Audio was out of sync on the iView live stream, then a story about the Sydney Light Rail cut abruptly to Dan introducing a story about the Queensland bushfires. Did this go out on FTA too, or was it just a lag in my connection?
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Interesting… would seem to indicate some sort of failure across all Sydney studios, possibly a server issue?
Not sure what happened - Graham Creed was somehow able to get in front of a green screen for a combined NSW/ACT forecast and 7.30 seems to be airing as normal (albeit not native HD tonight from what I can tell).
Good points…, does 7.30 come out of Sydney or Canberra?
It’s possible only certain pieces of equipment went down., weather graphics may have still be operating and could have been sent down the line for recording in Canberra.
All this is speculation and guesswork of course… someone who knows what actually happened will let us know I’m sure.
EDIT: I just quoted myself 
, as much as I admire my own contributions I meant to quote @SydneyCityTV
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People on Twitter noticed what was happening…
What I think will be interesting to see is whether or not other Sydney media outlets report the latest instalment of “Canberra news airing in NSW” (didn’t happen for July 19 IIRC) because you just know that if the Sydney 6pm news bulletins on Seven or Nine had major bulletin crashing error which forced them to air Melbourne’s news here, the papers would definitely be reporting it!
Just heard from an ABC source, the problems tonight were, as I suspected, a server issue.
Systems became inoperable late in the day so the call was made for the ACT to do the NSW news and news channel bulletin at 7pm.
There wasn’t a problem with the studios as such but content couldn’t be played with the servers down.
Weather could be pre-recorded because it doesn’t involve video servers or editing equipment.
So there you go.
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ABC Sydney showed ABC News NT tonight due to their server catching on fire (yes, literally) and my ABC source said Darwin not ACT.
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The ACT was shown at 7 and the NT at 830pm due to the time zones
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Just reading about this now… Is this a common thing, taking Canberra instead of the more conventional back-up city (i.e.) Melbourne, just like if it were vice-versa?
I guess the fact ABC have a Canberra bulletin, why not. Decision probably factored in that there’d likely be more NSW relevant news than if switched to Melb.
You can see video of what happened last night including switch to ACT
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Good to see you acknowledge Melbourne is a conventional back-up City 
Thankfully the circumstances don’t occur terribly often, but the ACT bulletin has been played in NSW before where technical difficulties prevented the latter being broadcast. I think the last time it occurred was July.
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Sydneysiders like to see what’s happening in the bush occasionally so it’s nice to see the news from regional centres like Melbourne and small towns like Canberra.
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In general, certainly commercial stations, when it comes to usually Melbourne or Sydney going down, they take vice-versas feed (each being the respective back up play-out sites as well).
Quick side note, when Brisbane/Adelaide/Perth goes down, who do they generally take in the past?
But anyway, I think it’d be nice if as soon as practically possible (either get on the phone before switching or within a few minutes after switching), transfer some local stories across and convey what has happened in the presenter’s ear piece.
I believe this occured with Nine recently with Peter Overton, he acknowledged and a local Melbourne story or two aired.
Acknowledgement is one thing but no EP or news director is going to sacrifice their carefully crafted rundown to accomodate accidental viewers from another state.
I could be wrong but I doubt Njne Sydney specially included any extra Melbourne stories that they weren’t planning to run anyway.
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Another backup city that has been used? Perth. Wherever that is.
Edit: Though I believe WA it’s only used when there’s planned studio work that would prevent a local broadcast.
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The world’s most isolated capital…
Depending on how much notice they get the networks can, in the event of failure, operate out of any capital city. If they want to provide a quasi local service out of a remote city then it would obviously help if that city’s own news wasn’t going to air at the same time.
However these things usually happen at the last minute so an emergency switch is needed… that’s why Sydney and Melbourne interchange because they’re in the same time zone, Canberra too.
The ABC can always take the news channel in an emergency too, provided they’re on the air. Last night they weren’t.
The ABC on occasion reads bespoke bulletins for a capital city from an interstate location when maintenance is being performed or sets and equipment updated. One recent example, the Perth news was read out of Adelaide.
And of course Ten presented Perth and Adelaide news out of Sydney and Melbourne respectively for many years.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Emilie Gramenz presented one NT bulletin back when she was still in Tasmania before she moved to Darwin full-time.
One of the more interesting switches.
Melbourne studio:
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I’d there an open day today?
Yes, pre registration was required, so no just rocking up unannounced!
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