E4 Jason Bourne? Issues with E4, E4+1, 4Music, etc

bottletop

bottletop

Active Member
Am I imagining things or has Bourne become a dragon? The film on E4(13) is something else - A Narnia fantasy film as Aslan and Narnia was mentioned.
The odd thing is that E4+1(29) is actually showing the correct film. What have they done? Or is this just peculiar to my reception?
 
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Probably fallout from yesterday's problems...

How can it be peculiar to your reception? Do you get your own feed different to everybody else's?
 
I noticed Channel 4 HD and SD are showing different programmes at the moment. The EPG says one thing for both. It’s all screwed up.
Black Hole said:
What problems were they?
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Red Bee Media, who play out some of the channels, had a fire alarm (or a fire) and some channels froze or went off air. Apparently everyone is in disaster recovery mode. BBC have been playing out from a server in Salford rather than London. Channel 5 is, allegedly, having problems with end credit and other announcements. Who knows what’s wrong with Channel 4? Either search for company or try https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/breaking-channel-4-5-more4-25072826 for further details.
 
MikeSh said:
That should be an improvement. End credit talk-overs and screen-squishing are a PITA.
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That’s the main factor in watching stuff on Talking Pictures TV. No mucking up the end credits. Dipping sound, blobbing some content and getting the source material from odd places that have already edited (censored) the programmes is a major negative though. “It’s only TV”.
 
EEPhil said:
That’s the main factor in watching stuff on Talking Pictures TV. No mucking up the end credits. Dipping sound, blobbing some content and getting the source material from odd places that have already edited (censored) the programmes is a major negative though. “It’s only TV”.
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Talking Pictures TV runs on a very low budget. Given it shows old films that no other channel would show we should be grateful for what it puts out.
 
Owen Smith said:
Talking Pictures TV runs on a very low budget. Given it shows old films that no other channel would show we should be grateful for what it puts out.
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I just wish they’d schedule more intelligently. If there is a film or series that contains dodgy words or scenes, put it on in full after the watershed or don’t show it at all. The showing of old programmes that were originally on after 9pm is fantastic, and I am grateful. But showing them at 8pm has given rise to some unnecessary censorship.
 
E4+1 was off air during some parts of yesterday evening. And still off air today. Apparently it's still connected to the issue during last Saturday.
forums.digitalspy.com

E4+1 off air

Was watching E4+1 last evening at 7pm, they announced the next programme and then the picture froze.
forums.digitalspy.com forums.digitalspy.com
inews.co.uk

What we know about problems with Channel 4 and All 4 as viewers report E4 is 'off air'

Viewers have complained that E4 has gone 'off air' with many missing the latest episode of Married At First Sight UK on Monday evening
inews.co.uk inews.co.uk

4Music had stopped their scheduled programming and using their The Box feed instead.
Also I noticed one or two programs showing on sister channels may be transmitted without subtitles. I wonder when will they get back to normal full service?
 
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On the Waltham transmitter E4, E4+1, Film4 and More 4 are off-air. Channel 4 SD is showing the 4HD logo. Various channels in the Five family are showing a black and white square in the top right corner-allegedly indicating disaster recovery mode. Given the amount of time it’s taking to sort this out 4 and 5 ought to terminate their arrangement with Red Bee and find a more competent provider.
 
EEPhil said:
Given the amount of time it’s taking to sort this out 4 and 5 ought to terminate their arrangement with Red Bee
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Have you any idea of how much damage has been done, to what, and how complicated and time-consuming it is to replace/configure/test it?
No, I thought not.
TV was a hell of a lot simpler in the 90s than it is now.
EEPhil said:
and find a more competent provider.
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Where do you suggest they look?
 
It ain’t simple. A hell of a lot of server hard drives have been damaged due to the acoustic shock caused by the fire suppressant discharge. Specialists are having to be called in, drives are having to be replaced, RAIDs rebuilt, backups reinstated etc, etc.
 
EEPhil said:
If the BBC can have a duplicate set of servers in Salford, I’m sure Channel 4 could have a duplicate set somewhere.
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That costs money. Given the constant squeeze on the BBC's finances I wouldn't bet on the BBC having a duplicate set for much longer. A duplicate set is however the way to go.
 
EEPhil said:
Whoever runs the play-out for ITV would be a good start.
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The lack of information for this particular event doesn't help. But according to this - guess who handles this function?

Our Work - Red Bee Media

www.redbeemedia.com www.redbeemedia.com

What we're seeing is Disaster Recovery in action.
Either they've got a hiccup in their plans and this is the fallout or it's working as planned (ie main services are running and recover remaining services in highest priority basis).
 
EEPhil said:
Oops! And yet itv didn’t go belly- up. :oops::D
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I assume each network has different arrangements with Red Bee.
EEPhil said:
Strange how all C5 services are on air and most C4s are off-air in the East Midlands. Regional adverts causing the problem?
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Interesting. In the Freeview Crystal Palace region, only E4+1 is off air. 4Music as good as off air (as they've switched from their normal schedule to the TVBox feed).
I think C5 services are also running ok here (with subtitles).

Contact us | Channel 4

If you have a query, comment or complaint about our programming or on demand services please use the below Contact Us Form. If you'd prefer to give us a call then its 0345 076 0191 or 0345 073 0017 for Channel 4+ queries. We also have a wide-range of FAQs that you may find useful.
www.channel4.com
This page acknowledges the ongoing issues.
It has the explanation
"PLEASE BE AWARE THAT SINCE THE INCIDENT AT THE WEEKEND WE ARE STILL EXPERIENCING ISSUES WITH BOTH TV BROADCAST AND ALL 4.

This includes the provision of WATCH LIVE, as well as the upload of programming to All 4 and some issues with our on air playout.

We are also unable to provide SUBTITLES, AUDIO DESCRIPTION or SIGNING on any programming across our channels or on demand services.

We are working as quickly as we can to resume normal services across our broadcast and on demand services."
 
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Waltham now up and running. C4 SD still showing HD logo. Other 4 channels missing a DOG. (Oh what a pity!) Rumour from twitter that Film4 in this region is being fed from the online stream - both were broadcasting without sound for a while. 4Music does what it says on the tin at the moment and is showing music videos.
 
Even when it appears to be running well there are sometimes 'running by the seat of the pants' events that the viewers never see.

A long time ago now, but in the mid 90's I remember a sports magazine programme that went out on a Tuesday evening and was edited right up to the wire, with the transmission tape being laid down (in real time back then) only about an hour before on-air. It was discovered after making the tape that it was unusable due to faulty white-crushed video, and there was no time to remake it as a whole. We ended up going on air with a tape that only had about a minute's worth of good pictures, and within that minute before it ran out we had to sync up and hot-cut to a different tape that had some more pictures, but still not everything, and I seem to remember that we also needed to retain the sound from the original VT as the new tape didn't have that bit, so we now had 2 machines on air running in sync, one with some pictures the other with some sound, but both of which were incomplete. This kind of video/audio hot-cutting had to occur a few more times over the course of the programme as other tapes were still being assembled upstairs and rushed to us to keep things going. And the whole thing had to have the graphics keyed over it live throughout as well. Various edit suites and vision/audio mixers were involved in this feat.

Miraculously the viewer at home saw nothing untoward...

Happy days, and all very different now !
 
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