Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> Is this what the BBC should still be doing? http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1317645681 Message started by Administrator on Oct 3^rd, 2011, 12:42pm

Title: Is this what the BBC should still be doing?
Post by Administrator on Oct 3^rd, 2011, 12:42pm

Do you think the BBC should still be involved with R&D, or should the wealthier parts of the media and / or the Government be paying for it?

http://www.advanced-television.com/index.php/2011/10/03/bbc-backs-3d-tv/ says

"The BBC is firmly behind 3DTV, although Jo Sermon BBC Worldwide’s director of content strategy, speaking October 3 at the MIPCOM programming market, said the BBC is also playing the long game in that 3D is suitable for play-out on tablets, smart-phones, laptops, 3D-based Internet as well as Blu-ray devices."

Perhaps the BBC should only be making programmes that viewers and listeners want to enjoy?

Your thoughts?

Please post here!

Title: Re: Is this what the BBC should still be doing?
Post by HMG on Oct 3^rd, 2011, 12:56pm

There is no point in the BBC being involved in R&D etc. It does not have the money and it is not now at the cutting edge of broadcasting in the world anymore(I am so so sorry about that). Gone are the days when I was approached anywhere in the world with"You BBC..Yes?"..Now it is "Hi you from SKY!!!"
What the public want are good, new programmes. NOT 3D (in my opinion a dead duck before it was hatched)
As I have said before. BBC1, BBC 2, Radio 1-5 and regional stations with local input. Nothing else. Quality NOT quantity. We don't need stations for one legged homosexual, ethnic etc viewers. Let them fund their own stations. They have plenty of money to do their own thing. The pink pound, multi million pound mosques.

Title: Re: Is this what the BBC should still be doing?
Post by Mikej on Oct 3^rd, 2011, 3:35pm

I think that the days of the BBC being at the forefront of R&D (cf Kingswood and Western House) are long gone.
There are interests far bigger than the BBC pushing technology now and designing equipment and the BBC has rather come to be what was predicted as being a "Publisher Broadcaster"
However it is infortunate that a previous poster, who possibly once worked for the BBC when it WAS respected, finds it necessary to sink to tabloid language, criticisms and predudices :'(.

Mike

Title: Re: Is this what the BBC should still be doing?
Post by reithian on Oct 11^th, 2011, 9:48pm

It is another nail in the coffin for "Public Broadcasting" and all the ideals it stood for.
Once the driving force in World TV it has become a lap dog of the political classes and all they stand for.
Kingswood Warren, Wood Norton and Western House were the centers of excellence in Radio and TV engineering.
The Production and Craft centres of the BBC were the finest in the World and kept Britain in the forefront of Radio and TV production.
Can anyone honestly say that the radical changes forced on the BBC in the graceless eighties have improved it ? or even saved money ?, the original reasons given for all the upheaval and the present position of the Corporation.
The introduction of the "internal market" and the farming out of productions and jobs to independant producers has in my opinion stripped the BBC of it's once proud position in broadcasting.
The closure of it's training facilities and it's research departments has harmed the nation by destroying a long tradition of research and development that aided British industry to compete in the World market for technology.
The support for British writers, producers and technicians has been severely damaged by these changes to the BBC.
The original mission of the BBC to Inform, Educate and Entertain has been shelved.
Current affairs once a main thread of the BBC has been marginalised and dumbed down. There is no room for the cutting edge Dramas of the 60's and 70's. I know many will say I'm looking back through rose tinted glasses, maybe! but where are the Pinters, the Loaches, the Bleasdales of today?
What has happened to the flagships like Panorama ?
I suppose it's the same old story you don't know what you're missing till it's gone and two generations have never experienced it at all.

Title: Re: Is this what the BBC should still be doing?
Post by Dickie Mint on Oct 14^th, 2011, 11:54am

There is still a great need for BBC R & D. BBC R & D are still the great drivers of new technology as they've always been. Digital Television would never have been achieved without BBC R & D. They still virtually run the systems as the so called industry are proving reluctant to do so.
I can personally recount occasions when BBC R & D staff, often in their own time, helped me out with DTT problems not always of the BBC system, when I was managing the support of the BBC's studio centre transmission systems.
Even after retirement in 2004, I have continued to liaise with members of the BBC's digital TV R & D team to sort out gremlins. Certain PVR manufacturers can also thank R & D for pointing to the solution to bugs still current in their boxes.
There is no great industry R & D out there. The public need the BBC's to provide honest "for all" research!
Richard