BBC Radio Now on Astra

INF

The quarterly for BBC engineering, technical and operational staff

SPRING 1993 No 52 BBC Radio now on Astra

Radios 1,4 and 5,.along with BBC World Service in English are now available in mono on the Astra satellite system. Starting on page 3, Henry Price describes how these new services are transmitted and what is required to receive them. CONTENTS

ASTRA SATELLITE - BBC Radio Services now available 3

FAMILY TREE - Engineering Division 12 ITU - Its function and new structure 16

LOCAL RADIO - Cumbria refurbished 21 NETWORK RADIO - Radio 2's new transmission suites 7

NORTH REGION - Manchester's Edit Suite 5 23 RADIO-CAMERAS - RD's new switched-horn system 14

TELECO~CATIONS - Part 5: self-provision of OB circuits 18

TRANSMITTER NEWS 2

WORLD SERVICE TV - Impovements to BBCfax 11 Graphical illustration of Astra satellites lA, lB and 1C in orbit Radio Romania calls on ENGINF BBC expertise Edited, designed and typeset by EID, Room 3402 White City. ollowing a request for assistance from for consultants to prepare a feasibility Tel:" (07) 24316 F Radio Romania, JeffBottom of Radio study. An existing partially-com- Projects has made three visits to Bucharest pleted museum building has been Editor Mike Meyer since last August. transferred to Radio Romania, as a way Secretary Tracy Quinn of speeding up the provision of new Typesetter Giselle Austin According to Jeff: "The Broadcasting broadcasting facilities that are not sub- Graphic Artist Paul May House in Bucharest was built in the ject to earthquake risk. A lot of time has early 1950s and many of its facilities been spent transferring knowledge As Eng Infis an internal BBC maga- are from that original installation by gained from experiences in the BBC to zine, it would be appreciated if no Siemens. The building is H-shaped the local staff who, although highly reference was made to it in articles, (similar to our BH EXT), with the qualified and technically competent, magazines etc, published outside transmission studios and CTA in the have not had the opportunity to do any the BBC. lower floors of the centre section. How- project work. ever, the structure of their building suf- Stories for the Autumn issue should fered severe earthquake damage in While in Bucharest, Jeff was able to op- be forwarded to the editor by Friday 1978, 1986 and again in 1990. As it erate his own hand-held Amateur Radio 20th August, 1993. cannot be repaired or strengthened equipment on 2 Metres FM, using the while still occupied, and further earth- call sign YO/G3SDG under a permit quakes could cause a total collapse, a from the Ministry of Communications. replacement facility is the only way for- Many contacts were made in the Bucha- Transmitter ward." rest area, mainly using the repeater on channel RI (input 145.025 MHz; output News Assisted by Roy Newrick (previously of 145.625 MHz) which resulted in Jeffbe- Radio Projects), Jeff has assessed the ing invited to operate on HF frequencies using local amateur stations. The following services have opened or situation at first hand and reviewed vari- changed since our last issue: ous alternative strategies for the future. "The concept of separate project man- Jeff leaves the BBC in July but discus- New TV relays agement staff has been introduced and sions are in hand to determine the future of this cooperation with Radio Romania. Farleigh Kent a project team has begun work on a brief Farningham Kent NeathAbbey West Glamorgan

New FM stations Display Screen Equipment Barnoldswick N Lancashire Croeserw West Glamorgan ow that the Display Screen Equip- Not only are the obvious parts of the ment regulations are in force, all workstation (such as the degree of flicker Penmaen Rhos Clwyd N computer workstations in the BBC will on the screen) under scrutiny: incorrect Rheola West Glamorgan have to be assessed for Health and Safety. posture can lead to Upper Limb Disorder, " Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), backache Radio 1 on FM etc. Thus, properly chosen and correctly- Kirkconnel Dumfries & Galloway There are over 900 screens within the adjusted chairs are critical to avoid these former Engineering Directorate and a Pro- risks. Radios 1 and 4 on FM ject Team has been recruited - compris- Campbeltown W Strathclyde ing Les Davis, Tony Dent and Paul Martin Nutt Safety Services Girvan S Strathclyde Kinsey - to assess these work-stations Engineering Llanfyllin Powys by the end of the year. Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant Clwyd Local Radio STOP PRESS... As featured on page 21, Radio Car- lisle has moved into new stereo- equipped premises. The transmitters urther to the article inEng InfNo tion cooling. The price should be about now broadcasting Radio Carlisle in F 51 on the LS5/8 and AM8/20, Devel- IV2 times that of the AM8/20 (ie, stereo are Sandale, Kendal, More- opment Group now announces the equivalent to two mono AM8/16s). cambe Bay and Windermere. AM8/21. This is effectively a stereo AM8/20 and comprises: one power supply, urther details can be obtained from Graham Whitehead at Avenue Further information from EID on four amplifier channels and two cross- F overs - all in a 3D 19" case with connec- House. Tel: (036) 4273 White City (07) 25040.

2 ENG INF Spring 1993 ASTRA SATELLITE BBC Radio Services now available

In early April, four of the BBC's radio services - Radio 1, Radio 4, Radio 5 and World Service in English - began transmissions in mono on the UK Gold channel of the Astra satellite. Henry Price gives some background to the Astra system and describes how to receive these satellite-delivered BBC radio services.

he Astra satellite system is will be able to receive all forty-eight owned and operated by the channels. The three satellites, which T Luxembourg-based company each weigh up to 2.7 tonnes and are SES (Societe Europeenne des Sat- about the size of a double-decker bus, ellite). Presently, two satellites - are all located within a 70 km cube. Astra lA and 1B - are used to Their position is closely controlled transmit thirty-two television serv- from SES headquarters at Chateau ices and a similar number of radio Betzdorf, Luxembourg, to ensure channels to most of Western Europe. that they do not collide or block one A third satellite - Astra 1C - was another's view of the earth. launched in mid-May 1993 and is ex- pected to come into operation in The three satellites operate within July/August, increasing the capacity the fIxed services satellite (FSS) band of the system to forty-eight television as follows: services in total. Additionally, 1C has two channels intended for cable tele- Satellite lA 11.20 to 11.45 GHz vision distribution which are outside Satellite 1B 11.45 to 11.70 GHz the frequency range normally covered Satellite 1C 10.95 to 11.20 GHz by domestic satellite receivers. (The two cable channels operate just The satellites are located at nomi- below 10.95 GHz) nally the same position in space: 19.2 Ariane launching an Astra satellite degrees east on the geostationary orbit The frequency range 10.95 to 11.70 (about 36,000 km vertically above GHz was originally intended for tele- Zaire), so that a single dish antenna communication satellites; not for broadcasting, which ~as been allocated the range 11.7 to 12.5 GHz. As a result, Astra was not subject to the original European Community satellite broadcasting directive, introduced in 1986, which required all direct broadcast satellites (DBS) to use the MAC transmission system. Hence, broadcasters using Astra have been able to operate in PAL or MACas has suited their purposes.

The satellites are powered from solar cells which are backed up by batter- ies. These come into play during the spring and autumn equinoxes when the satellite passes into the Earth's shadow. Over a period of22 days, the eclipse builds up to a maximum of around 70 minutes at the equinox (about 22.10 to 23.20 hours GMT), then falls away to zero over the next 22 days. During the eclipse, the bat- Fig l: the footprint of Channel 23 on Astra lB (UK Gold), showing the antenna diameter required teries have to provide the 2 kW of (in centimetres) for direct-ta-home reception power the satellite consumes.

ENG INF No 52 3 - Astra Satellite - services, many of which are scrambled. All the services aimed at the UK use PAL, either in the clear or ASTRA ASTRA scrambled with the VideoCrypt sys- 1A 18 tem. Table 1 gives an up-to-date list of the television services presently Vertical 11.376 11.406 11.435 11.479 11.508 11.538 GHz on Astra.

:. 829MHz .: The VideoCrypt System When Sky first started broadcasting scrambled services on Astra in 1989, it standardised on the VideoCrypt 11.391 11.420 11.464. 11.493 11.523 11.552 GHz Horizontal 11.361 (UK Gold) system. This is an active-line-rota- tion scrambling system which only scrambles the picture; it does not scramble the sound. Although the Fig 2: frequency allocation in the region between satellites lA and lB picture is scrambled, the line and field syncs remain intact as does any teletext signal. So a television Transponders on lA are rated at cause little problem - provided the receiver fed with a VideoCrypt- 47 W, while those on 1B deliver receiving dish has been correctly scrambled signal continues to oper- about 63 W. The signals are trans- aligned during installation. ate normally - there is just no mitted towards Earth via highly- sensible picture! directional antennas, which are Five ofthe 32 transponders presently aimed at roughly the French/Ger- in operation carry D2-MACtransmis- The system uses a combination of man border. The erp at the centre sions; the rest carry PAL television smart card and over-air addressing to of the beam is about 54 dBW, so the transmit antennae have a gain Television Service Ch RF Carrier Sound Carrier Coding . Encryptlon of about 37 dB (which is roughly (GHz) + P (MHz) equivalent to a standard 60 cm do- RTL2 1 11.214 H 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear mestic dish). RTL Plus 2 11.229 V 7.02 Pal Clear TV3 (Sweden) 3 11.243 H Digital D2Mac EuroCrypt Eurosport/Quantum 4 11.258 V 7.02 Pal Clear The satellite coverage area comprises VOX 5 11.273 H 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear most of the low countries, Germany, Sat 1 6 11.288 V 7.02f1.2 Pal Clear France, Switzerland, northern TV1000 7 11.302 H Digital D2Mac EuroCrypt 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear Spain, northern Italy and the UK - Sky One 8 11.317 V TV Asia 8 11.317 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear with a total population of some 240 Teleclub 9 11.332 H 7.02 Pal Nagravision million people. Fig 1 shows the foot- 3 Sat 10 11.347 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear FilmNet 11 11.361 H Digital D2Mac EuroCrypt print of the UK Gold service on Sky News 12 11.376 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear Astra 1B (which is similar to the foot- RTL4 13 11.391 H 7.02f1.20 Pal IRDETO prints of the services on lA and 1C). Pro 7 14 11.406 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear MTV Europe 15 11.420 H 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear Sky Movies Plus 16 11.435 V 7.02f1.20 Pal VideoCrypt Astra has standardised on a Premiere 17 11.464 H 7.02f1.20 Pal Nagravision transponder bandwidth of 27 MHz, Movie Channel 18 11.479 V 7.02f1.20 Pal VideoCrypt ARD Eins Plus 19 11.493 H 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear compared to the 36 or 72 MHz Sky Sports 20 11.508 V 7.02f1.20 Pal VideoCrypt transponders used on many other DSF 21 11.523 H 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear telecommunications satellites. Each MTV Europe 22 11.538 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear 7.02f1.20 Pal VideoCrypt Astra satellite has eight transpon- UK Gold 23 11.552 H Children's Channel 24 11.567 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear ders operating on horizontal polari- Japan Sat TV 24 11.567 V 7.02f1.20 Pal VideoCrypt sation and eight on vertical. Fig 2 N3 25 11.582 H 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear 7.02f1.20 Pal VideoCrypt shows how the frequency is allocated Adult Channel 26 11.597 V Movies Gold 26 11.597 V 7.02f1.20 Pal VideoCrypt in the region between satellites lA TV3 (Denmark) 27 11.611 H Digital D2Mac EuroCrypt and lE. As can be seen, the spectrum CNN 28 11.626 V 7.02 Pal Clear 7.02f1.20 Pal Clear from adjacent transponders overlaps N-TV 29 11.641 H Cinemania 30 11.656 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Nagravision very significantly - interference-free TV3 (Norway) 31 11.670 H Digital D2Mac EuroCrypt reception is thus very dependent on Documania 32 11.685 V 7.02f1.20 Pal Nagravision the receiving antenna being able to discriminate between the two polari- sations. In practice, this seems to Table1:the televisionservicescurrentlyavailableonAstra

4 ENG INF Spring 1993 - Astra Satellite - control access to the service. A sub- scriber's smart card can be updated over the air, either to remove the ability to receive services or to extend ! VISION SOUND CHANNELS entitlement. , I OdB " Mono VideoCrypt can also operate in a so Mode called "soft-scrambled" mode. This -18<1B Stereo Stereo Stereo Stereo means that the signal is scrambled, Mode A Mode B Mode C Mode D j j but that a VideoCrypt decoder can -22dB descramble the signal without a smart card. The UK Gold service is operating in this mode at present.

Frequency (MHz) In the early days of the BSkyB Astra ... 8.6 7.02 7.38 7.74 8.10 service (it was just Sky at that 6.6 7.20 7.68 7.92 8.28 time), a separate satellite receiver and VideoCrypt decoder were required to receive the scrambled pic- Fig 3: Panda 1 arrangement of FM sub.carriers above the vision signal tures. Today, most satellite receivers sold in the UK have the Crypt decoder, as BSkyB channels nal-to-noiseratio. The peak devia- VideoCrypt decoder built in and are only intended for UK residents. tion of these subcarriers is 50 kHz. are known as IRDs (Integrated Re- ceiver Decoders). In continental Not all receivers use the proprietary Europe, however, most PAL receiv- Radio Services on Astra Wegener Panda decoding system, ers will not incorporate a Video- The transponders which carry PAL and in some cases this can result in services can also carry several radio the sound quality being less than channels, in addition to the normal ideal. Receivers which use licensed People often remark that it is quite television sound. In fact, each televi- Panda decoders can be identified by astonishing that a transmitter with sion signal could in theory be accom- the "Panda" symbol (see Fig 4) which the power of a standard domestic light bulb is capable of being re- panied by up to nine or ten sound is usually displayed on the front of ceived 36,000 km away on Earth. signals although, in practice, no the equipment. The physics of the situation is no channel carries more than seven at less astonishing. In effect, the 50 present. WEGENER COMMUNICATIONS, INC. Watts or so of power from the satellite is spread fairly uniformly The sound signals are modulated over the whole of the western half onto high frequency FM subcarriers of Europe, an area of some 5 million square km. The resulting av- which are added at baseband to the erage power flux density from the video signal. On Astra, the lowest N 0 I S ERE D U C TI 0 N satellite ~s, therefore, about -110 frequency subcarrier - located at dB(W/m ). This is about 7 dB 6.5 MHz -.always carries the tele- Fig 4: the "Panda" symbol lower than the DBS power density vision programme sound in mono specified at WARC-n. with a deviation of 85 kHz and a The subcarriers can be used sepa- pre-emphasis of 50 118. As this is a rately to carry mono sound signals or The standard 60 cm receiving an- grouped in stereo pairs as follows:- tenna now intercepts about 0.3 relatively high-level subcarrier, the square metres worth of this signal sound is not compressed. 7.02/7.20, 7.38/7.56, 7.74/7.92 and (-115 dBW) and delivers some 60% 8.10/8.28 MHz. With a mono televi- of it (-117 dBW) to the receiver. A For the rest of the sound signals, sion service, the 7.02 MHz subcarrier "standard" low-noise block (LNB) on nearly all the channels on Astra use is usually used for the programme the dish, with a 1.8 dB noise figure, a particular sound multiplex and sound. If the programme sound is will result in a carrier-to-noise ratio of compression system called Panda 1, stereo then the 7.02 and 7.20 MHz some 13 dB at the receiver's input which gives a reasonably noise-free developed by the Wegener Com- subcarriers are used. picture and sound. pany. Referring to Fig 3, this system can carry multiple FM subcarriers Table 2 lists the radio services that Incidentally, the WARC-77 DBS plan spaced 180 kHz apart, starting from are presently available on the Astra assumed a 90 cm dish, an LNB noise 7.02 MHz. Because these subcarri- satellites. figure of 8 dB and a carrier-to-noise ers are injected at a relatively low figure of 14 dB. level, the sound is compressed at the BBC Radio Services up link and expanded in the receiver The BBC's radio services are carried in order to provide an adequate sig- on UK Goldusing the Wegener Panda 1

ENG INF No 52 5 - Astra Satellite - system, on the following subcarriers Radio Service RF Carrier (GHz) Sound Carrier Mono! (MHz) Stereo above the normal video signal: + Polarisation AsdaFM 11.435 V 7.74 M 6.50 MHz TV Sound mono BBC Radio 1 11.552 H 7.74 M 7.56 M 7.02 MHz TV Sound Stereo (left) BBC Radio 4 11.552 H BBC Radio 5 11.552 H 7.92 M TV Sound Stereo (right) M 7.20 MHz BBC World Service 11.552 H 7.38 7.38 MHz World Service in English CNN Radio 11.266 V 7.92 M 7.74/7.92 M 7.56 MHz Radio 4 (as on FM) Deutscheland Funk 11.288 V Deutscheland Funk 11.288 V 7.38/7.56 S Radio 1 7.74 MHz Deutschewelle 11.229 V 7.56/7.38 M 7.92 MHz Radio 5 Eviva 11.332 H 7.74/7.92 S Holland FM 11.479 V 7.56 M lOB 11.538 V 7.74/7.56 M!S Modern satellite receivers are usu- Maxat FM 11.435 V 7.92 M ally able to receive all these sound NDR2 11.582 H 7.38/7.56 S S channels. However, some early re- NDR4 11.582 H 7.74/7.92 QCMR 11.376 V 7.38 M ceivers (in particular the Amstrad Quality Europe FM 11.435 V 7.38/7.56 S SRX100 and SRX200 models) could Radio 538 11.317 V 7.74/7.92 S only receive the 7.02, 7.20, 7.38 and Radio Asia 11.597 V 7.38 M Radio RMF 11.420 H 7.74/7.92 S 7.56 MHz subcarriers. These receiv- Radio Ropa 11.406 V 7.74/7.92 S ers will not be able to receive the Radio Sweden 11.597 V 7.74 M Radio 1 and Radio 5 services. How- RTL4 11.391 H 7.74/7.92 S RTL Radio 11.391 H 7.38/7 .56 S ever, upgrade kits are available to Sky Radio 11.317 V 7.38/7.56 S enable them to operate over the full StarSat 11.406 V 7.38/7.56 S range of subcarrier frequencies, but Sunrise Radio 11.479 V 7.38 M Supergold 11.376 V 7.92 M their installation is very much a job Spare 11.508 V 7.38 M for a trained technician. Sputnik 11.464 H 7.38/7.56 S Switzerland 11.332 H 7.20 M 11.493 H 7.38/7.56 S Most receivers have a number of SWF3 audio modes. In order to select the appropriate mode, the user usually Table 2: the radio services currently available on Astra has to press a button marked 'mode' or 'audio' on the remote control which steps the receiver from one mode to Mono 3 7.20 MHz case, then the audio button will have the next. For instance, a typical re- Mono 4 7.38 MHz (WS) to be pressed seven times to get World ceiver might organise its audio modes Mono 5 7.56 MHz (Radio 4) Service (7.38 MHz), eight times to get as follows: Mono 6 7.74 MHz (Radio 1) Radio 4, etc. Alternatively, the re- Mono 7 7.92 MHz (Radio 5) ceiver could be set to receive UK Gold Stereo A 7.02/7.20 MHz Mono 8 8.10 MHz sound in Mono Modes 1, 2 or 3, in Stereo B 7.38/7.56 MHz Mono 9 8.28 MHz which case the number of button Stereo C 7.74/7.92 MHz presses will be less! Stereo D 8.10/8.28 MHz UK Gold's programme sound is ste- Mono 1 6.50 MHz (Tunable) reo, so the receiver should initially be Some modern receivers use on-screen Mono 2 7.02 MHz set to Stereo Mode A. If this is the graphics menus, both to display and select the required subcarrier frequencies, and to store the appropriate settings. Since such procedures vary considerably from receiver to receiver, the user will need to consult the receiver handbook or their dealer.

Finally, Fig 5 shows a typical installation where the satellite receiver is linked to both a television set and a hi-fi system. Such an arrangement is ideal if the receiver is going to be used frequently for radio listen- ing.

Henry Price Fig 5: a typical satellite receiver installation HEID

6 ENG INF Spring 1993 NETWORK RADIO Radio 2's new transDlission suites

John Tidy describes just a few problems which preceded the opening of Radio 2's new transmission suites.

ankruptcies, lockouts, steam Then some clever beggar had a bright In the middle... baths and General Elections: idea: why not combine the two func- The whole exercise was taking place B not the kind of things you tions in one area? And so the concept, in the middle of a complete refur- would associate with building three then a little later the project, was bishment of BH, following the Gov- on-air transmission suites for Radio 2 born. All.that remained was to come ernors' decision to keep Radio there perhaps. But all these had a hand in up with a control desk that would rather than moving out to West Lon- shaping the story of how Continuities handle a full set of replay equipment don. So once it became known that G, Hand J - the rather shabby and in both the studio (for the DJ) and the BH had a long-term future, it was tired-looking places where Radio 2 cubicle (for an operator to use with a clear that something had to be done originated half of its DJ programme non-DJ). The whole lot would have to about the general working environ- output - were turned gradually into be crammed into a space that already ment - especially the acoustics, the Transmission Suites IG, IH and IJ: seemed quite full with only half that air-conditioning plant which was a comfortable comprehensively- amount of gear. It should be quite slowly rusting away on the roof out- equipped production centre for all Ra- straightforward really! side, and the chill wind which stead- dio 2's presenter-led programmes. fastly blew down the back of the But first I must set the scene. It was soon realised that the only DJs' necks. control desk capable of supporting the required facilities was Solid Working to a brief from Radio Pro- In the beginning... State Logic's SL5000 series, and jects, a team from ACED (now ... there were continuity suites and gradually a satisfactory proposal BDMS) set about redesigning the there were studios. The continuity was worked out between SSL and whole area and its services - taking suites were only used by DJs; the the technical design team. The job account of the requirements imposed studios were used by, well, non-DJs. of getting all the equipment to fit by the new equipment and the desire Thus you could never be sure where exercised many minds but eventu- to improve the appearance and acous- Radio 2's live programme was coming ally a plan evolved which in general tic environment, but without making from - especially if, say, non-DJ worked, apart from Suite IG's cu- major structural alterations. N eil Kinnock was standing in for a bicle where a few millimetres error professional self-operator like John in a drawing meant having to move Within the boundaries of the existing Dunn. Things could quite well arrive a tape machine at the last minute to Camden partitions, a complete trans- late or go missing. the other side of the door! formation was to take place. A complex

SUlllIJ

Plan view of Radio 2's new transmission suites

ENG INF No 52 7 - Radio 2 -

ridor, could not be worked on sepa- rately - noise, dust, too many people wanting to come and go, and deliver- ies of building materials would see to that. However Con G (to be given the treatment last) would be all right, being separated from all the disrup- tion by a room we used to call the Network Supervisory Area which the builders would later transform into a reception area and phone-in room.

This left us with two remaining sets of temporary facilities to find. Suite 1C would be eminently suitable as it was equipped with the same Type D desks so familiar to Radio 2 from the original Cons Hand J. And to complete the temporary facilities, we needed somewhere to act as a tempo- j rary home for another Type D pack- "c age (recovered from the original :r:" d continuities which were demolished to make way for Radio 5's production suites).

arrangement of duct-work around minimise the possibility of creating Studio SI was available but, as it was the windows to the outside was de- distracting reflections. High-fre- the location of the original Baird-sys- signed to enable the removal of the quency fluorescent fittings have been tem experimental TV transmissions, old supply and extract system, while supplemented by dimmable low-volt- it was of special interest to English still allowing in natural daylight. age spots on tracks. Heritage. So, when we came to apply for planning consent, we had to be The acoustic treatment was re-de- Although a control desk specifica- most careful over what we did to it. signed by Tony Woolf of RDER to tion had been agreed with Solid allow a slightly longer and more even State Logic, and the finance ap- reverberation time than before, par- proved for the purchase of three of A Clever idea.... ticularly in the cubicle. Diffusers these desks, this was by no means All good projects have an event were specified to make up some ofthe the end of the technical installation which, on reflection, can be seen as wall treatment. In addition the floor story. We agreed with SSL at the the point at which success or failure around the producer's and operator's start that their desk would contain was determined. Such was the case positions was required to provide a only standard equipment: anything with the clever idea which someone long-lasting surface for the chairs to they could not supply using cata- -I'm not quite sure who - had next. run on and to cut down the area of logue options would be for others to It ran as follows: why spend good sound-absorbing carpet, the join be- provide. In any case, as SSL do not money reinstalling a 20-year old con- tween the two having been designed offer an installation service, we trol desk, however cheaply, if you can to allow a chair to run smoothly would need the services of an instal- temporarily install a new one and get across it. lation contractor to fall back on. some use out of it? It made good Thus with input from Studio Opera- sense. Installing the first of the new The new observation window is made tions and Radio 2, a specification SSL desks in SI would overcome the up from three parallel panes of low- was written for the special facilities limitations imposed by the old Type reflectivity glass, which seemed to be that would be needed to make a live- Ds, test the new design and give us ideal for what we needed. The only on-air studio operate effectively. the chance to iron out those little problem is that you can't see it and snags that always haunt new instal- it's possible to bang your nose against More taxing was the problem of how to lations. Then, when the time came, it leaving a smudge on the glass - keep Radio 2 on the air while the early the equipment would be moved to 1G. not to mention your pride - if you're part of the refurbishment was carried not carefuL out. The network requires three trans- Brilliant! Now all I had to do was mission facilities to keep the pro- amend the specification to include All lighting has been recessed within grammes going out. Cons H and J, the temporary installation work (as the ceiling acoustic treatment, to being separated by only a narrow cor- it was to be a cheap job) and persuade

8 ENG INF Spring 1993 -Radio 2- the Architects and Building Services were doing the air conditioning) told leaving the production team only Engineers to quickly throw together us they couldn't provide the bank minutes before the first broadcast to the plans for alterations to SI. To be guarantee we required to ensure they get the key, set up the studio and suitable, the cubicle and studio had to would complete the contract, and so prepare to go live at 6.00 am. be reversed, an apparatus room had would also be calling in a Receiver. to be formed, a lower ceiling had to be The benefits of cheap prices from con- While the installers continued to constructed in the new cubicle using tractors were now turning into a li- work on Suite 1H, Radio 2 broadcast steel beams and woodwork slabs, and ability with a vengeance. from 1J, though they nearly stopped a new entrance door had to be cut one day during the Jimmy Young though the wall of the structural Despite all the difficulties, progress programme when suddenly the stu- tower going up the centre of old BH. on Suite 1J was only just behind time- dio began to fill with steam! It was The latter caused a few worries when table. Elliott Bros had moved onto so fog-like that Jimmy and his major cracks running up the tower part of the site and the second SSL guest, only four feet apart, could not wall were discovered and had to be desk had arrived. Before we knew it, see each other and condensation ran repaired. they were ready for us to begin testing down the windows. The explanation the first of the three new permanent was in the new air-conditioning sys- While all this was going on, we had suites. Amazingly, everything went tem, which includes humidity con- tendered the installation package smoothly and preparations were be- trol by injecting steam from the high and subsequently engaged Elliott ing made for the first live broadcast on pressure main into the ducts; some- Bros Ltd. They immediately got busy Monday 16th March. Only later did I how a sensor had been installed in building the add-on goodies that did discover that someone had locked the the wrong place and so did not throt- not come as part of the SSL equip- temporary door to the site which the tle back the control valve. Fortu- ment. Thereafter, the process of put- builders had still not taken away, nately no damage was done. ting Sl into service in May 1991 was surprisingly uneventful. CUBICLE Not so for Judith Chalmers, however, SSL SL5428 frame comprising the following: who let out a shriek of surprise one day when a soil pipe from the little- 16 Stereo line-level input channels controlled by cubicle or studio faders used Gents above the studio gave 4 Audio sub-groups with compressor-limiter away its secret hiding place in the 8 VCA groups structural column, which we had 6 Mono mic/line inputs packed full of sound-deadening mate- 6 Stereo outside source channels rial to prevent just such an incident. 1 Instant reset computer Some you win, some you lose! 2 End-table sections and rack mountings Tapes 3 x Studer A80 1 x Studer A810 A catalogue of problems... Gram 2 x EMT950 Soon it was August and the contractors moved into 1H and 1J. Work CD 3 x EMT981 or 2 x Technics SLP1200 started well but, after a couple of Carts 3 x ITC99 months, progress was slipping and Cassettes 2 x Studer A710 we began to detect that the builders 1 x Neal 6278 logging machine were having financial problems; they were not making payments to sub- LS Monitoring BBC LS5/8 contractors, who were threatening to NTP OS selector panel leave the site. Finally, in January Drake network switcher panel 1992 following a lot of frank ex- changes, the main contractor admit- Jackfield: 23U double-density 24 jacks per row ted to being on the point of STUDIO insolvency. There followed a furious week of meetings, faxes and phone Grams 3 x EMT950 calls at the end of which we had ex- CD 3 x Tascam 701 tricated ourselves from the original Carts 3 x Soniflex HS200 contract and agreed a new contract with another builder. LS Monitoring BBC LS3/5A Custom Frame: sixteen channel faders and four VCA groups. This con- The project team heaved a huge sigh tains no audio but provides control of the cubicle channel VCAs of relief, until just a few days later: the mechanical subcontractors (who The technical equipment installed in Radio 2's new transmission suites

ENG INF No 52 9 - Radio 2 suggested we should buy another The run-up to the General Election twice already, knew what was (fourth) set of equipment for 1G, saw Jimmy Young playing host to the wanted. However, there were some party leaders. Sadly no-one had made snags with getting the speciallow-re- the idea was readily accepted. it clear that when the PM's turn flectivity observation window glass came, as well as checking the build- installed properly. A new glazing con- SSL was happy to make another desk, ing site, his security staff would want tractor had to be found, as the first and Elliott Bros were happy to accept the area completely cleared, stopping was still owed money by the original the variation to the existing contract to all progress for half a day. main contractor and was trying to install it. All went well; they were old recover the losses by charging extor- hands at it now, after all. And in With the third installation in 1H com- tionate prices. The new glazier took the end, the technical commission- plete and undergoing final checks, Ed three goes and two sets of glass to get ing engineers were very pleased with Stewart decided that the Sl Studio it right! the result - praise indeed! desk needed refreshing with a cup of coffee. The SSL of course doesn't like So Radio 2 now has three bang-up- coffee and so it packed up. The pro- Another clever idea.... to-date transmission suites to take gramme makers took a chance, moved There was a lot of noisy and disrup- them through to Charter Renewal into 1H and got on with the broadcast- tive work going on in BH at the time and beyond. It was a long journey, ing. We kept our fingers crossed, but (and still is). We became conscious with quite a few bumps along the need not have as all went smoothly. that somewhere like Sl, tucked way, but in the end we got there safe away in a corner, would be useful to and sound - most importantly, With Sl, 1J and 1H in service, to- have while all the crashing and ahead of time and within budget! gether with 1C, it was now time to bashing went on. Also the flexibility start on 1G. This work went very well of the equipment meant it was well John Tidy as the contractors, having done the job liked, so much so that when it was Radio Projects

Suite 1G Cubicle with view of studio through the low-reflectivity window glass

10 ENG INF Spring 1993 WSTV Europe IDlproveDlents to BBCfax

Viewers of World Service TV Europe - from the Nordic countries to Spain, and well into Eastern Europe - have a teletext service called BBCfax, which is similar to Ceefax on BBC2. Peter Weitzel describes how new equipment has greatly speeded up and improved this service.

ith the dash for new tech- nology at Ceefax (as de- W scribed in the previous issue), there was also pressure to provide a better service for BBCfax. In particular, with the use of only three line-pairs in the vertical blanking in- terval (VB!), BBCfax was very, very slow. One solution was to buy a new transmission system for WSTV Europe -like the two that have now been provided for BBC1 and BBC2- but this would have involved a sub- stantial refit of the Ceefax computer room. The cost and time required to do this, prior to the relaunch of Cee- fax, ruled out this option.

WSTV viewers were also interested in the depth of authoritative information that Ceefax provides on BBC2,but with programme listings information about World Service (rather than BBC2) in Magazine 6, ie the 600 se- ings pages for WSTV could be "drip- The whole of magazine 6 on WSTV is ries of pages. So the requirements fed" as part of the normal BBC2 out- transmitted once a day - around 0430 were rapidly worked out: put datastreams and stored in the hrs - and if a page is changed during databridge; other pages unique to the day, the updated page is automat- o The service had to be branded WSTV could be dealt with similarly. ically transmitted. If anything goes BBCfax wrong, the whole of the WSTv listings o The time in row zero should be MRG Systems had a suitable 1000- can be re-transmitted; each page is Central European Time (CET) page databridge inserter, and experi- sent about twice in 15 seconds. o The service should be "BBC2 Cee- ence of controlling remote teletext fax" in content, but with a WSTV equipment via teletext! In conjunc- With the exception of a few pages, the listings magazine tion with Protext Services, who were WSTV viewer now gets the whole of o Page 100 and a few other pages doing software modifications for the BBC2's Ceefax magazines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 should be unique to WSTV. relaunch of Ceefax, we all managed and 7 - packaged as BBCfax - with o BBCfax should be comparable to to work out a suitable method of send- the improved speed of access now en- Ceefax but should not overload or ing the WSTV listings pages and a joyed by Ceefax viewers. limit the Ceefax operation, either command page. editorially or technically. The programme listings are also The Ceefax computer has to take the transmitted on two other line-pairs, Conceptually, the easiest solution listings pages from a library and to give an access time of under four seemed to be a box - a databridge - work out what "today" is, so that it seconds. This means that BBCfax which took in BBC2 Ceefax and put can determine tomorrow's listings with 11 line-pairs has more VBl space out BBCfax. The databridge could be and so on. Having assembled the than any other broadcast teletext told what modifications should be pages and added the Fastext links, it service. done to the page header - CET is not creates the command page - which always one hour in front of UK time tells the bridge what pages it has to Peter Weitzel,. Senior Engineer, and when does a day start?! The list- store and what today's row zero is. Developments, TE&PS

ENG INF No 52 11 FAMILY TREE: En Chief EngineE Bert (; I

Personnel and Admin, Tx Engineering Finance

Head of Pers and Admin, Tx Divisional Accountant, Eng Terry Wing Andy Jameson

I Transmission

General Manager, Transmission Oavid Sandbrook I I I I I I Head of Engineering Head of Engineering Head of Engineering Head of Engineering Head of Engineering Transmission Technical Operations Transmission Operations (UK) Transmission Operations (OS) Transmission Site Development Transmission Projects David Wilson Peler Mensforth A/an Rees Martin El/en Graham Smith

Antennas Daventry Services EIC Inverness CM Antigua Site Acquisition EIC Black Hill RE Ascension Island Site Sharing Communications & Control Transmission Operations Centre Power Systems Senior Operations Engineers EIC Skelton RE Cyprus Support Structures (TV, Radio, Antennas & Safety) EIC Holme Moss RE Masirah Transmitters Operations Business Services EIC Lisnagarvey RE Seychelles TOC (Project) EIC Woofferton FERE Singapore Special Projects EIC Wenvoe (Inc CM Hong Kong) Project Business & Services EIC Crystal Palace Senior Operations Engineer (OS) (Finance &Drawing) EIC Wrotham EIC Rampisham Senior Operations Engineer (UK)

\ I ;-

Commercial Services

Commercial Manager Telecommunications Nige/ Turner Head of Telecommunicatio' A/an English I I: Assistant to j CommericalManager I Linda HancoJr I I I ~; ManagerTelecommunications Manager,Engineering Telecommunicatiol Projects InformationTechnology BusinessManage Ra/ph Miller Jim Sleigh/ I I Nick Davies Manager Business Manager, Consultancy Admin Assistant I I and Contracts Development I Paul Milchel/ David BeNs Manager Telecom Network Business Network Bookings & /' I Local Area Networks EMIAS Tariff Negotiation, Project Engineers Engineering Project Support Licensing Communications Systems Regulation Broadcast Systems

Structure of Engineering Division (part of the new Resources, Engineering and Services directorate): 15 June 1993

12 ENG INF Spring 1993 gineering Division

~r, Resources ,aI/on

Project Finance Personnel and Admin, Eng Services

Head of Corporate Capital Accounting Head of Pers and Admin, Eng Services Dave Renwick Effric Smith

Research Department

Head of Research Department lan Childs I I I I , Headof TransmissionGroup ResearchExecutive Headof Studio Group Paul Ralli" Colin Smilh HowardJones

I I I I I Head of RF I Head 01 Service Head of Digital Head of Sound Head of Systems Head of Image Planning Section Systems Section Systems Section Section & Recording Section Scannin~ Section Nigel Laflin Peler Shelswell Bob Ely David Meares Mike Croll Bob lorey

I Development Headof Development John Astle I I I I 1 1 Control Systems Studio TransmlSSlonI" Business & Services Cost Recovery Section Section Section Quality Manager Co-Ordinator Assistant David King John Sykes David Bradshaw Peler Gregory Chris Smilh Kim Shannan

- J Building Design and Management Services ; General Manager, BDMS Richard Fowler

I I I ManagerCorporate ManagerBroadcast Telephony Network I I I I Dave McGhee David Russell Energy Building Design Group Environmental Services ' Business Management Andrew Fuller/on Group Management John Ross and Alan James Derek Adams John Winfield nin. I I Architecture Mechanical Services Structures Electrical Services Interiors Public Health Acoustics Lift Engineering

ENG INF No 52 13