On Sunday 17 Jan 2010 09:27, David Haggas scribbled:


"Darren Prescott" wrote in message
...

Why does the BBC have to sub everything out? Are there no engineers
in-house that can't produce something with the best of the previous
system? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDK1V...eature=related

I particularly miss the extensive use of temperature profiles and wind
fields. Too much like a science lesson for today's audience?

Originally, the temperature and wind field graphics were produced by Met
Office programmers and tarted up by BBC engineers. In the 80s, they were
produced by programs originally written using software for producing 35mm
film (Calcomp). The vector-graphics output from these programs was condensed
into a small file - again using Met Office-designed software - in order to
save on bandwidth. It was sent to the BBC who then processed these files to
add colour and shading. Another part of the Met Office software design was
the closure of all contours so that "bleeding" did not occur when shading
was added.

The wind-arrow display was originally written for the first colour-graphics
displays in CFO, IBM 5080s, and had differently-coloured arrows dependent on
temperature. The display was colloquially known by CFO staff as "the
tropical fish tank".

The contour and wind displays shown on the video are a later development by
the Met Office where the graphics output from the programs was created using
GKS instead of the Calcomp package.


--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks., UK. E-mail: newsman not newsboy
"I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."