BBC Power Problems
Saturday June 30 2001
Take Two
9.22pm - the time at which all screens went blank. All BBC television services - and UKTV - were thrown off air by a power failure. The central Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) became overloaded and tripped out. It should then have switched to bypass and run off the main power supply; that switch failed also.
Although the main supply returned after five minutes, the next twenty minutes or so were spent rebooting equipment.
In the absence of a feed from Television Centre, the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland reacted quickly, putting out their own apology captions. The main transmission areas in London were completely without power for a short time; all communication with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was lost - no talkback, Presfax or event counters from TVC; at this point, the continuity directors in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland knew as much as the rest of us.
Even after Television Centre came back with their own apology caption, the feed from London was still very unreliable, falling off air from time to time; there was also issues with aspect ratios.
Although the main supply returned after five minutes, the next twenty minutes or so were spent rebooting equipment.
In the absence of a feed from Television Centre, the Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland reacted quickly, putting out their own apology captions. The main transmission areas in London were completely without power for a short time; all communication with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was lost - no talkback, Presfax or event counters from TVC; at this point, the continuity directors in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland knew as much as the rest of us.
Even after Television Centre came back with their own apology caption, the feed from London was still very unreliable, falling off air from time to time; there was also issues with aspect ratios.
Above: the Network feed was also switching between London and Birmingham intermittently for a short period. As to when the film would re-appear - well, other than the network director, very few people knew. Any wonder the BBC NI announcer was slightly hesitant!
BBC Wales had started showing a filler programme five minutes before the film, 'Red Corner', was resumed.
Above: various apology captions [1].
Above: various apology captions [2].
Above: various apology captions [3]. The two video clips here show how things were dealt with on BBC Two NI.
The early hours of Sunday morning, July 01. Just after 2.25am; BBC Two had just closed down. We're into Ceefax but - no music - just lots of cracking. The Ceefax pages are also a lot further down the screen than usual; and look, the clock's stopped - at 9.22pm. The problem with the music was sorted within a minute or so; and at 2.37am, we switch to a different Ceefax generator [below right], and this one's working!
Above: Ceefax problems later the same night.
Many BBC services on DSAT were not available again until well into Sunday morning; Network BBC Two and local BBC One were available again shortly after the power loss.
Following the problems with the backup power supply on Saturday night, maintenance work was carried out on the area that failed in the early hours of Monday morning, June 02. This equipment came back online just before 1.55am in the early hours of Monday morning causing disruption to output on BBC Two, BBC News 24, BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge. UKTV services were also disrupted. Although BBC News 24 was being carried on BBC One at the time, it appeared unaffected.
The disruption was, in the main, slight; however, two hours worth of BBC Two programming was blacked out. The 'Learning Zone', which should have kicked off at 2am, did not get underway until 4am.
Prior to the 'Learning Zone', we had Ceefax pages. At 1.55am, the Ceefax pages became stretched; this followed some slight picture disturbance. Then, just before 2.03am, a static 'Learning Zone' ident appeared.
Following the problems with the backup power supply on Saturday night, maintenance work was carried out on the area that failed in the early hours of Monday morning, June 02. This equipment came back online just before 1.55am in the early hours of Monday morning causing disruption to output on BBC Two, BBC News 24, BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge. UKTV services were also disrupted. Although BBC News 24 was being carried on BBC One at the time, it appeared unaffected.
The disruption was, in the main, slight; however, two hours worth of BBC Two programming was blacked out. The 'Learning Zone', which should have kicked off at 2am, did not get underway until 4am.
Prior to the 'Learning Zone', we had Ceefax pages. At 1.55am, the Ceefax pages became stretched; this followed some slight picture disturbance. Then, just before 2.03am, a static 'Learning Zone' ident appeared.
Above: stretched Ceefax In-Vision after the power switch [left]. Just before 2.03am, a static 'Learning Zone' ident appeared [right].
Above: within thirty seconds or so, a 'Temporary Fault' caption was superimposed [left]. After a few minutes of silence, an apology caption appeared [right]. The apology notice remained until 4am.
