Digital update

Report of the second open World Service Go Digital meeting.

"The decision has almost been made": Tim Cooke

"I’m 70% optimistic that an agreement can be reached by June 30": Tim Cooke

"Support staff will go up, without doubt": Benny Ammar

"Existing analogue technology is hampering the things we want to do": Tim Cooke

"We’re keen to see SMs involved in the project and welcome continuing involvement in discussions": BECTU

"The decision to keep support in-house has to be very good news indeed": BECTU

Those present on 20 February 2001 included Benny Ammar, Head of Go Digital Project, Tim Cooke, Linda Waspe-Page (RPR Senior Ops Manager), Jim Johnstone (BECTU Head Office), representatives from Bush 2 branch, TSS, RPR ROMs, SMs and Systems Managers.

Benny and Tim joined the meeting after the first hour, in which there had been wide-ranging discussions about the experience and concerns of the early adopters. A list of questions and issues was drawn up.

Report from Benny and Tim

• Evaluation was made by a group of eight persons on about 200 criteria looking at four separate areas:
  1. Support (service requirements)
  2. Cost
  3. Risk
  4. Performance of pilots
• IBM/Radioman had been given preferred bidder status. Their final tender was to be presented the following day, Wednesday 21 February. At the time of writing (Tuesday 27 February) this offer is still being considered.
• If WS accepts the IBM package it goes through 11 stages of approval including WS Management, BBC Executive committee and BBC Board of Govs and FCO and Treasury.
• This offer is valid until June 30.
• The Go Digital Project is seen as providing the entire production base for WS between its adoption and the move to the new premises in approx 2007.
• Negotiations about support with RPR and Technology are ongoing but it is anticipated that support will be provided in-house as a lower cost option.

Points arising out of the ensuing discussion:

It was felt Go Digital had not continued to show interest in and seek feedback from the early adopters as they developed their knowledge and skills and saw the impact on staff and working patterns. It was argued that the change to the system shouldn’t mask changes to production processes. It was agreed that the feedback process needs to be improved. Tim agreed to have RPR reps involved in the "Digibod" Forum discussions - possibly one from each region (Date of next Forum: March 13th). Tim also agreed to set up a brainstorming session to discuss what has worked well for early adopters, where there were problems and why.

The future of residual systems was asked in connection with support and cost implications. Tim replied that early adopters’ business cases were approved for continuation until absorbed into Go Digital. The rollout timetable was not yet planned in detail but will probably take place by region.

Benny said there's money in the business case for enhancement of self-ops and workshops. There is also conversion software so input from Sadie and Dave can be compatible with Radioman.

Tim reported that the business case had addressed the question "why not wait with Go Digital until we move?" The answer is that existing analogue systems are becoming obsolete and soon won’t be maintainable. Also recruitment is an issue as other broadcasters are already using digital systems rather than tape.

Benny was concerned that other departments and directorates who supply programmes to WS don’t appear to be planning for a digital future. There is no BBC-wide strategy for digitalisation and apparently no forward thinking and planning for digital in the new buildings. It was agreed that BECTU could use its influence across the BBC to encourage a more co- ordinated approach.

Linda reported that plans exist for digitising audio playout at BH. There would be significant input from RPR.

Benny informed the meeting that WS are still hoping for savings but doesn’t see Go Digital as a system which will achieve significant cost reductions although there could be savings from TOR, tape costs, equipment maintenance etc. More likely is that savings would come from the production side.

As well as some SMs becoming Systems Managers, SMs would still have a production support role, being involved earlier in the process. While fewer SMs would be involved in putting out transmissions there would be more input in preparing material and quality control.

Both Radioman and Netia now agree the need to use an upgraded business network instead of a dedicated network. However, in critical areas such as studios, dedicated hubs would exist.

In Terms of resilience, a reliability figure of 99.97% is being promised. It was questioned whether this could be achieved. Benny and Tim said this high resilience requirement was a major factor in the high cost of the quoted prices.