Signs that ITV playout was in disaster recovery mode this afternoon

Regional identification text appeared on screen in some ITV regions this afternoon, suggesting that ITV’s playout operation was operating in disaster recovery mode for a time.

The plain, white text appeared in the top right of screen in some regions. The text indicates which ITV region is being transmitted.

We managed to capture the text during this afternoon’s Tipping Point, in the following regions: ITV Border, ITV Granada, ITV Tyne Tees, ITV Wales and ITV Yorkshire (West).

Mike (ex-a516digital) has been able to confirm for us that Central West was also affected, as was Yorkshire East. The white text was also spotted on Central East on ITV SD but not on the HD feed on DSAT.

Given the regions affected here, the suspicion is that there was an issue at ITV’s Leeds-based playout operation.

And here’s the point at which the text was faded out in the ITV Tyne Tees region:

It’s possible that the text is only present for a period before/after the feed is switched.

So the regional IDs that appeared in the early evening could’ve been those regions entering or exiting DR.

ITV usually tests its regional disaster recovery set-up overnight. It’s not clear why the DR mechanism was potentially triggered this afternoon.

There are reports that ITV fell off air briefly this morning, shortly before 9.30am. It’s unclear if this afternoon’s events are related to this.

ITV’s playout is split between Leeds and Chiswick. It was not affected by the recent incident at Red Bee’s Broadcast Centre in west London.

Acknowledgements