BBC Technical Glitch Leaves TV Presenter In Silence (theguardian.com)

Viewers of BBC's News at Ten were entranced last night when a glitch in its system produced over four minutes of surreal beauty. Two readers share a report: Huw Edwards was left sitting in silence for four minutes at the start of BBC News at Ten on Tuesday night after a technical fault delayed the start of the programme and bemused viewers. Viewers on some devices and channels were left watching the presenter sitting in silence as he waited for his cue to start. The BBC News Channel showed Edwards sitting mute for the entirety of the delay, while BBC1 put up a message apologising for the fault and played saxophone music. On BBC iPlayer an announcer apologised for the glitch and breaking news alerts also appeared during the delay. When the programme started at 22:04, Edwards apologised for what he described as a "few technical problems." The presenter said on Wednesday that nobody had told him he was on air until two minutes into the delay. However, Edwards told Radio 4's The Media Show that he "sensed I might be on" so took "the most conservative approach possible" and sat at his desk reading his notes before the bulletin started. BBC hasn't shared more about those "technical glitches." You can watch the clip here.

Comments

Maybe BBC needs a backup plan

[OffTheLip]

If this story is real or somehow relevant to Slashdot then the network should be criticized for not preparing for this sort of event.

Re:Maybe BBC needs a backup plan

[Strider-]

BBC Radio actually does have a backup system (or used to) that involved DAT players, and a system that would run them should it detect more than 2 minutes of silence. This became an issue when they wanted to broadcast a performance of John Cage's 4'33". The subtle sounds of the orchestra turning the pages and the crowd noise was not sufficient to reset the watchdog, so it had to be temporarily disabled for the duration of the broadcast.

Re:Maybe BBC needs a backup plan

[mrbester]

It's part of the licence to broadcast radio 24hrs a day that there be no more than *20s* of dead air. Nearly every commercial radio station in UK has had incidents where a crossover didn't happen or a track didn't play and after total silence suddenly unannounced music will start.

Also because of these regulations, the two minutes silence on Armistice Day has the gain turned up to eleven so you can hear traffic from six streets away and the slightest breeze rustling leaves on the trees.

Perhaps the saxophone music was "Yackety Sax"?

[pj2541]

Otherwise known as the theme song to the Benny Hill Program.