a truck doing nothing in the car park at TVC, and a permanently leased transponder channel or 8 (as the Beeb does), there is no overall cost is there? Sure there is an internal "paper pushing" cost - but it doesn't cost the BBC anything that it isn't already paying...
Yep - and the cost of renting plug-in points from "Main Block" and paying an engineer in a "Main Block" studio to route it out to CAR, and then CAR to route it to SCAR, would also probably be an internal cost. AIUI there are only a couple of plug-ins at TVC that News run directly and have free use of (one is the 7 O'Clock News roof-top point)
It can be quite amusing watching the news and spotting just how local the stories are. My favourites are on Reporting Scotland, when they do a story about alcohol - it's invariably from a pub within a stone's throw of Queen Margaret Drive.
I also remember, in years gone by, a series of shows from the Botanic Gardens, which is directly opposide Broadcasting House. I think they ran the whole show from an OB truck parked next to the park gates, and then fed the programme feed across the road, possibly under a cable duct.
A couple of years ago South Today did a week of special reports concetrating on 'the operation of BBC Radio Solent'. Think they just had to take the camera down the corridor for that one!
When I saw that report from just outside TV Centre, I wondered how they got the signal back.
Did they send an SNG truck 20 yards out the gate? Or just use a cable?
Anyone know?
I think there's a plug-in point on the wall around there. even if there wasn't It would be quite easy to do as it's not a public location so wires could be slung out of the window.
They aren't that common at the moment, but they could have used a radio camera
Every time they've done a "BBC" story (eg Hutton, Kilroy) and I've seen them, they've always used a Sat Truck for the feed.
Always thought it was madness to be honest, especially as it's literally metres away from the studio! But if you consider it, a certain number of trucks will be allocated on a daily basis with the crews already paid for, so I suppose it's best to use them... Hmmmmm. Can kinda see both sides of the argument, but still think it's madness!
I guess you have a point about crews, they would otherwise be at the location of some other news story so I guess it's not costing anything that wasn't budgeted for
In the distant past before they built the Norwich Union building on it, the old Look East building in Norwich had a garden. They used to cable the studio cameras (multicore - not triax) into the garden I'm told - but had to allow lots of time to reconnect them back into the studio as the cable and connectors was not that reliable (it hardly ever got unplugged normally)
I also seem to recall that Look East occasionally did the weather from the smaller back garden - especially when it snowed. This was done at the back door a matter of feet from the studio.
On occasions South Today have opened the studio doors and walked out into the car park for some items - usually cars, bikes or skateboarding...
It is easy when you can safely cable from the main news studio to a location using local facilities - like your normal cameras and triax cable, with normal comms etc.