[Orry Verducci]

Is it the norm that if a playout system is the subject of a power failure somebody has to intervene to get it logged in or whatever to start working? Or in theory could it just auto power on and carry on? I presume the former is the case because of advert quota regulations and you probably wouldn't want adverts falling in the wrong clock hour...

Depends on the extent of the failure, and the design of the automation software.

In my experience with the major playout systems, they run the playlists in memory on a server. So if that server goes down suddenly (e.g. a power cut), it will lose that playlist, and it will be up to the operator to reload it and get playout running again.

For that reason it's common for playout facilities to run duplicate copies of every channel in sync across separate servers for redundancy. Sometimes in separate locations as Red Bee do for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. The idea being that if one fails it acts as not only a hot standby for output (i.e. minimal disruption to viewers), but it also acts as a sync source for the other playlist to reference to get itself back online without human intervention.

In the case of +1's, their video servers are usually set to always run as a one hour delay. Which is why they're often first to come back as they will automatically start playing from the right point as soon as they come online, even if the automation system isn't operational yet, assuming the recording exists.