Markymark post_id=72956 time= user_id=1078 Wrote:Larry the Loafer post_id=72951 time= user_id=990 Wrote:Tom post_id=72950 time= user_id=1309 Wrote:Yes, I remember at Euro 2020, when Christan Eriksen had a cardiac arrest during the Denmark v Finland, the BBC put Garden Rescue on in place of the football.
Long gone are the days of a bomb threat leading to BBC One showing Tom and Jerry 
Indeed. I think we discussed this in the blue place, but in the 1970s, Sunday Night at The London Palladium was taken off air 'mid flow' owing to bomb scares. Nothing really any really different to yesterday, I recall it coming back from an ad break with a standby 30 min prog of Sammy Davis Jnr.
There was a documentary hosted by Bradley Walsh about the Palladium that touched upon that bomb scare, but I suspect they were taking liberties with the truth. They had a recording of the event, but it was edited to imply that an act was cut off by a slide with the CA explaining they've had to leave the show. It was great to see the footage, but when I went frame by frame, you could tell there was something in-between that had been edited out, possibly the ad break that you mentioned.
There's also an audio recording from another incident (the artist's name escapes me but it was included on their album) where somebody at the Palladium had to interrupt the performance to inform the audience of a warning they'd received and instructed everybody to leave.
Brekkie post_id=72955 time= user_id=976 Wrote:Steve in Pudsey post_id=72927 time= user_id=942 Wrote:I wonder if having time to let STV know what was going on so they could avoid any emergency announcement was a factor too?
That's kind of why I wondered whether the playout was from source (i.e. TV Centre) rather than ITV. Yes, of course they'd evacuated and wouldn't have time to line it up manually but wondered if it might kick in in a similar way to radio with a bit of automation to ensure no dead air.
Emergency programming is always played out by ITV Pres. It's standard practice for any playout operation.
Their aim is to keep the output as "clean" as possible, so they will only take a live programme to air if there is someone else on the other end in communication with them, making sure everything is kept to time. Crashing in and out of a tape left playing from an evacuated building would not be considered acceptable.
TV playout operations don't have radio silence detector style backup systems. Playout
is the backup.
In the case of STV, their Transmission team are always in communication with ITV Pres via talkback, so they would have found out what was happening at the same time Pres did. But yes the short notice could have been a factor in the lack of an announcement, as STV would have had to also adjust things their end to avoid the ITV ident making an unexpected appearance.
Brekkie post_id=72955 time= user_id=976 Wrote:Steve in Pudsey post_id=72927 time= user_id=942 Wrote:I wonder if having time to let STV know what was going on so they could avoid any emergency announcement was a factor too?
That's kind of why I wondered whether the playout was from source (i.e. TV Centre) rather than ITV. Yes, of course they'd evacuated and wouldn't have time to line it up manually but wondered if it might kick in in a similar way to radio with a bit of automation to ensure no dead air.
I think that's doubtful. In an operation like the BBC News Channel perhaps, but ITV has presentation areas there to handle this event.
ITV pres would have had a feed of talkback from TC3 so would have heard the chaos and started to get things ready.
My thought about STV was that they would have been expecting the break to end and to go back to the programme at a fixed time. If ITV put in an ident and emergency announcement they would have to work out timings, tell STV how long they need to fill, (is the red phone still a thing?), STV would then need to arrange to do their own announcement (do they have a live announcer? Do they have a suitable pre-recorded one?).
That's a lot to sort out in just a few minutes.
Orry Verducci post_id=72969 time= user_id=731 Wrote:Their aim is to keep the output as "clean" as possible, so they will only take a live programme to air if there is someone else on the other end in communication with them, making sure everything is kept to time. Crashing in and out of a tape left playing from an evacuated building would not be considered acceptable.
Although interestingly when The One Show evacuated due to a fire alarm they threw to a package. Playout picked things up when the package "ran out" and presumably nobody was there. As you can see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhOLpvMMmEc
I wonder if that was by arrangement.
I think at the time the general consensus was that NC1 didn't cover themselves in glory on that occasion. Although I think there was speculation that as they were in an adjoining building to the One Show studio they may have had "alert" stage alarms going off.
Technical question. Could Salford take over from London in an emergency?
Humphrey Hacker post_id=73026 time= user_id=1128 Wrote:Technical question. Could Salford take over from London in an emergency?
Considering the Red Bee incident also affected the BBC, and you saw no effect on the output that Saturday night (outside of a very generic announcement into Strictly), then yes.
Doesn't BBC playout routinely alternate between London and Salford anyway?
Robertclark125 post_id=72912 time= user_id=1163 Wrote:Having seen the video on the twitter post above, handled very well by ITV. And of course, given there was uncertainty as to what was happening at the time, best thing to have, Phil saying "As we can't be live with you today", and likewise on the Loose women replacement programme
If I wanted to be really picky, the fact that the standby episode had Phil saying “Welcome to TM, we can’t be with you live today” and references to it being the start of the show may have had viewers thinking “Hang on, we’ve just seen them live, it’s like the programme is starting from scratch”. Not really an issue if there had been an announcement into it explaining, but that can’t really be done effectively with no live announcer on duty.
An alternative standby episode starting with a “Welcome back. I’m afraid we can’t continue with today’s live show just now..” or similar would be ideal for occasions when the show falls off air for any reason.
But I’m not criticising. ITV did a great job on Thursday avoiding any black screens or apology captions and providing a pretty seamless service in what must have been very difficult and worrying circumstances.
Don’t shoot me!
Steve in Pudsey post_id=72971 time= user_id=942 Wrote:ITV pres would have had a feed of talkback from TC3 so would have heard the chaos and started to get things ready.
Actually they wouldn't have. ITV insist on having keyed talkback, not open talkback, so they only hear what's happening when someone on the other end holds the button to specifically talk to Pres.
Not that it makes much difference in this case as the Director or PA would have immediately keyed them on to tell them they're evacuating and can't go back live.
Steve in Pudsey post_id=72971 time= user_id=942 Wrote:(is the red phone still a thing?)
No the red phone isn't a thing any more. It's all done via talkback between London, Leeds and STV in Glasgow.
Humphrey Hacker post_id=73026 time= user_id=1128 Wrote:Technical question. Could Salford take over from London in an emergency?
Not sure if you're refering to the ITV shows or The One Show here, but the answer to both is no. Not at short notice anyways.
In ITV's case the only studio they use in Salford is the one for Granada Reports, which isn't suitable. In the case of both there won't have been a studio set up and crewed ready to take over, nor will the lines have been booked from Salford to playout.
If you're asking about playout both ITV and BBC have backup sites that can take over at any time. The BBC's is in Salford, and they routinely switch/share output between London and Salford throughout the day. ITV's is in Leeds, not Salford.
Orry, your posts are always so great. Thank you.
Si-Co post_id=73036 time= user_id=1388 Wrote:If I wanted to be really picky, the fact that the standby episode had Phil saying “Welcome to TM, we can’t be with you live today” and references to it being the start of the show may have had viewers thinking “Hang on, we’ve just seen them live, it’s like the programme is starting from scratch”. Not really an issue if there had been an announcement into it explaining, but that can’t really be done effectively with no live announcer on duty.
An alternative standby episode starting with a “Welcome back. I’m afraid we can’t continue with today’s live show just now..” or similar would be ideal for occasions when the show falls off air for any reason.
Or presumably as the standby will be in several parts to accommodate ad breaks each subsequent part could start "Welcome back, we can't be with you live at the moment so we're looking back..." and in an incident like Thursdays play the corresponding part to where the show fell off air rather than starting the show from the top. That means everything is roughly back timed and it ends with the credits.
How did they get out of the TM standby? Did the presenters throw to a break and not reappear?
According to Lorraine yesterday the "suspect package" was a gift sent to her by a film production company which contained a battery and looked "a little bit dodgy" when it was X-rayed.
Phillip Scofield on Instagram said that the ITV Daytime crew spent the time or the evacuation in a pub.
James2001 post_id=73030 time= user_id=956 Wrote:Doesn't BBC playout routinely alternate between London and Salford anyway?
It doesn't 'routinely alternate' as such, it happens in both places and either can be the one on air