[Worzel]

Diamond Cable here had one too, I have some videos of it. The logo in the middle changed to a feed of the Front Row preview channel shortly before the rebranding to NTL.

Here's an example:

youtu.be 

On what was Cambridge Cable we didn't get a mosaic we just got the Channel Guide which played Classic FM in the background.

[Steve in Pudsey]

Are the delay boxes located at the playout side (and require a separate uplink) or the tx side?

I can't imagine the tx side getting involved in adding DOGs?

[James2001]

Here's an example:

youtu.be 

That's my own video 🤣

Sorry about the bad tracking at the start, it was recorded on a dodgy, dying VCR and stuff recorded on it (especially in LP) would only play back properly on that VCR, which is LONG gone. That was the best playback I could get from the 3 VCRs I own.

[Tola]

   
One of those guides also exists for Yorkshire Cable (got sent this a while back).

[dvboy]

Telewest used the same software youtu.be 

Here’s a different one from C&W in 1999 youtu.be 

Interesting the Diamond cable example gives the FM radio frequencies, I remember in 2003 we had NTL broadband in Lincoln, split the signal to get the free-to-air channels and FM radio as terrestrial signal was poor, and they still had some of the BBC stations and Trent FM on there (but others had gone by then).

[James2001]

Obviously a generic piece of software than several different companies used.

---

Here’s a different one from C&W in 1999 youtu.be 

Must have been from just before the MTV UK revamp (where they introduced the big white bar captions that Oasis took the piss out of in one video).

[Stooky Bill]

From a transmission tech perspective, how do +1 channels work? 

Presumably most of the time they are literally a box which takes the live feed of the normal channel, delays it by 3600 seconds, and spits it back out for tx with a different DOG?

However does the broadcaster have the ability to break into this process, either at the box side or the tx side, with different content? I have seen before where, for rights reasons, the +1 has had to be blocked. Is this done at the box or downstream from this? Could broadcasters, if they chose to, put some completely different content up instead of the blanking?

Do any +1 broadcasters have a completely separate playout chain for their +1 channels instead of this delay box, where they could put different content/adverts/trailers on the +1 version?

Are the delay boxes located at the playout side (and require a separate uplink) or the tx side?

I'm not sure what you mean by that last sentence, what's your distinction between playout and TX? 

My understanding is that they basically record the channel onto a video server and then play it  back an hour later, just like your domestic PVR can. 

They'll just be a seperate output of the playout area, but one that comes from a single server port rather than a full playout suite. Everything downstream of that - the logo bug, EPG, encoding etc will probably be the same as the main channel. 

Obviously some reactive channels like ITV can replace the output of the +1 if need be. Presumably this will be just some sort of simple switcher to go between the server output and a caption. But yes that could be theoretically anything they wanted,

Potentially a +1 could be just the same schedule in a seperate playout chain just playing an hour later, but that's a lot more work and of course doesn't work with live content.

[Bennyboy84]

Here's an example:

youtu.be 

On what was Cambridge Cable we didn't get a mosaic we just got the Channel Guide which played Classic FM in the background.

There used to be footage of the Videotron Southampton version of the mosaic but it disappeared and it looks like the YouTube channel that posted it closed down, haven’t been able to find it since.

[Orry Verducci]

+1 channels vary depending on the broadcaster and playout facility, and of course cost.

Some broadcasters will choose to operate them as their own independent automation playlists, just with everything scheduled an hour later, maybe with different ads/promotions/etc. More commonly however they are recording to a video server, replayed an hour behind.

Some broadcasters record this from the final output of the main channel and stick a +1 DOG on top. Others have more sophisticated playout setups which record downstream of graphics being inserted and automatically replay the graphic events an hour later to insert new DOG's with +1 branding, which allows the +1 DOG to be switched on/off at the same time the main channel did.

With respect to terminology, playout and TX are the same thing. Playout areas, in the UK at least, are commonly called "Transmission" or "Presentation". I think bbctvtechop may have been thinking of distribution, which is the path between playout and viewers at home

[Steve in Pudsey]

Yes I interpreted it as the distinction between RedBee and Arqiva in BBC terms