[thegeek]

I think strictly speaking, 'Operation Lion' referred to the events filling the days between the death and the funeral of the Queen, with 'Operation Unicorn' being the variant of the plan if she died in Scotland - ie including the lying in state in Edinburgh and additional travelling. (The unicorn, of course, being the national animal of Scotland.)

[Newshound47]

I wonder how much preparation had gone on at the Broadcasters for the Scottish events.

[m_in_m]

I wonder how much preparation had gone on at the Broadcasters for the Scottish events.

You would have thought it would have been a significant part of their planning given how important Balmoral was to the Queen and how much time she spent there each year.

[thegeek]

Plenty. The bit that surprised me on the day was how quickly the BBC got a satellite truck to the gates of Balmoral - I think they have a truck based in Aberdeen, but it's over an hour's drive away.

(I did hear a rumour in the dim and distant past that they kept a flyaway dish in a shed in Crathie in preparation for the Queen Mum dying, but doubt that's been the case for a long time)

[i.h]

Plenty. The bit that surprised me on the day was how quickly the BBC got a satellite truck to the gates of Balmoral - I think they have a truck based in Aberdeen, but it's over an hour's drive away.

(I did hear a rumour in the dim and distant past that they kept a flyaway dish in a shed in Crathie in preparation for the Queen Mum dying, but doubt that's been the case for a long time)

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.

[thegeek]

I can't remember what exactly it was, but I remember seeing some sort of picture break-up on the day that was definitely the sort I'd associate with satellite, not a bonded cellular solution like LiveU. (My day job involves looking at both quite a bit, so I'm pretty confident in that.)

[Worzel]

AIUI, the shot the BBC used outside the gates was pooled by them via a sat truck.

If I recall, Reuters or AP were infact the first ones outside Balmoral using LiveU or a mobile connection of some description.

[James2001]

I guess it's possible the media already had a head up about the queen situation before it became publicly announced, so they had time to get the trucks there. Or maybe they were still there from when Liz Truss was there the day before.

[Dougal]

I think strictly speaking, 'Operation Lion' referred to the events filling the days between the death and the funeral of the Queen, with 'Operation Unicorn' being the variant of the plan if she died in Scotland - ie including the lying in state in Edinburgh and additional travelling. (The unicorn, of course, being the national animal of Scotland.)

It's more complicated than that. Operation Lion is the name given to the plans for any royal death. It includes all of the Bridges ops, Operation Unicorn and a couple of others (Overstudy being the obvious one). They are all overseen the the Bridges Secretariat within the Cabinet Office and the Earl Marshall's Office.

There isn't strictly an operation to cover the days in between the death and the funeral. It's all part of either Operation Unicorn, Operation Overstudy or Operation London Bridge. In this instance, it was a combination of Unicorn and London Bridge.

The plans are shared with broadcasters, etc. to facilitate coordination and to make things run as smoothly as possible. There's a screenshot somewhere on here of a control room in BBC Northern Ireland (I think) showing the heading for Operation Lion.

[London Lite]

I haven't watched it, but occasionally ITN Productions are commissioned to make these topical docs for C5 which are of a higher quality than you'd expect.