[Stooky Bill]

On one of the gallery screens on the clip, there is what looks like the BSB closedown message (ie transmissions from Marco Polo have ceased) - the screen previously had the Thames endcap on. I wonder why Euston are monitoring the output of Marco Polo at midnight?

I've no idea why, unless it was someone in their MCR looking out of curiosity.

UK Gold is on one of their monitors too, that as mentioned came from the same building and continued that night after Thames closed. IIRC it does seem to have a different shot of Big Ben so maybe that was from Sky News or off tape (they wouldn't have access to ITN)

[Milkshake]

Did any regions do their own thing at New Year in other years. Of course back then London didn't really bother with anything at all beyond the chimes of Big Ben - it's only since the Millennium really they've put any effort in.

They tried Des o'Conner in 1987, Cillia Black in 1988 and Goodbye to the 80s in 1989 ( that still had STV hog show 10mins before the bells)

In 1994 LWT had Richard Digance in Scotland, Trever McDonald in a palace in 96 but They ended up with Live from Edinburgh 97-02? I think ITV just give the ghost then

[Stooky Bill]

Carlton and GMTV could be certain as it come from Kent house LWT operations where already in full swing. Meridian took over Southampton TVS offices so again they would be sure.

The one company which could appeal to this "Westcountry" as it was coming from outside the area.

The only one that was straight forward was TVS to Meridian as in terms of playout that was essentially a rebrand - the same TX suite just started using Meridian branded material rather than TVS's. Though I imagine they had some sort of practise or familiarisation of how they worked on air. Of course Meridian Tonight and the new news centres would have been piloted a lot before then

Carlton and GMTV (and LWT) came from a new playout area (run by LNN) in an existing ITV building, I don't know if it had been used on air before 1993 but they were running pilots for a while. Putting the South bank to air in London was routine of course, putting GMTV on air across the country wasn't. One big difference is that unlike with TVam there was regional news opt outs, however they didn't start till the Monday.

Westcountry was totally new - new studio, new playout suite (albeit at an existing ITV company) and crucially a new all digital distribution network. It wasn't a simple BT switch at midnight, there was a lot of new stuff to go live.

No way really they could test it actually on air but they could of course check that the video was getting to the transmitter sites and was good before plugging it to air at midnight. However there was mention here a while ago that it was put to air accidently and briefly on the evening of 31/12/92.

[RegularCapital]

On one of the gallery screens on the clip, there is what looks like the BSB closedown message (ie transmissions from Marco Polo have ceased) - the screen previously had the Thames endcap on. I wonder why Euston are monitoring the output of Marco Polo at midnight?

Sky ended all broadcasts on Marcopolo on 31st December 1992 (the same day), the Thames staff (which were uncertain about the future of their jobs) probably watched the shutdown in solidarity especially with what happened to BSB.

www.colin99.co.uk 

BSB and Squarials
BSB used a superior DMAC transmission standard and nice little Squarial antennas…
  Source: www.colin99.co.uk

[lookoutwales]

The only one that was straight forward was TVS to Meridian as in terms of playout that was essentially a rebrand - the same TX suite just started using Meridian branded material rather than TVS's. Though I imagine they had some sort of practise or familiarisation of how they worked on air. Of course Meridian Tonight and the new news centres would have been piloted a lot before then

IIRC, by the time they went off air, TVS at Northam had twin Pres suites which pretty much mirrored each other (there were also two Pres studios - one for Late Night Late, the other for short news bulletins / the Hannington opt for Coast for Coast)

Always seemed a bit curious to me how Westcountry's (pre-rec'd) opening junction somehow got on air early.

HTV TX would still have been handling ads for both S4C and Channel 4 in the West until midnight, as well. Presumably Westcountry's full-scale operation meant building a new suite at Culverhouse? (or did it make use of the operation tied up by playing ads)

[Stooky Bill]

IIRC, by the time they went off air, TVS at Northam had twin Pres suites which pretty much mirrored each other (there were also two Pres studios - one for Late Night Late, the other for short news bulletins / the Hannington opt for Coast for Coast)

Always seemed a bit curious to me how Westcountry's (pre-rec'd) opening junction somehow got on air early.

HTV TX would still have been handling ads for both S4C and Channel 4 in the West until midnight, as well. Presumably Westcountry's full-scale operation meant building a new suite at Culverhouse? (or did it make use of the operation tied up by playing ads)

So could well have been that Meridian used one of those suites for dual running/piloting prior to launch


Westcountry's playout was based in the suite where HTV did the adverts for S4C. But of course it wouldn't have been doing that right up to midnight, probably not even into November. While the suite was converted for Westcountry the S4C ads operation was shifted elsewhere in the building.

They'd have been doing a lot of testing and piloting prior to launch. It's not a simple thing to set up, even though it was piggybacking on an existing playout operation. I think there was a lot of joint running, certainly the HTV and Westcountry overnight schedules were identical and the junctions obviously run to the same timings.

As for how it got to air early.... a mistake by someone at NTL

[VMPhil]

One story about the GMTV launch I do recall reading on TVF or TVLF was that great effort was made to install a real fire in The London Studios as part of the original backdrop - it was swiftly dropped when the original GMTV format flopped.

[Brekkie]

Wonder if that a reaction to The Big Breakfast coming from a house, complete with fireplace.

[lookoutwales]

Westcountry's playout was based in the suite where HTV did the adverts for S4C. But of course it wouldn't have been doing that right up to midnight, probably not even into November. While the suite was converted for Westcountry the S4C ads operation was shifted elsewhere in the building.

They'd have been doing a lot of testing and piloting prior to launch. It's not a simple thing to set up, even though it was piggybacking on an existing playout operation. I think there was a lot of joint running, certainly the HTV and Westcountry overnight schedules were identical and the junctions obviously run to the same timings.

Ahh, that explains it. Thanks.

IIRC, one function that was at least handled locally* by Westcountry itself was the four-way split for local news opts? (and that didn't begin until some months after launch?)

* Granted the announcers were also based at Plympton - and taking them as a down-the-line source wouldn't have been that much different from how HTV West continuity worked in later years.

[Stooky Bill]

Ahh, that explains it. Thanks.

IIRC, one function that was at least handled locally* by Westcountry itself was the four-way split for local news opts? (and that didn't begin until some months after launch?)

Yes it didn't launch till later in but that was one of the reasons they needed a new network to carry the channel to the transmitters.

I remember seeing a thing showing how it was done. The news gallery triggered the sub opts from a panel on their desk, I think they had 4 buttons so each could be opted seperately if need be.

I don't know how it worked technically, I assume the 3 studio outputs went back to Plympton and then out to the appropriate transmitters. Because it was all purpose built it could be that there was some reconfiguration of the distribution every opt out