TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

Not a breakdown as such, but clearly all wasn't well at NOW 80s earlier this evening:



ADDS - Actually, checking my recording, an ad break at about 7.23pm went dark, followed by that OASYS logo on black for a minute, before returning to content with that logo superimposed for around an hour. Later, there was a spell of black during an ad break next hour before the normal playout system (presumably) took over.

Presumably someone has some insight, or an inspired guess as to what was going on?

Possibly it wasn't a different system taking over in that break, it ws someone entering the new license code into the software?

I'd have said that there was a fault with the main playout so the output switched over to a backup playout however this backup didn't have a valid licence - the watermark appearing over black was probably the switch, before the backup started playing out. They then switched back during a convenient spot later on.

I don't know for sure obviously but taking a channel off-air to enter a new license code into playout software seems undesirable to me. They may just not have wanted to pay for a license for a seldom used backup playout system...

It's not much of a backup if it's not licenced and ready to use though.

The bigger omission is the lack of an emergency tape scenario that could have been put on air while they failed over the playout system.

Kind of reminds me of some of the old tv mocks on youtube that had a big Demo watermark on the screen if you didn't pay for the full software.

Oh yes, I remember those.

Loss of sound during It Takes Two this afternoon.

Loss of sound on BBC Two for a couple of minutes during SCD It Takes Two pic.twitter.com/DiyikfVP9i

— The Ident Gallery (@theidentgallery) November 20, 2019

Quite strangely handled, with pres adding the apology strap, the programme cutting to their holding animation (as seen on the studio screen). Pres fade their apology off and the programme add their own a second before crashing into a VT. When they came back, Zoe's mic sounded a bit strange and the guests were on a shared stick mic.

I guess the sound desk crashed and there was a bit of rerouting of sources to get the VT to air to buy some time to reboot or put a backup plan into place?

Surprising that the Continuity Announcer didn't do an announcement during the silent bit for the benefit of any visually impaired viewers (although I guess the programme itself is not likely to appeal to such viewers)

That was strange that you could subtly still hear the sound, as though most of the mics failed but one could pick them up.

Not sure if it was happening on Sky/Virgin but I had Magic on the BoxPlus app on FireTV on the 2nd tv and it went to an ad break but it was stuck in a loop playing the same advert over again, BoXmas was the same but the others seemed fine.