Regional news service Look East becomes the latest region to become available in native HD, ending drops in picture quality during news bulletins.
- Upgrade work completed over the weekend
- BBC One East launched as an HD channel earlier this year, but BBC Norwich was unable to broadcast Look East in HD until now.
- Part of an ongoing project to ensure all regional news bulletins across England are broadcast in full HD.
Following a weekend of engineering work, which resulted in viewers seeing a combined regional news service, Look East has now launched in full HD.
The 1:30pm edition of the programme became the first to be broadcast in the improved picture quality, which means viewers in the East of England will no longer see an upscaled and at times blurry image during regional bulletins.
BBC One East launched in HD alongside all other BBC HD regions on Sky, Freesat and Freeview earlier in the year. But until today, Norwich has not been able to output in high definition. It’s not unique: only a handful of regional news programmes were able to broadcast in HD when the HD channel upgrade completed.
No more drops in picture quality
Since the rollout of regional BBC One HD on all TV platforms, viewers in the Eastern Counties have experienced changes to picture quality during BBC News bulletins, notably just before and after the regional opt-outs, when there’s a drop in picture quality. This is visible ahead of the main headlines at the start of the national news and during the weather forecast, just before the regional news starts. That’s because when the feed switches from the national to regional broadcast centre ahead of an opt-out, Norwich has been unable to pass through an HD picture.
Two projects to improve regional news are ongoing. The first, upgrading playout to HD in each region is now complete in the Look East region. The second, to upgrade studio sets to a new look is still pending completion.
Some regions have received the new studio set before the HD upgrade, whereas in other regions the HD upgrade has come first.
Engineering work at regional news centres to facilitate both projects has resulted in weekend sharing of some regional news bulletins.
The BBC hasn’t yet publicly confirmed the latest upgrade to HD; it has been approached for comment.
Marc Thornham