[steve]

And let’s not forget, the Privy Council the night before was cancelled last minute (and it was an important Privy Council meeting with a new government and members to swear in). So there was already a reason you might have thought a sat truck close to Balmoral might be a worthwhile idea.

[Orry Verducci]

not knowing what the mobile coverage is like in the area - could they have used one of those 4G/5G units instead of or until the sat truck turned up? are any of the news orgs doing anything with starlink and other easy-to use LEO systems? seems like the textbook use case.

BBC News has used Starlink for reports, which I understand was successful. I think other news organisations have been looking at or trialing Starlink.

However, given the significance of the Queen's passing, the use of LEO satellites would have been off the table as it wouldn't be considered reliable or tested enough. For events of that significance the news broadcasters like to stick to the high quality and very reliable solutions, which is basically the traditional satellite truck. Even the use of 4G would have been deemed "not good enough" for this sort of event, other than for the initial pictures until the truck can get there.

[JACKLUFC1998]

If say, as an example, the Queen wasn't at Balmoral, and was on a state visit to the US when she died, what would the plan have been then?

[Stooky Bill]

IIRC a lot of bonded cellular was used for some of the coffins journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh and from London to Windsor. That's really the only way a lot of it could be done even with the usual issues of using cell networks in crowds.

I can't remember how the pictures from the more rural bits of Scotland were done, I know there was a helicopter following the journey, but how those images got back I'll have to look up

[Technologist]

There is a piece on the BBC private 5 G network that they used and offered to other broadcasters for the coronation in the latest EBU tech-I
tech.ebu.ch . And the whp
www.bbc.co.uk 

IBC 2023: Using a private 5G network to support coverage of the King's Coron…
At large events mobile networks are saturated with data traffic and news coverag…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Building in the work at Edinburgh airport as her late Majesty left Scotland
www.broadcastnow.co.uk 

QTV deploys 5G first for Queen’s final departure from Scotland | News | Broadcas…
Private 5G network was used to connect cameras used in the international broadca…
  Source: www.broadcastnow.co.uk

And in other technology
over here at IBC 2023 BT M&B are showing seamless LEO connectivity by using two different constellations … And they have a 5G product..

[Stooky Bill]

If say, as an example, the Queen wasn't at Balmoral, and was on a state visit to the US when she died, what would the plan have been then?

Then it would have been Operation Overstudy rather than Operation Unicorn. That was the plan RAF flying the coffin back to the UK

[aaron_scotland]

IIRC a lot of bonded cellular was used for some of the coffins journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh and from London to Windsor. That's really the only way a lot of it could be done even with the usual issues of using cell networks in crowds.

I can't remember how the pictures from the more rural bits of Scotland were done, I know there was a helicopter following the journey, but how those images got back I'll have to look up

The helicopter was using 4G which was seen as a pretty impressive feat at the time. Alternative would have been multiple downlink sites on sat trucks which would have just been horrendously expensive.

[i.h]

BBC News has used Starlink for reports, which I understand was successful. I think other news organisations have been looking at or trialing Starlink.

However, given the significance of the Queen's passing, the use of LEO satellites would have been off the table as it wouldn't be considered reliable or tested enough. For events of that significance the news broadcasters like to stick to the high quality and very reliable solutions, which is basically the traditional satellite truck. Even the use of 4G would have been deemed "not good enough" for this sort of event, other than for the initial pictures until the truck can get there.

I was thinking more of the same scenario where you'd use 4G/5G but it's not available or not suitable, eg before a sat truck arrives. The same sort of use case where BGAN would normally be used, albeit so much cheaper.

---

And in other technology
over here at IBC 2023 BT M&B are showing  seamless LEO connectivity  by using two different constellations …  And they have a 5G product..

BT seems to be very much in bed with OneWeb (there's a recent story where they've used it to connect their mainland core network to remote islands in Scotland and Devon) so it would not be surprising if that's going to be part of their offer to the media industry - alongside (I presume) some sort of collaboration with EE for 5G

[News Engineer]

BBC News has used Starlink for reports, which I understand was successful. I think other news organisations have been looking at or trialing Starlink.

We (not the BBC) have used Starlink for some live contributions, the big issue is the handoff between the satellites leaving gaps in the data flow, so the signal from a LiveU (or similar) will break up for a few seconds, as the SIM cards can’t take over in time.

LiveU suggested in a paper that two Starlink terminals bonded together would work well as they’re likely to connect to different satellites, so the handoffs won’t happen at the same time.

For the King’s coronation one of our teams wanted to go live from a place along the route where we couldn’t get a sat truck in. We gave them a Starlink, but with the warning about the handoffs causing dropouts.

I ended up watching the data graph from that unit in our MCR throughout our coverage - seeing the dropouts happen as expected and desperately hoping the programme didn’t come to then during one of those. Fortunately they didn’t! Speaking to colleagues elsewhere who were also monitoring that unit, it became clear the cells were swamped and the Starlink was the thing keeping them on air!

The other problem with Starlink is the countries were service is not available are some of the countries where you’d most want to use it. Including a couple recently where major news stories have happened.

OneWeb is a very interesting option, and unlike Starlink there are companies involved in selling the service that have worked with broadcasters for years and so know their particular requirements. 

For lower amounts of guaranteed bandwidth there are other portable options too which can work quite well. Geostationary satellites still have a role to play- either for traditional video or an - in effect - private IP link.

[Larry the Loafer]

Apologies if this has already been touched upon, but having thought back to how the media reacted to the news-before-the-news, would BBC One, ITV and C5 have gone into rolling news mode if they didn't know the Queen's demise was imminent?

I know BBC One, at least, started to simulcast BBC News at least a couple of hours before HM actually died. I just wonder how they would've justified all that coverage if it'd transpired she pulled through that day.