The Fun World of Television Startups

[Blubatt]

For those of us who are younger and have only grown up with the current state of things, television used to be turned on and off by the engineers. Programming would begin at a set time and end at a set time (usually). Before main programming started, you'd have a startup sequence, which would usually contain an ident, continuity, programme slides, and some music. All straightforward stuff. And this thread is my attempt at creating a discussion about the more interesting examples of such a thing. Case and point:

[deejay]

Yes, terrify small children awaiting their favourite, gentle programme by playing possibly the spookiest music the Radiophonic Workshop could muster! Stuff of nightmares.

[Bluecortina]

[quote=Blubatt post_id=67552 time= user_id=1559]
For those of us who are younger and have only grown up with the current state of things, television used to be turned on and off by the engineers. Programming would begin at a set time and end at a set time (usually). Before main programming started, you'd have a startup sequence, which would usually contain an ident, continuity, programme slides, and some music. All straightforward stuff. And this thread is my attempt at creating a discussion about the more interesting examples of such a thing. Case and point:

[James2001]

I really can't tell what the fault is! Though I'm sure when you point it out it will be incredibly obvious...

[Steve in Pudsey]

That's certainly going to annoy me, I've been through various examples frame by frame and can't tell any difference.

Transdiffusion have some good articles about how ITV startups worked

[VMPhil]

Is it that the stripey bars on the left side get slightly wider when the animation completes?

[James2001]

Is it that the stripey bars on the left side get slightly wider when the animation completes?

Though as that would have been cut off by overscan on most TVs, suely barely anyone would have noticed that at the time!

It's amazing how much stuff you see at the extreme edges of the frames these days thanks to watching with no overscan! The BBC4 TOTP repeats are one of the most noticable, you always know when there's a DVE effect of some sort coming up, and sometimes you see the bottom of the caption at the top of the screen waiting to animate on as well.

When Drama were showing the 80s episodes of EastEnders, it was quite common to see a thin slit of another camera's output on the edge of the screen during OB work as well.

Not to mention scrolling credits in the 80s and early 90s that don't reach the top of the screen!

[Bluecortina]

That's certainly going to annoy me, I've been through various examples frame by frame and can't tell any difference.

Transdiffusion have some good articles about how ITV startups worked

If you look at the extreme bottom LHS of the picture - ie the corner, you will notice a small extraneous grey vertical ‘stripe’ which disappears when the animation completes (Remember it’s a 4:3 picture).

VMPhil is correct that the extreme LHS of the horizontal stripes do change in width as the animation completes, but that was not what I pointed out to the equipment designer although it wouldn’t take too much of a stretch of the imagination to think they are linked. I was watching on a professional underscanned monitor and I doubt your average domestic set would have shown either, but of course professional engineers have their standards!

[James2001]

I actually have noticed that before but I admit I thought it was there because it served some sort of purpose! Like a cue dot for the ident or something similar.

[Steve in Pudsey]

If you look at the extreme bottom LHS of the picture - ie the corner, you will notice a small extraneous grey vertical ‘stripe’ which disappears when the animation completes (Remember it’s a 4:3 picture).

I assumed that was a deliberate confidence thing (indicating that the animation was cued up rather than say parked on the last frame of the version that animates off), the stencilled TWO that followed had similar marks in the overscan area. It was still there on the later appearances of the ident rather than being fixed as I thought you suggested?

[Bluecortina]

If you look at the extreme bottom LHS of the picture - ie the corner, you will notice a small extraneous grey vertical ‘stripe’ which disappears when the animation completes (Remember it’s a 4:3 picture).

I assumed that was a deliberate confidence thing (indicating that the animation was cued up rather than say parked on the last frame of the version that animates off), the stencilled TWO that followed had similar marks in the overscan area. It was still there on the later appearances of the ident rather than being fixed as I thought you suggested?

I can only assure you the equipment designer himself agreed it was a fault when I showed it to him.

[Steve in Pudsey]

I assume that the equipment and the graphics it displays were designed by different people? So the former might not have been aware that the latter had included it in their code for operational reasons?

[Markymark]

I assume that the equipment and the graphics it displays were designed by different people? So the former might not have been aware that the latter had included it in their code for operational reasons?

I'm sure the grey bar was visible on my telly at the time, and it think it must have been, because what annoyed me about that ident was the RHS of the strips had no (visible) 3D style edge, unlike the LHS

[Markymark]

BBC start ups were a pretty brisk but dull affair. ITV ones were a bit too far the other way, a big long (often pompous) build up, before going to some dull first programme, (or worse the Schools sequence)

I used to sneak down to the living room on Saturday and/or Sunday mornings to watch LWT's start up. That was in a class of its own !

[James2001]

Yes, it's always strange seeing the videos of the ITV startup sequences going straight into a schools programme, it seems totally ridiculous. Especially as few people would have been watching (and those that were would have been at school).

We still have the strange hangover of the 9:25 handover from the breakfast franchise, which was done so that the ITV companies could run their startups and start their first programme at 9:30. Seeing as startups were gone well before the end of the 80s, it makes you wonder why the 9:25 startup time persisted after the franchise change in 1993, let along still being there nearly 30 years after (admittedly you only have programmes starting at 9:25 at weekends now, with Lorraine bridging the gap during the week. Still a 9:25 programme start on the CITV channel though seeing as that's technically still considered part of the breakfast franchise).