Bad robot cameras and the BBC newscast

Source: Tara Conlan, The Guardian.com

Key paragraphs:

When the BBC moved its newsroom as part of the £1bn hi-tech refurbishment of Broadcasting House in central London last year, everything was meant to be state of the art, including new robot cameras.

Problems soon emerged with incidents of the cameras moving in directions that were not wanted, prompting exasperation from news presenters and humour from viewers.

There are concerns within the BBC that the glitches may become more frequent. BBC News is looking at replacing its computer system, called ENPS, with a new one within two years. ENPS communicates with the computer program that controls the cameras, called Mosart. Both ENPS and its replacement are due to run in parallel, to ensure a backup, but staff are looking at what might happen when both systems are trying to talk to Mosart.

One source said: “They are due to run together for some time. But bearing in mind the problems that happen with cameras already no one is quite sure what will happen when Mosart has to work with the old and a new system.”

A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC is undertaking a procurement for a Newsroom Computer System under the Public Contracts Regulations (2006), having advertised in the Official Journal of the EU, reference 2013/S 174-300782. The BBC is not able to comment further on this procurement until the completion of that process. This is because the BBC must not do anything that might adversely affect that ongoing process, and due to commercial confidentiality.”