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Time pips change on RNZ National
RNZ National is changing the pips - the beeps that mark the start of each hour which play immediately before the news bulletin broadcast.
The pips were last changed in 2013 when a lightning strike damaged the clock which sent signals from the Measurement Standards Laboratory's atomic clock.
The replacement sound was a little higher.
Since 2018, RNZ has been in change of their generation from a master clock in Wellington. Now a new piece of equipment means another change.
RNZ's Broadcast and IT Technologist Wayne Jarvis told Morning Report the pips were tradition.
"As you're listening up to the hour, you're not paying too much attention, you hear the pips and 'oh here's the news, I'll pay a bit more attention'."
The new pips don't sound significantly different to the old ones.
But Jarvis said the first five pips were now 50 milliseconds longer (a millisecond being one thousandth of a second).
"So that they sound the same as they did in 2013, we've left the last pip, the same as the BBC, 500 milliseconds cause it just sounds about right."
The pips were also now advanced from the studio so they arrived to FM listeners at the right time rather than 175 milliseconds late, he said.
The new technology would allow the pips to synchronise through GPS if internet connection was lost.