10-08-2022, 09:08 PM
Sounds like there was nearly a breakdown on Meridian tonight, fire alarm just before 6.00 so Chiswick put London out in its place.
TV Mistakes/Breakdowns
16-08-2022, 11:33 AM
Channel 4 HD has gone off air. Near the end of The Simpsons, the picture froze but the audio continued for about half a minute. Then once the credits started, both the picture and audio disappeared, and it has been on a black screen for several minutes. SD is unaffected.
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16-08-2022, 11:58 AM
17-08-2022, 12:13 PM
Mildly amusing weather blooper from last night on BBC Two (though network managed to miss the cough):
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17-08-2022, 04:48 PM
I posted this in the TV talk forum, but I'll post it here as well. It concerns a fault, one afternoon on BBC2 Scotland in 1989, when you used to get a mid afternoon news bulletin, followed by a regional news bulletin on BBC2.
The national bulletin passed without a hitch. But, when BBC Scotland opted out to show the reporting Scotland bulletin, we saw the presenter, faintly, and could hear him faintly. However, overlaid on this, seen and heard more clearly, was the North west news! This was during the period when the whole of Cumbria, and not just the lower section, was in the BBC North West area.
We were able to see the north west news clearer, and could hear the presenter clearer, and faintly hear BBC Scotland, resulting in us hearing about stuff happening in the North West, especially Cumbria and the north of Lancashire! Right at the end, when the bulletins finished, was when the North West disappeared, and the fault was corrected.
How could such an event have occurred? There was no apology, and it seemed like no attempt was made to fix it, just the fault ended right at the end, when the North west disappeared, and we heard the BBC Scotland rpesenter saying goodbye?
The national bulletin passed without a hitch. But, when BBC Scotland opted out to show the reporting Scotland bulletin, we saw the presenter, faintly, and could hear him faintly. However, overlaid on this, seen and heard more clearly, was the North west news! This was during the period when the whole of Cumbria, and not just the lower section, was in the BBC North West area.
We were able to see the north west news clearer, and could hear the presenter clearer, and faintly hear BBC Scotland, resulting in us hearing about stuff happening in the North West, especially Cumbria and the north of Lancashire! Right at the end, when the bulletins finished, was when the North West disappeared, and the fault was corrected.
How could such an event have occurred? There was no apology, and it seemed like no attempt was made to fix it, just the fault ended right at the end, when the North west disappeared, and we heard the BBC Scotland rpesenter saying goodbye?
17-08-2022, 11:21 PM
That sounds utterly bizarre. Back in the day, when BBC Scotland went "in circuit", the output from their continuity desk was sent to the Scottish TX sites. When "out of circuit" Scottish transmitters carried the dirty network feed (the only version of network available back in those days).
It feels unlikely that the Scottish continuity desk or BBC Scotland news gallery had NW news as a source on their desk and it somehow got mangled with the Scottish news summary.
An odd switching cock-up seems more likely. But quite how output from a region and nation were merged like that, no idea.
Would be great to hear from any technical staff from those days who might know the answer.
It feels unlikely that the Scottish continuity desk or BBC Scotland news gallery had NW news as a source on their desk and it somehow got mangled with the Scottish news summary.
An odd switching cock-up seems more likely. But quite how output from a region and nation were merged like that, no idea.
Would be great to hear from any technical staff from those days who might know the answer.
18-08-2022, 01:08 PM
I think the most likely thing is a transmitter that uses an off-air feed (either permanently or in RBS mode) and - perhaps aided and abetted by atmospheric conditions - it was picking up Winter Hill/Caldebck alongside the wanted BBC Scotland feed.
BBC2 NW getting into BBC2 Scotland pres is possible, there was some weird switching at a site in Carlisle where such a switching error could have happened, but I don't think it's plausible for that to be the situation here.
BBC2 NW getting into BBC2 Scotland pres is possible, there was some weird switching at a site in Carlisle where such a switching error could have happened, but I don't think it's plausible for that to be the situation here.
18-08-2022, 03:17 PM
(18-08-2022, 01:08 PM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote: I think the most likely thing is a transmitter that uses an off-air feed (either permanently or in RBS mode) and - perhaps aided and abetted by atmospheric conditions - it was picking up Winter Hill/Caldebck alongside the wanted BBC Scotland feed.
BBC2 NW getting into BBC2 Scotland pres is possible, there was some weird switching at a site in Carlisle where such a switching error could have happened, but I don't think it's plausible for that to be the situation here.
I should add my local transmitter is Craigkelly, in Fife. It was nevertheless strange, but welcoming as well, to see how BBC North West done things.
18-08-2022, 10:15 PM
Back in 1994, a landslip at an opencast site in Lanarkshire caused a pylon to collapse. The upshot was, it took STV and C4 off air in Central Scotland for over 3 hours.
The basics were, STV was static, C4 was black and grey lines. BBC1 and BBC2 were off air, and returned in a minute. STV returned just after 6pm, initially showing films of scottish scenes with music and their logo in the corner. Eventually, a short Scotland Today was put on air, followed by a programme, and then another short Scotland Today. Both showed scenes from the landslip.
www.heraldscotland.com
Below is a copy of a post I put on the old TV Forum about the incident.
I posted this query onto the History of Scottish Television Facebook page, and Tony Currie, and others, have filled me in on some details.
The most important things are, firstly, if all four channels to Blackhill lost power, the BBC chain was more resilient. In addition, BBC Scotland have back up generators, which meant that they could continue transmitting. There's a reason I use that word, as opposed to broadcasting, which will become clear shortly. The BBC back up generators took a wee bit to start up, which would explain why BBC1 and BBC2 were off air for a minute or so, before coming back on.
With regards to STV and Channel 4, Robert Lyon Syme, on that facebook group, provided an explanation, which is quoted below:
"There were two power feeds to Blackhill, the main and auxilliary both going on seperate loops to come into the transmitter station from different directions. Unfortunately the failure occurred at the transformer junction point where the feed split into main and reserve routes. Unfortunately as a consequence all power was lost to both feeds."
Another member, Jim Keddie, who worked at STV, pointed out that as the power feed to the transmitter station was down, there was no point in STV trying to continue broadcasting, nobody was going to see it! Cowcaddens was still operational, power was fine, it was just the power to the transmitter, was not.
With regards to the post above, mentioning C4 being fine, when I got home from school, C4 was off air. On STV it was static, wheras on C4 we had black and grey lines moving up, but no picture. Bear in mind we're served by Craigkelly, so C4 could've taken longer to be restored than at Blackhill.
With regards to Steve in Pudseys question about why the filler material was played for so long, one theory I can think of is, once the power was restored on both circuits to Blackhill, STV decided to play filler material, as a sort of "test". What I'm meaning is, the electricity board, Scottish Power, would've still been monitoring the power supply, in case another fault occurred, causing loss of picture again. STV played out the filler material, until Scottish Power were satisfied that the supply was back to normal.
END OF TV FORUM POST
The basics are this. STV were able to broadcast from Cowcaddens, but they couldn't transmit, as there was power to the STV feeds at the transmitter. The BBC would also have had the RBS system in place.
One question I would ask is, had STV, during that period, been broadcasting a programme to network, say a sports quiz, and the issue above occurred, I imagine STV would still have been able to broadcast it to network with a clean feed, as it was only the feed to Blackhill which was affected, and other ITV companies, such as Tyne Tees, would have been getting a clean feed from Cowcaddens?
The basics were, STV was static, C4 was black and grey lines. BBC1 and BBC2 were off air, and returned in a minute. STV returned just after 6pm, initially showing films of scottish scenes with music and their logo in the corner. Eventually, a short Scotland Today was put on air, followed by a programme, and then another short Scotland Today. Both showed scenes from the landslip.
www.heraldscotland.com
Below is a copy of a post I put on the old TV Forum about the incident.
I posted this query onto the History of Scottish Television Facebook page, and Tony Currie, and others, have filled me in on some details.
The most important things are, firstly, if all four channels to Blackhill lost power, the BBC chain was more resilient. In addition, BBC Scotland have back up generators, which meant that they could continue transmitting. There's a reason I use that word, as opposed to broadcasting, which will become clear shortly. The BBC back up generators took a wee bit to start up, which would explain why BBC1 and BBC2 were off air for a minute or so, before coming back on.
With regards to STV and Channel 4, Robert Lyon Syme, on that facebook group, provided an explanation, which is quoted below:
"There were two power feeds to Blackhill, the main and auxilliary both going on seperate loops to come into the transmitter station from different directions. Unfortunately the failure occurred at the transformer junction point where the feed split into main and reserve routes. Unfortunately as a consequence all power was lost to both feeds."
Another member, Jim Keddie, who worked at STV, pointed out that as the power feed to the transmitter station was down, there was no point in STV trying to continue broadcasting, nobody was going to see it! Cowcaddens was still operational, power was fine, it was just the power to the transmitter, was not.
With regards to the post above, mentioning C4 being fine, when I got home from school, C4 was off air. On STV it was static, wheras on C4 we had black and grey lines moving up, but no picture. Bear in mind we're served by Craigkelly, so C4 could've taken longer to be restored than at Blackhill.
With regards to Steve in Pudseys question about why the filler material was played for so long, one theory I can think of is, once the power was restored on both circuits to Blackhill, STV decided to play filler material, as a sort of "test". What I'm meaning is, the electricity board, Scottish Power, would've still been monitoring the power supply, in case another fault occurred, causing loss of picture again. STV played out the filler material, until Scottish Power were satisfied that the supply was back to normal.
END OF TV FORUM POST
The basics are this. STV were able to broadcast from Cowcaddens, but they couldn't transmit, as there was power to the STV feeds at the transmitter. The BBC would also have had the RBS system in place.
One question I would ask is, had STV, during that period, been broadcasting a programme to network, say a sports quiz, and the issue above occurred, I imagine STV would still have been able to broadcast it to network with a clean feed, as it was only the feed to Blackhill which was affected, and other ITV companies, such as Tyne Tees, would have been getting a clean feed from Cowcaddens?
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