BBC Replacing Robot News Studio Cameras In Hope Of Consigning Viral Tech Fails To History:
The BBC is set to replace the robot cameras in its news channel studio after a string of viral tech fails over the past decade.
The British broadcaster has begun the process of acquiring new automated cameras as it looks to reboot its news channel next year.
The BBC is merging its domestic and international rolling news channels into a single station, resulting in 70 job cuts.
[...] Studio B, which is home to BBC1's flagship 10PM and 6PM bulletins, was revamped earlier this year with new automated cameras from Norwegian company Electric Friends.
The technology has not been without problems, however. Just last month, a camera swung around to show the wrong part of the studio during BBC News at Ten.
[...] One insider said the cameras had been a "terrible waste of money", with some speculating that the total studio refit has cost more than £10M ($12M).
"The cameras are meant to recognise individual faces so that they can automatically set the shots on the lighting that each individual presenter needs. This is not working," the source said.
A second source said automation saves money in the long term. The BBC declined to comment.
One brief video of an automated camera fail
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 01, @10:37PM (1 child)
"they can automatically set the shots on the lighting that each individual presenter needs."
except when they don't
"automation saves money in the long term"
uh huh...
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday January 02, @01:28AM
They should get Huawei cameras, according to a recent story those can identify Falun Gong members just by looking at them and even people spot thinking bad thoughts about Xi Jinping. Focusing on BBC newsreaders should be a doddle for them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday January 01, @10:45PM (3 children)
Even assuming 3/4 of that is high-tech A/V gear, that still leaves $3M to refit a single room. I can buy a whole house in a really nice neighborhood for that kind of money! Whichever contractors they used sure knew how to milk public money out of a public institution. I wonder if those expenses are being audited...
Also, one can't help but think they could have hired professional cameramen to work the cameras properly for less than that. Automation saves money my butt...
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday January 02, @02:27AM
I see someone got a Jump to Conclusions Mat(R) for Christmas.
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday January 02, @02:55AM
I think studio refers to the entire site, not just one set. I'd imagine BBC has multiple regional sites referred to as studios. Probably something like, "our London Studio" or "our Bombay Studio" etc. Though, bbc is known for wild spending, so it could just be one room.
Every time I ran into an automation problem at any of my jobs, is because management controls it from afar, not the people that work with it. Then the people who work with it, probably already know of a simple fix, but wont do it because they'll get blamed by management if anything else happens. Automating a camera cannot be that hard unless you're constantly changing sets. I'd have a bunch of buttons on a panel. Press A button will switch to preset A, that will move the camera to angle xyz, and lights to 50%. etc Hard to screw that up unless you cannot control what preset A does.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday January 02, @02:36PM
Probably need fancy sound proofing etc as well.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday January 01, @11:09PM
the last studio refurbishment cost £1B a decade ago.
the 'robot' cameras they installed then played up to begin with..
Daily Mail (2014) [dailymail.co.uk]
The Independent (2014) [independent.co.uk]
They put in a new computer system for the whole studio, which partially fixed the issues..
Now, they have refurbished the studio again, with a new control system - and seem to have put in new robots - which are doing the same things the original robots did...
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday January 01, @11:44PM
>quote>A second source said automation saves money in the long term.
Only automation that successfully does what it's supposed to. Ineffective automation just makes things slower, more expensive, and less reliable.