[Larry the Loafer]

Central seemed unusually prepared for that breakdown, unless that was also an edit on the tape?

[robertclark125]

Central seemed unusually prepared for that breakdown, unless that was also an edit on the tape?

Yeah I'm thinking that was an edit on the tape. Looking at the LWT one, it seems they weren't.

[Wrekin Havoc]

Yeah I'm thinking that was an edit on the tape. Looking at the LWT one, it seems they weren't.

The cue dot for the commercial break was already up just before the loss of feed so LWT is likely to have shouted on the Red Phone for regions to take the break. Agreed, the Central tape must have been edited.

[Stooky Bill]

I thought the convention was not to run adverts during a breakdown, the thinking being that the advertisers don't want to be associated with failure.

I wonder what that square is on the black screen that was left after the feed was lost? It looks like I thought it might be some sort of graphics mask used to blank out something in a wide shot in the arena

[Wrekin Havoc]

I thought the convention was not to run adverts during a breakdown, the thinking being that the advertisers don't want to be associated with failure.

Agreed, but not on this occasion it seems.

[Mike]

I wonder what that square is on the black screen that was left after the feed was lost? It looks like I thought it might be some sort of graphics mask used to blank out something in a wide shot in the arena

It's quite peculiar - there's nothing obvious in the w/s that I could see that would need such a mask. Is this programme too early for any digital stuff and could it just be a block of picture left as part of the fault?

Edit: There's a brief mix/fade to black and a feint horizontal line appears moments before for a couple of frames and then it progressively reduces down over a couple of frames to the rectangle remaining of the picture. Possible that it was a transition loaded into the mixer of whatever scanner they were using that was intended for another broadcast and used by mistake/as a result of a fault? The Central clip shows it more clearly but it extends from the top of Jim Rosenthal's head to the top of the screen.

[Si-Co]

Recently, BBC Scotland have had issues at the start of a couple of episodes of EastEnders (and quite possibly other times too). A couple of weeks ago, the announcer stumbled over her words a little (perhaps indicating she already knew something was up and/or was “lost in the desk”) and the screen then showed the frozen shot at the start of the titles for a few seconds. Just as they started to play, a promo cut in and played for a good ten seconds - then it cut back to the titles - then back to the promo before cutting back to the titles just as they were finishing.

The following week something very similar happened - the freeze frame and a cut to a trailer (for sport of some kind) but this time it played out in full before cutting back to the programme just as the titles were finishing. About five minutes into the programme the same thing happened again, meaning 15-20 seconds of the show were lost.

The initial jump to a trailer could be explained by human error - maybe the announcer hit “next event” twice (I think there’s a delay before this takes effect, which means it’s probably easy to do if you think your first click hasn’t worked). But surely that wouldn’t explain cuts back and forward, particularly during the show itself?

[Stooky Bill]

Re. IBA transmitters, sync detection, ITS and breakdown captions. Here's a look at the equipment that did all that at a transmitter:

youtu.be 

(starting at 15'45")

[Steve in Pudsey]

The BBC Scotland issues sound like two separate things. The first is likely a timing cockup (either local or an issue delaying network from starting the programme as expected).

The unexpected trails sounds like the announcer/director had the desk in rehearsal mode (or out of circuit) to set up the next junction, but it wasn't.

[Steve in Pudsey]

For clarity (as I can't edit) I meant to say *thought they* had the desk in rehearsal mode