BT Tower had a major power failure a couple of years ago, just before the X Factor was meant to go out. They got power back just before the first ad break in the standby programme that ITV played out so were able to pick up after the break, but there were at least two other ways of getting the programme on air that didn't involve the Tower that were being put into place behind the scenes.
When Brum got evacuated back in 2005, the BBC WM Fm service went to BBC Hereford & Worcester, with the consquence that H & W had to join WM rather than continue with it's regional show taken from Shrewsbury.
(BBC WM DAB initially played out the same emergency tape that FM was playing out, but as there appeared to be no way for Worcester to take control of DAB as well as FM (presumbly as it didn't broadcast H & W in Dab anyway!), the tape on DAB eventually ran out to dead air all night to 2am then somehow DAB started broadcasting 5Live overnight until 6am, when it started relaying Radio Leicester until 9am, when FM & DAB finally joined back together. FM in the meantime broadcast the emergency service until 2am, then 5live until 6am, when an emergency service from Coventry(still part of WM at this point!) broadcast until 9am, then transmissions resumed from the Mailbox from 9am!)
From what I remember at the time reading on various forums, didn't BRMB evacuate to an OB vehicle & what did Heart / Smooth etc do ?
What if there was a major incident at the BT Tower? Now that would surely cause major disruption.
Much distribution of services is now little different from computer networks. It is fairly standard to have two completely independents routes between each point and to ensure that those two routes never come near each other down to when they enter the building they will enter from different directions and be terminated in different racks.
The end of the day any business the size of the BBC . ITV, Global, Bauer has I am sure a disaster recovery procedure.
With Five Live. BBC Sport etc coming out of Salford I suspect Salford is capable of many disaster recovery scenarios.
The end of the day any business the size of the BBC . ITV, Global, Bauer has I am sure a disaster recovery procedure.
With Five Live. BBC Sport etc coming out of Salford I suspect Salford is capable of many disaster recovery scenarios.
Or if you're Dutch state broadcaster, NOS, get some candles !
The BBC asked for the following books to be made available in the bunker.
Cassell’s Encyclopaedia of Literature
Guide to the House of Commons
Holy Bible
Kessing Contemporary Archives
Modern English Usage (Fowler)
Oxford Dictionary – shorter
Roget’s Thesaurus
Russian-English Technical and Chemical Dictionary
Statesman’s Year Book
Times Atlas
Titles and Terms of Address
USSR Atlas
Who’s Who (International)
The BBC asked for the following books to be made available in the bunker.
Cassell’s Encyclopaedia of Literature
Guide to the House of Commons
Holy Bible
Kessing Contemporary Archives
Modern English Usage (Fowler)
Oxford Dictionary – shorter
Roget’s Thesaurus
Russian-English Technical and Chemical Dictionary
Statesman’s Year Book
Times Atlas
Titles and Terms of Address
USSR Atlas
Who’s Who (International)
Fairly standard set of reference books, hardly seems worth listing. Presumably Sky News use Wonkypedia in their bunker?
BBC Local Radio stations have a nominated "buddy station" where they can go to if they cannot continue from their own facilities.
BBC Network Radio have alternative locations, such as Radio 1 going to Radio 2's Western House when the power failed at Yalding House.
ILR stations are likely to be able to broadcast from another station in the same group. There are methods of being able to dial in on ISDN into the transmitter in an emergency.
There are also reciprocal agreements between rival broadcasters - Talk Sport had to evacuate due to a fire and went to LBC.
Much distribution of services is now little different from computer networks. It is fairly standard to have two completely independents routes between each point and to ensure that those two routes never come near each other down to when they enter the building they will enter from different directions and be terminated in different racks.
It helps if you monitor that too - seem to remember reading about the BBC's FM national networks falling off air because (for some reason) both fibre routes for the network up north passed through one building and the air conditioning (and thus the equipment) failed.
It helps if you monitor that too - seem to remember reading about the BBC's FM national networks falling off air because (for some reason) both fibre routes for the network up north passed through one building and the air conditioning (and thus the equipment) failed.
Digital systems have provision for lots of monitoring but people become complacent and are too quick to believe it.
1. One frequent problem is that intermittent alarms can be masked and people are often caught out by seeing that there are alarms on the system when actually there are some masked.
2. About a year ago there was a major broadband fault in Inverness causing massive disruption in the North of Scotland. People were ringing the 0800 number, wasting an hour going through the usual pointless tests then told to try again after 24 hours but the main BT control was not told about the complaints. They only found out through complaints on BT's consumer forums. Half a unit had failed, it should have raised an alarm and changed over to the other half but did not so there was no fault as far as the control centre was concerned.
3. I was called to a shutdown after lightning the previous day. There was nothing incoming and late in the evening a telecom 'engineer' (NOT BT!) arrived to fix it. He spent an hour or so and came through to say it was fixed. I pointed out there was still nothing incoming to our equipment. He had never actually checked that there was anything coming out of their equipment, just relied completely on the indications on his computer screen, there had been an alarm so he masked it!
Since the BBC let SisLive go to the wall, they have no provider now for state occasions, that they have any priority with.
So if the Queen pops on a major Sport weekend, tough. I (and my ilk) will be covering all the goals at MUFC. And for better money. That's the future.
Well, I've no idea what the details of SIS's contract with the Beeb were, or the new contracts with NEP, Arena, Telegenic, and CTV, but in this day and age no OB facilities company would have kit and staff 'hanging around' waiting for the next national catastrophe, unless they were paid a retainer. I can't believe the BBC or any other broadcaster would do that ?
In the event of a major 'unplanned' event, it's very likely that some sports events will be cancelled anyway, thus releasing resources. That's exactly the logic that been applied by South Africa's two broadcasters, when the inevitable occurs with Mandela.
Well, I've no idea what the details of SIS's contract with the Beeb were, or the new contracts with NEP, Arena, Telegenic, and CTV, but in this day and age no OB facilities company would have kit and staff 'hanging around' waiting for the next national catastrophe, unless they were paid a retainer. I can't believe the BBC or any other broadcaster would do that ?
In the event of a major 'unplanned' event, it's very likely that some sports events will be cancelled anyway, thus releasing resources. That's exactly the logic that been applied by South Africa's two broadcasters, when the inevitable occurs with Mandela.
I don't think that anyone ever did have resources hanging around, but was just able to redeploy them as they saw fit.
The issue is more that the broadcasters have had in recent years a major supplier who they would be able to work with to allocate resources taking in to account the changing requirements.
If you become a small customer of many suppliers, that is more tricky.
Agreed a major event would lead to sporting events (for example) being cancelled, and releasing facilities. However, there are degrees of events that wouldn't have that effect, and yet would require large coverage. There is only a limited amount of OB kit, trucks and staff in the UK. That potentially could be an issue in the future.
I don't think that anyone ever did have resources hanging around, but was just able to redeploy them as they saw fit.
The issue is more that the broadcasters have had in recent years a major supplier who they would be able to work with to allocate resources taking in to account the changing requirements.
If you become a small customer of many suppliers, that is more tricky.
Agreed a major event would lead to sporting events (for example) being cancelled, and releasing facilities. However, there are degrees of events that wouldn't have that effect, and yet would require large coverage. There is only a limited amount of OB kit, trucks and staff in the UK. That potentially could be an issue in the future.
Yes, I agree, but any large scale coverage, will be of a hastily planned event a few days later. Nothing large scale at 24 or 48 hours notice (is likely). The death of Diana is probably the nearest template to refer to. It was 6 days between her death (that only required SNG news style coverage initially) to the funeral, that was a joint effort between all three main UK broadcasters. The procession along the Edgware Road and out of London, I seem to recall was a pooled collection of BBC, ITN, and Sky news trucks ?
However, don't get me wrong, I acknowledge it's all a gamble and winging it, in these beancounter controlled days, and it's only a matter of time before the egg and face will connect.
Digital systems have provision for lots of monitoring but people become complacent and are too quick to believe it.
1. One frequent problem is that intermittent alarms can be masked and people are often caught out by seeing that there are alarms on the system when actually there are some masked.
2. About a year ago there was a major broadband fault in Inverness causing massive disruption in the North of Scotland. People were ringing the 0800 number, wasting an hour going through the usual pointless tests then told to try again after 24 hours but the main BT control was not told about the complaints. They only found out through complaints on BT's consumer forums. Half a unit had failed, it should have raised an alarm and changed over to the other half but did not so there was no fault as far as the control centre was concerned.
3. I was called to a shutdown after lightning the previous day. There was nothing incoming and late in the evening a telecom 'engineer' (NOT BT!) arrived to fix it. He spent an hour or so and came through to say it was fixed. I pointed out there was still nothing incoming to our equipment. He had never actually checked that there was anything coming out of their equipment, just relied completely on the indications on his computer screen, there had been an alarm so he masked it!
It happens all too often now unfortunately!
I couldn't agree more. There's no substitute for keeping an eye and ear on an off air feed to confirm all is well.
(Also if your off air feed fails, don't assume the worst, I had to prevent a network continuity from apologising for a fault affecting the UK, when it was just one transmitter that had gone off briefly, but it was the one they were monitoring.....!)
Yes, I agree, but any large scale coverage, will be of a hastily planned event a few days later. Nothing large scale at 24 or 48 hours notice (is likely). The death of Diana is probably the nearest template to refer to. It was 6 days between her death (that only required SNG news style coverage initially) to the funeral, that was a joint effort between all three main UK broadcasters. The procession along the Edware Road and out of London, I seem to recall was a pooled collection of BBC, ITN, and Sky news trucks ?
However, don't get me wrong, I acknowledge it's all a gamble and winging it, in these beancounter controlled days, and it's only a matter of time before the egg and face will connect.
I would suggest that there may be a little more longer term planning in the background than you imagine.
There will always be broadcaster co-operation, but as we saw with the Mrs Thatcher funeral, not all of them will offer event coverage.
It's fair to say the death of the monarch would have all channels involved, but you could almost do a list and start to put lesser figures on the news channels only.
Take a case such as Mandela, as he fades from public view and in to history, would his eventual funeral command coverage at a level that it would have a decade ago?
(I do not wish to attract views on Mrs T, royalty or South African politics here, just the principle of coverage!)
The bean counters will have already cancelled the egg orders to be on the safe side........
Take a case such as Mandela, as he fades from public view and in to history, would his eventual funeral command coverage at a level that it would have a decade ago?
Well, I've spent quite a while in South Africa over the last few years, involved with both broadcasters' OB fleets.
It's expected to be a major event nationally, but they are gearing up (in co operation with each other) to providing facilities for the influx of foreign broadcasters which they see as the biggest challenge.
Quite different to the World Cup, where HBS shipped most of their contracted trucks by sea from Europe, which is a three week trip there and back, (and flew a French 3D truck)
.........
Well, I've spent quite a while in South Africa over the last few years, involved with both broadcasters' OB fleets.
It's expected to be a major event nationally, but they are gearing up (in co operation with each other) to providing facilities for the influx of foreign broadcasters which they see as the biggest challenge.
They know the cost of everything, the value of nothing
Certainly it is a major event in SA, but in the UK it will be of less importance as the years roll by. I'm in my mid 40s and recall the news of the time,however as he left office in 1999 he won't be known as well to those under 25. It may mean the coverage won't be at the international level that it would have been.
As for the bean counters, I've seen so many new computer systems all costing the earth bought in to provide "accurate financial data", only when push comes to shove nobody can actually interpret the data meaningfully. Lies, damn lies, and "accurate financial data"...:(
Comments
Not really, it's not the lynch-pin it once was for TV distribution any more.
When Brum got evacuated back in 2005, the BBC WM Fm service went to BBC Hereford & Worcester, with the consquence that H & W had to join WM rather than continue with it's regional show taken from Shrewsbury.
(BBC WM DAB initially played out the same emergency tape that FM was playing out, but as there appeared to be no way for Worcester to take control of DAB as well as FM (presumbly as it didn't broadcast H & W in Dab anyway!), the tape on DAB eventually ran out to dead air all night to 2am then somehow DAB started broadcasting 5Live overnight until 6am, when it started relaying Radio Leicester until 9am, when FM & DAB finally joined back together. FM in the meantime broadcast the emergency service until 2am, then 5live until 6am, when an emergency service from Coventry(still part of WM at this point!) broadcast until 9am, then transmissions resumed from the Mailbox from 9am!)
From what I remember at the time reading on various forums, didn't BRMB evacuate to an OB vehicle & what did Heart / Smooth etc do ?
Much distribution of services is now little different from computer networks. It is fairly standard to have two completely independents routes between each point and to ensure that those two routes never come near each other down to when they enter the building they will enter from different directions and be terminated in different racks.
With Five Live. BBC Sport etc coming out of Salford I suspect Salford is capable of many disaster recovery scenarios.
Or if you're Dutch state broadcaster, NOS, get some candles !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24803002?SThisFB
Post 2015....maybe not
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbqR43vb6T4
The BBC asked for the following books to be made available in the bunker.
Cassell’s Encyclopaedia of Literature
Guide to the House of Commons
Holy Bible
Kessing Contemporary Archives
Modern English Usage (Fowler)
Oxford Dictionary – shorter
Roget’s Thesaurus
Russian-English Technical and Chemical Dictionary
Statesman’s Year Book
Times Atlas
Titles and Terms of Address
USSR Atlas
Who’s Who (International)
Fairly standard set of reference books, hardly seems worth listing. Presumably Sky News use Wonkypedia in their bunker?
BBC Local Radio stations have a nominated "buddy station" where they can go to if they cannot continue from their own facilities.
BBC Network Radio have alternative locations, such as Radio 1 going to Radio 2's Western House when the power failed at Yalding House.
ILR stations are likely to be able to broadcast from another station in the same group. There are methods of being able to dial in on ISDN into the transmitter in an emergency.
There are also reciprocal agreements between rival broadcasters - Talk Sport had to evacuate due to a fire and went to LBC.
It helps if you monitor that too - seem to remember reading about the BBC's FM national networks falling off air because (for some reason) both fibre routes for the network up north passed through one building and the air conditioning (and thus the equipment) failed.
Yep ! Read the BBC FoI docs here:-
http://www.lamont.me.uk/broadcast/
Digital systems have provision for lots of monitoring but people become complacent and are too quick to believe it.
1. One frequent problem is that intermittent alarms can be masked and people are often caught out by seeing that there are alarms on the system when actually there are some masked.
2. About a year ago there was a major broadband fault in Inverness causing massive disruption in the North of Scotland. People were ringing the 0800 number, wasting an hour going through the usual pointless tests then told to try again after 24 hours but the main BT control was not told about the complaints. They only found out through complaints on BT's consumer forums. Half a unit had failed, it should have raised an alarm and changed over to the other half but did not so there was no fault as far as the control centre was concerned.
3. I was called to a shutdown after lightning the previous day. There was nothing incoming and late in the evening a telecom 'engineer' (NOT BT!) arrived to fix it. He spent an hour or so and came through to say it was fixed. I pointed out there was still nothing incoming to our equipment. He had never actually checked that there was anything coming out of their equipment, just relied completely on the indications on his computer screen, there had been an alarm so he masked it!
It happens all too often now unfortunately!
So if the Queen pops on a major Sport weekend, tough. I (and my ilk) will be covering all the goals at MUFC. And for better money. That's the future.
It will be covered on Radio 2 though.
Well the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then fly her up to Old Trafford and have the lying in state on the pitch at half time...job done.
Well, I've no idea what the details of SIS's contract with the Beeb were, or the new contracts with NEP, Arena, Telegenic, and CTV, but in this day and age no OB facilities company would have kit and staff 'hanging around' waiting for the next national catastrophe, unless they were paid a retainer. I can't believe the BBC or any other broadcaster would do that ?
In the event of a major 'unplanned' event, it's very likely that some sports events will be cancelled anyway, thus releasing resources. That's exactly the logic that been applied by South Africa's two broadcasters, when the inevitable occurs with Mandela.
I don't think that anyone ever did have resources hanging around, but was just able to redeploy them as they saw fit.
The issue is more that the broadcasters have had in recent years a major supplier who they would be able to work with to allocate resources taking in to account the changing requirements.
If you become a small customer of many suppliers, that is more tricky.
Agreed a major event would lead to sporting events (for example) being cancelled, and releasing facilities. However, there are degrees of events that wouldn't have that effect, and yet would require large coverage. There is only a limited amount of OB kit, trucks and staff in the UK. That potentially could be an issue in the future.
Yes, I agree, but any large scale coverage, will be of a hastily planned event a few days later. Nothing large scale at 24 or 48 hours notice (is likely). The death of Diana is probably the nearest template to refer to. It was 6 days between her death (that only required SNG news style coverage initially) to the funeral, that was a joint effort between all three main UK broadcasters. The procession along the Edgware Road and out of London, I seem to recall was a pooled collection of BBC, ITN, and Sky news trucks ?
However, don't get me wrong, I acknowledge it's all a gamble and winging it, in these beancounter controlled days, and it's only a matter of time before the egg and face will connect.
I couldn't agree more. There's no substitute for keeping an eye and ear on an off air feed to confirm all is well.
(Also if your off air feed fails, don't assume the worst, I had to prevent a network continuity from apologising for a fault affecting the UK, when it was just one transmitter that had gone off briefly, but it was the one they were monitoring.....!)
I would suggest that there may be a little more longer term planning in the background than you imagine.
There will always be broadcaster co-operation, but as we saw with the Mrs Thatcher funeral, not all of them will offer event coverage.
It's fair to say the death of the monarch would have all channels involved, but you could almost do a list and start to put lesser figures on the news channels only.
Take a case such as Mandela, as he fades from public view and in to history, would his eventual funeral command coverage at a level that it would have a decade ago?
(I do not wish to attract views on Mrs T, royalty or South African politics here, just the principle of coverage!)
The bean counters will have already cancelled the egg orders to be on the safe side........
Oh, I'm well aware of the forward planning involved, and actually that's what actually could get lost in the vortex of changing contracts
Well, I've spent quite a while in South Africa over the last few years, involved with both broadcasters' OB fleets.
It's expected to be a major event nationally, but they are gearing up (in co operation with each other) to providing facilities for the influx of foreign broadcasters which they see as the biggest challenge.
Quite different to the World Cup, where HBS shipped most of their contracted trucks by sea from Europe, which is a three week trip there and back, (and flew a French 3D truck)
Certainly it is a major event in SA, but in the UK it will be of less importance as the years roll by. I'm in my mid 40s and recall the news of the time,however as he left office in 1999 he won't be known as well to those under 25. It may mean the coverage won't be at the international level that it would have been.
As for the bean counters, I've seen so many new computer systems all costing the earth bought in to provide "accurate financial data", only when push comes to shove nobody can actually interpret the data meaningfully. Lies, damn lies, and "accurate financial data"...:(