🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <48dc2576dfa.m.conroy@argonet.co.uk>, Andrew Conroy
<URL:mailto:a.m.conroy@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> Did anyone else read the article in The Sunday Express Magazine about Who
> Wants to be a Millionaire? In it it states
> 
> " The music is run off two specially built computers; the graphics and
> the questions - thousands of them, each randomly generated - are
> controlled by Chriss Goss of Winchester and a pair of Acorns "
> 
> It would be interesting to hear from Chris about exactly what the set-up
> is.

Chris is probably even busier than me and more than likely out of the
country, so I'll give a brief reply on what I know.

Chris is Mr. TV Game Show.  He designs computer graphics, sound and control
systems for programmes all over the world.  They are Acorn based for
reliability, ease of use, but mainly because we don't make broadcast
graphics boards for PCs!  The systems may look expensive, but they are
excellent value when compared with other TV broadcast kit.

Millionaire is big, and the format is now being licensed to many countries. 
Australia is probably next.  I think a typical system will use a couple of
RiscPCs with our APEX boards, MIDI cards, I/O controllers etc, with the
possible addition of A7000's for the contestants' flat panel screens.

These systems are critical to the making of the show, hence they will
normally buy a backup system too.  Needless to say, the backup system
usually gathers dust.  Recently though, a TV company in China thought they'd
do it on the cheap and skimp by not purchasing a backup system.  Big
mistake.  Something strange appears to have happened to their mains supply
and an APEX board literally burnt up.  Amazingly, the RiscPC still worked. 
They've since purchased a replacement, plus a backup!

-- 
Richard Jozefowski
Millipede Electronic Graphics