BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage (/showthread.php?tid=650)

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - newsjunkie - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 04:36 PM)all new phil Wrote:  I work for one of these media companies and I know nothing. People I know who work for other media companies equally know nothing.

This is 100% true. They have been working towards it being May at earliest. Now assumption will be possibly June, but most likely October-December.

Think security concerns about it being at similar time to US election is red herring. They have to have it at some point and most likely time is going to be either just before US vote or after result but before they take office. Not sure which is better.

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Brekkie - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 04:36 PM)all new phil Wrote:  I work for one of these media companies and I know nothing. People I know who work for other media companies equally know nothing.

And if Jon Snow was still working for C4 I suspect he would know nothing too.

Talking of C4 wonder if they'll bother with their Alternative Election Night coverage this year considering that would involve spending money and the last effort wasn't too well received, especially in the industry.

That said it will likely be a 1997 style landmark moment that should have an audience wanting somewhat lighter coverage.

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Globaltraffic24 - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 06:02 PM)newsjunkie Wrote:  This is 100% true. They have been working towards it being May at earliest. Now assumption will be possibly June, but most likely October-December.

Think security concerns about it being at similar time to US election is red herring. They have to have it at some point and most likely time is going to be either just before US vote or after result but before they take office. Not sure which is better.

Right wing tories would love a post trump victory election. Moderates would hate it as it’ll spook the markets and cause a lot of noise on both political sides.

There definitely is a bit of exaggeration about five eyes protocol but this time it is a bigger deal due to the ongoing Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen conflicts. Putin would LOVE two major economies being in a period of flux at the same time.

Anyway, we’ll just need to wait. One things for sure, we know it’s coming this year and the fact broadcasters have been given a few false starts with it means we might be able to expect some pretty decent effort this year in terms of pres. Certainly feels like Sky News is in a big pre election prep period.

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Stooky Bill - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 01:27 PM)Newshound47 Wrote:  I’m still surprised in this day and age sporting events at football stadiums which hold 20 or more live matches a season need satellite trucks rather than everything on fibre.

All the major football grounds - anything in the first 4 divisions, some above that, have fibre connectivity. You won't find a sat truck at matches on a Saturday afternoon.

However when a game is live you often will. For example this afternoon both the FA Cup matches on ITV1 and BBC1 have fibre as a main and satellite as a reserve. That's because you need path diversity for live programmes, it would be very unlikely to lose both.

I can't speak for Sky and TNT but that's certainly the case for the terrestrial broadcasters. It's written into the delivery requirements

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Brekkie - 17-03-2024

How many counting centres are there - obviously 600+ constituencies but usually multiple results are announces at one venue. You'd imagine they'd trust fibre for the non-flagship seats but this will be an election with a few Portillo moments expected.

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Steve in Pudsey - 17-03-2024

The English 3pm games are shown live overseas of course, I guess from the World Feed - how resilient is that?

Wasn't there quite a big effort using Live U and journalism students to cover counts last time?

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - DTV - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 06:57 PM)Brekkie Wrote:  How many counting centres are there - obviously 600+ constituencies but usually multiple results are announces at one venue. You'd imagine they'd trust fibre for the non-flagship seats but this will be an election with a few Portillo moments expected.

I would guess there are around 300 counting centres as they generally correspond to local authorities.

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Andrew - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 07:46 PM)DTV Wrote:  I would guess there are around 300 counting centres as they generally correspond to local authorities.

I’d probably go lower and say no more than 200

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - Stooky Bill - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 06:57 PM)Brekkie Wrote:  How many counting centres are there - obviously 600+ constituencies but usually multiple results are announces at one venue. You'd imagine they'd trust fibre for the non-flagship seats but this will be an election with a few Portillo moments expected.

There won't be a fibre from those locations, they're only installed into locations that will have regular OBs. Unless the counts are at a sports ground or concert venue then there won't be any permanent connectivity. It's not worth installing anything temporarily for one night.

Big events like The Eurovision Song Contest have fibre nodes installed, but they're big, week long events that require multiple high bit-rate video feeds.

So any coverage of declarations will be either some sort of satellite connection (either traditional SNG or an IP VSAT based solution) , bonded cellular or via Internet. The last two of course will mean having to compete for bandwidth between the broadcasters and other users. Using the venues existing network might be enough depending on how many broadcasters are present. It's possible with LiveUs to use a combination of ethernet and cellular

As for how many counting places, that's a good question. It won't be as many as 300, often there's 3 or 4 in one centre.

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RE: BBC/ITV/Sky Elections Coverage - peterrocket - 17-03-2024

(17-03-2024, 09:36 PM)Stooky Bill Wrote:  There won't be a fibre from those locations, they're only installed into locations that will have regular OBs. Unless the counts are at a sports ground or concert venue then there won't be any permanent connectivity. It's not worth installing anything temporarily for one night.

They won't install broadcast fibre, but they'll go for broadband installation as you certainly won't rely on any count centre infrastructure. In most cases it's public sector or an educational establishment. The ports you need will no doubt be blocked, and there's often no point trying to get them opened as IT policy will get in the way.

The cost of installing a 512mb line, full fibre, on a 12 month business contract (and the cost of paying a full year) is much less than a sat truck and sat time. Not to mention the fact trucks can be hard to get hold of on busy periods.

Know the right staff at the centre and you can use the network cabling in the venue to patch your way around to make life easier and less need for cable traps.

Throw on a decent network switch and you've enough connectivity for:
1x Live U feed up to 10Mbs but the same unit can also bring talkback and return vision
1x Ethernet for reporter's laptop
1x Ethernet for a Comrex / Luci Live for those centres also on radio.

You don't even need the most high-spec Live-U, just one with two sims as backup will do the trick and you've got redundancy.

Obviously if it's a big count, you'd look at an SNG, but even with the smaller installations, you can do multi-cameras with an ATEM switcher.

Some BBC Nations have been using that process for many years now.

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