Wednesday, June 21, 2017

What a scorcher !

The BBC News automated playout system had a nervous breakdown in the one-minute run up to last night's 10pm bulletin. Viewers on BBC1 got a flash frame of Huw, before the continuity announcer cut in with an apology card. Viewers on the News Channel got the full random twitches of the machines, matched with a marvellously-stony-faced Huw, as the robot cameras trance-danced around. Hard to imagine what was going on in his earpiece.




Apparently both the main and back-up control system, which drives playout from prompts embedded in the scripts and running orders, failed. The team had to "go to manual", controlling vision and audio, graphics and video play-in direct from the studio desk.


No word on the cause of the breakdown. Good Morning Britain has had some technical glitches, which trained boffin Piers Morgan is putting down to overheating.
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1 comment:

  1. Mister NeutronJune 21, 2017 at 8:10 AM

    At one point during the lull, Huw looked as though he was writing down a long list of names.

    "Don't tell him Pike"

    ReplyDelete

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