TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns (/showthread.php?tid=16)

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Bennyboy84 - 26-08-2023

Just some “best bits”of the Red Bee incident since it’ll be 2 years next month, we saw things during this and in the aftermath that we may not ever see anything like them again.

https://youtu.be/8_0dSnd0-ds?si=6vF-PHtVp8idSPNM 

https://youtu.be/nAWxpR9xoYc?si=C7DyVlO3l22ofLMd 

https://youtu.be/YUTqlOEsU_E?si=sNGA5WIWok9GiouK 

https://youtu.be/gBunUwjf_XI?si=Bm2DEQv9-MhXWgtS 

https://youtu.be/wMAfEFpdQgI?si=TfLij-Ii_2epN-Fm 

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - octothorpe - 29-08-2023

I recall the incident where colour bars appeared at the end of Gogglebox vividly. At first, I thought it was deliberate and a way for the show to poke fun at the technical problems. Then it went on a bit too long...!

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Bennyboy84 - 29-08-2023

I’ll admit it was kind of surreal seeing the channels showing graphics and breaks but nothing else. I remember how I found out about it, I was watching a recording of WWE Smackdown and my dog trod on the remote and stopped playback, so it defaulted to the last channel it was on which was Magic and it was doing as one of the clips above so then I started “investigating”

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - thegeek - 29-08-2023

(29-08-2023, 02:40 AM)octothorpe Wrote:  I recall the incident where colour bars appeared at the end of Gogglebox vividly. At first, I thought it was deliberate and a way for the show to poke fun at the technical problems. Then it went on a bit too long...!

I think by this point Channel 4 had decamped to their DR site, but late delivery programmes were being played in from elsewhere - likely Timeline TV in Ealing. This would almost certainly have been a case of the switch at BT Tower not being booked for long enough. (The 'Channel 4' on the bars is a coincidence - it's just the fourth output of the test signal generator)

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Orry Verducci - 29-08-2023

(29-08-2023, 01:32 PM)thegeek Wrote:  I think by this point Channel 4 had decamped to their DR site, but late delivery programmes were being played in from elsewhere - likely Timeline TV in Ealing. This would almost certainly have been a case of the switch at BT Tower not being booked for long enough. (The 'Channel 4' on the bars is a coincidence - it's just the fourth output of the test signal generator)

I recall seeing this. It cut to Tower's bars bang on the top of the hour, so it was indeed a booking to the DR playout facility that didn't have any buffer. Which was unfortunate as that night they ran about 15 seconds over the hour.

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Steve in Pudsey - 29-08-2023

Would they have only had one circuit? I thought it was standard to book the reserve to end before the main so there was advance warning of impending cockups?

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Orry Verducci - 29-08-2023

(29-08-2023, 10:45 PM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote:  Would they have only had one circuit? I thought it was standard to book the reserve to end before the main so there was advance warning of impending cockups?

Bearing in mind it's the DR playout facility, it's very possible it did only have one circuit. DR playout often doesn't have all the redundancy that the normal playout facilities have. When I've fed programmes in to ITV they've only ever taken one circuit to Leeds.

As for different booking times for the main and backup lines, that's not something I've come across or ever been asked to book. I've only ever known them both to be booked for the same times. But that is of course dependant on the broadcaster requiring the booking, so there may be one I'm not aware of that requires that.

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Steve in Pudsey - 30-08-2023

I think somebody said it was introduced after a couple of programmes falling off air at clock change times, so that any booking error was noticed before it affected output, they would book the reserve 15 minutes shorter than the main. Also guards against BST/UTC confusions.

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - Orry Verducci - 30-08-2023

(30-08-2023, 12:21 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote:  I think somebody said it was introduced after a couple of programmes falling off air at clock change times, so that any booking error was noticed before it affected output, they would book the reserve 15 minutes shorter than the main. Also guards against BST/UTC confusions.

It's possible a broadcaster did bring that in, but like I said it's not something I've come across. I booked programmes in to ITV and they didn't do that.

The trouble with such a policy is that it doesn't help in situations where playout are taking the reserve feed to air as their primary (e.g. if there's an issue or planned works that affect main). It also wouldn't be obvious to the MCR if the feed went down because it was booked 15 mins earlier, or if there's a fault.

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RE: TV Mistakes/Breakdowns - thegeek - 30-08-2023

I've spent a lot of time working in MCRs and that's the first I've heard of it. On the face of it it's not a terrible idea, but it does require your bookings department to be on the ball, and that's not something that can be guaranteed.

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