[Steve in Pudsey]

That's how they did the news. The ads were on a macro-regional basis played out from the South Bank.

[Stooky Bill]

I'm not sure automated playout was a thing yet at this point? Happy to be corrected - I'm not stating it as fact; just speculating (hence 'presumably').

Depends what you mean by automated playout. 

By the mid 90s they wouldn't have been installing a fully manual transmission suite, there would have been a degree of automation. You couldn't really run two stations from the same suite without some sort of automation.

Not that running multiple regions was a new thing then. Other ITV companies like Central and TVS had been doing it for a decade by then. TWW and HTV were having to do multiple versions of their Welsh region in the 70s.

If they could play different junctions they could play different programmes.

[Former Member 443]

Depends what you mean by automated playout. 

By the mid 90s they wouldn't have been installing a fully manual transmission suite, there would have been a degree of automation. You couldn't really run two stations from the same suite without some sort of automation.

Not that running multiple regions was a new thing then. Other ITV companies like Central and TVS had been doing it for a decade by then. TWW and HTV were having to do multiple versions of their Welsh region in the 70s.

If they could play different junctions they could play different programmes.

We are not talking about a new installation though. When the new suite came in it was fully automated and one of the most advanced centres in Europe, costing a fortune. 

The interim solution they had for nine months though was not automated, however. Tyne Tees had never automated, and YTV lacked a second mixing desk for Tyne Tees at this point which was the sole reason Newcastle still did the final mixing until September. These two limitations taken together made opting out non-trivial.

The approach taken was: YTV would send a dirty feed of their output, with commercials switched out using the old Channel Four CATS gear. These ads were not mixed, instead being hard-switched in and out (as they had been for C4 in the YTV area for years). Tyne Tees were expected to opt out of this feed to do local continuity bits - IVC, slides and the occasional ident, from what remained of their old suite (fully manual). Local programmes were done from the same area via one of the old (read 1983 install) 1" VTRs they had - my understanding is that this was not manned full time (the reason they didn't just let Tyne Tees run as before until the new suite was ready was an urgent need to reduce headcount). For these, Newcastle pres would opt back in to the YTV feed for adverts.

They *could* play out anything they wanted but it was a faff (and not really possible with commercial injection from Leeds due to no TT-specific mixer hence done from City Road), and certainly not worth bothering with for cheap Australian soaps or filler game shows. The point is, the reason for the skipped shows certainly was not, as the OP states, due to the new pres suite which didn't exist in January 1993.

[Stooky Bill]

Aha that makes sense why they were limited in what they could show.

What a bizarre set up though. I suppose the main saving initially was administrative rather than technical - they didn't have to plan, schedule and co-ordinate their output anymore. All they kept were the team in the TX suite to put in the local bits

[Humphrey Hacker]

Wikipedia (take with a pinch of salt) has this article about TYD and how it was treated by the regions:

en.wikipedia.org 

The Young Doctors - Wikipedia
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  Source: en.wikipedia.org

[Si-Co]

I believe that after September 1993, YTV actually used to play out two copies of every programme (or at least locally generated programming), sending one to their local area and one to Tyne Tees. I can’t remember why - some technical reason. Had they foreseen this, or had it in place from day one, there may have been no need to skip episodes of the soaps etc as they were played out separately anyway!

[JACKLUFC1998]

Off topic but similar, but doesn't Leeds have 4 (5 if you count Central) copies of each programme to play out now? Reason why I say Central is because I think play out for that region comes from Leeds now?

[Steve in Pudsey]

All very different now programmes are played out from server, but you wouldn't necessarily need a separate copy of the programmes for each region.

I wonder if the scenario Si-Co remembers Leeds were playing out separate copies for YTV and TTTV was because of a technology change and it was a convenient way to run the old and new in parallel until they were confident in the new kit or something like that?

[harshy]

I believe that after September 1993, YTV actually used to play out two copies of every programme (or at least locally generated programming), sending one to their local area and one to Tyne Tees. I can’t remember why - some technical reason. Had they foreseen this, or had it in place from day one, there may have been no need to skip episodes of the soaps etc as they were played out separately anyway!

Yes that sounds right as i could switch between the two they seemed to be not in sync, 1993 was a strange year, i do remember Newcastle running their own slides, presentation etc and then by late 1993, the logos appeared on top of the feed, during the now/next segment, thats when i think the new continuity suite kicked in and we started Leeds presenters appearing in the Newcastle contunity booth, or was that much later then 1993?

[Si-Co]

That certainly rings a bell about old and new technology, Steve - for a while, one region was played out from a new gallery/suite and the other from the existing one.

I remember the programme slides with the Tyne Tees or Yorkshire logo superimposed - I think this came in around 1994 though, but it was definitely linked to the new equipment. As for YTV faces and voices, some did come up to Newcastle to cover shifts (probably because Tyne Tees weren’t hiring or allowed to hire any new announcers as its pres department days were numbered), but again this was probably later than 1993. We did of course get a lot of promos made in Leeds and voiced by John Crosse, Maggie Mash et al.