[James2001]

I imagine keying it live made it easier to potentially change the caption for any reason, rather than have to re-edit all the idents again.

[Brekkie]

And guess the 888 was generated live anyway.

Back to this ident though and it's where making the logo green doesn't work for me - the white version would go with almost anything other than white, but green often clashes.

[VMPhil]

If you recall, the 1991 idents had many variations in terms of the logotype:

-BBC logo
-Region or nation name, but for the former not all the time
-888, but only for programmes with subtitles
-Stereo, but again, only for programmes with this

This means there would be lots and lots of variations. These days, I imagine it would be a lot easier to deliver this number of variations to all the BBC regions and nations. But back then it must have been easier to send out logo-less LaserDiscs and have a separate box generating the BBC logo with switches to turn off 888 and/or Stereo flags.

[James2001]

Would have made a potential change of BBC logo easier too.

Though when the logo did change, they went to burning it onto the idents anyway.

[Technologist]

The BBC logo was definitely keyed live onto the 2s. The very first broadcast of those idents (Paint) had no logo. I think they were keyed live, rather being burned on, for the benefit of the nations, which used 'BBC Scotland'/'BBC Northern Ireland' instead ('this is BBC Wales on 1', anyone?). Originally I'm pretty sure the lines under the BBC blocks were coloured differently for each nation, too.

No colours in the keyed in BBC <nation/region> ident …. It made things a lot easier to implement as well ….. just 82% white which was set so as to very rarely reverse out …
But not too bright to burn screens / be very noticable.’
I think it was on the Y channel of the laser disc player prior to coding,
(It’s a long time ago!)

The local live keying was done because it saved making and distribution say 20 variations of each disc …..
each with 888 or stereo for each ident
which after all would need to be made using the same keying kit ….
And I think there was also a fade up which was variable depending in how much symbol was to be used….. and it needed to “felt “ in the junction.
Connolly made the control system for it ….



,

[Transmission]

Just for the avoidance of doubt, the Channel 4 logo is definitely not generated live in the Colourway idents. Not sure why the F1 ident doesn't have a logo, but that's how it would've been delivered, so it's as they would have wanted it.

[bilky asko]

Didn't Channel 4 have a version of their logo where the 4 was on its side so it looked like a Formula 1 car? Might have been used for their Twitter account IIRC. The regular 4 appearing and then spinning around to be that logo would have worked perfectly.

You may be thinking of TV Forum member Alexia (latterly Michael), who made such a logo and had it in his signature.

[rick]

Ahh, that might be it. I was misremembering, I thought that was something official used online somewhere.

Still, a missed opportunity anyway I feel, to include the logo in any form.

[dbl]

twitter.com 

I'm guessing a glimpse of what this year's Pride ident will look like...


EDIT:

www.tvhome.co.uk 

Channel 4
Ident introducing The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan, 10:00pm 2nd Jun 2023
  Source: www.tvhome.co.uk

[Andrew Wood]

An ident for Formula E racing - theident.gallery 

The Ident Gallery
Channel 4 : 2023 Idents (1) : Motor Racing ident (Blue)
  Source: theident.gallery