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New Year late again

Brian Styles
 

A Happy New Year to you all.

Well, a belated one, as delivered by BBC TV.

Did anyone else notice that the stroke of midnight landed on the screen about 9 seconds into 2019? That's happened before but the margin seems to be getting worse.

True, most events with time indications are two or three seconds late, presumably down to delivering/processing the digits and doing the business in the telly. But why so much of a delay?

My theory is that it's down to a 'panic button' facility so the goggling public wouldn't get to see if 10 tons of Semtex went off on the embankment.

Does anyone _know_ what's going on?

Punctually yours,


0rian Styles (Cambridge, UK)
Peter Torry
 

Brian,

With the advent of digital broadcasting ( DVB-T) it is not possible to guarantee any timing as the transmission medium from studio or programme source to the sender has a variable latency and televisions also contribute to the delays .  It is usually three or four seconds but has been known to be as much as 15 seconds.  The BBC hasn't used accurate timing for their pips for quite some time so do not rely on any broadcast for timing except perhaps radio four on 198kHz.

Kind regards

Peter

On 01/01/2019 19:52, Brian Styles wrote:
A Happy New Year to you all.

Well, a belated one, as delivered by BBC TV.

Did anyone else notice that the stroke of midnight landed on the screen about 9 seconds into 2019? That's happened before but the margin seems to be getting worse.
Ian Bell
 

Hello Brian -

Don't forget that, in addition to any digital transmission delay, at the
moment the mechanism of the clock is out of commission and being restored
somewhere in the north-east, so for these one-off occasions it is very
likely being fired by hand - probably by someone with one hand holding a
phone to the ear, and the other holding a juicy wire... I could find out -
one of the permanent team of three clockies at Westminster lives at the top
of the road... But something like that seems likely.

Ian

On 01/01/2019, 19:52, "Brian Styles" <brian.styles@cdmnet.org> wrote:

Did anyone else notice that the stroke of midnight landed on the screen
about 9 seconds into 2019? That's happened before but the margin seems
to be getting worse.

True, most events with time indications are two or three seconds late,
presumably down to delivering/processing the digits and doing the
business in the telly. But why so much of a delay?

My theory is that it's down to a 'panic button' facility so the goggling
public wouldn't get to see if 10 tons of Semtex went off on the embankment.
--
Ian Bell
London
Andy Young
 

Ian,

It was shown on TV over the holiday period - a motor driven mechanism
triggered by a time signal received from GPS.

Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: synchronome1@groups.io <synchronome1@groups.io> On Behalf Of Ian Bell
via Groups.Io
Sent: 02 January 2019 05:27
To: synchronome1@groups.io
Subject: Re: [synchronomeelectricclock] New Year late again

Hello Brian -

Don't forget that, in addition to any digital transmission delay, at the
moment the mechanism of the clock is out of commission and being restored
somewhere in the north-east, so for these one-off occasions it is very
likely being fired by hand - probably by someone with one hand holding a
phone to the ear, and the other holding a juicy wire... I could find out -
one of the permanent team of three clockies at Westminster lives at the top
of the road... But something like that seems likely.

Ian


On 01/01/2019, 19:52, "Brian Styles" <brian.styles@cdmnet.org> wrote:

Did anyone else notice that the stroke of midnight landed on the
screen about 9 seconds into 2019? That's happened before but the
margin seems to be getting worse.

True, most events with time indications are two or three seconds late,
presumably down to delivering/processing the digits and doing the
business in the telly. But why so much of a delay?

My theory is that it's down to a 'panic button' facility so the
goggling public wouldn't get to see if 10 tons of Semtex went off on the
embankment.

--
Ian Bell
London
Ian Bell
 

Oh damn - ah well, seemed like a chance for true Brit improvisation, with
perhaps a chap from the BBC in a peaked cap with a stopwatch... ;o)

--
Ian Bell
49 Chelmsford Road
South Woodford
London E18 2PW
Tel: 020 8491 0962
Mob: 07775 500 189
Andy Young
 

I got the impression that the operation was 'supervised', so manual
intervention would have been Plan B if the GPS/computer control misbehaved.

-----Original Message-----
From: synchronome1@groups.io <synchronome1@groups.io> On Behalf Of Ian Bell
via Groups.Io
Sent: 02 January 2019 08:01
To: synchronome1@groups.io
Subject: Re: [synchronomeelectricclock] New Year late again

Oh damn - ah well, seemed like a chance for true Brit improvisation, with
perhaps a chap from the BBC in a peaked cap with a stopwatch... ;o)

--
Ian Bell
49 Chelmsford Road
South Woodford
London E18 2PW
Tel: 020 8491 0962
Mob: 07775 500 189
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