ARCHIVE: The TV Room
Technical issues during an episode of Neighbours on BBC One Northern Ireland.
Video content
[00:00:00] PROGRAMME: an early evening airing of Neighbours is disrupted briefly on BBC One Northern Ireland (analogue) by problems with the local opting equipment.
Vision was lost on a few occasions in relatively quick succession. Our clip begins during the final loss of vision.
Look out for the visual confirmation that the local analogue continuity desk is in circuit – at 18 seconds in. Near the top left corner (quite close to the site logo in our clip), what looks like a set of double quotes (from a character generator) appears briefly.
This indicator was used from time to time by continuity directors at BBC Northern Ireland to confirm the continuity desk was definitely in circuit.
In the early 2000s, there were significant issues with the opting equipment used for the analogue BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland services, sometimes resulting in a brief loss of picture and sound when the desk was put in and out of circuit.
The faulty equipment was replaced in 2001/2.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: BBC Northern Ireland "cue dot". COPYRIGHT: BBC.
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