The new NEW Central West and BBC Midlands thread

That certainly looks like the old Sunday Politics Midlands set, before they started filming it in the main studio. I believe the area around it is newsroom/office space, which makes it slightly awkward to use day-to-day as, particularly when it comes to the lunchtime news, the offices will be quite loud, from what members have said on here before.

Yes, BBC Look East (Norwich) comes to mind.

Mmm. Doesn't look great though, does it?

Obviously fine for a temporary solution, but certainly not as it is long-term.

Are refits the decision of each region in how they spend their budget with larger fullscale technical refits subject to higher approval for the additional budget required?

It's being filled back up again though isn't it?

The view over the canal did look much better when The Cube was not there. Back then the view was used all the time, and of course was also used as the backdrop of The One Show when it was piloted in Birmingham in 2006.

A picture of the view before The Cube appeared can be found here:
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/8740513.jpg

Yes to an extent. Technical refits are funded by a different pot of money to set refreshes/changes and there's a strategy being developed for long term technical equipment overhauls in the regions. A lot of regional centres have kit that's getting a bit long in the tooth now and there are many different bits of kit across the centres being used (in areas like graphics and caption generation particularly). Around the turn of the millennium and coincidentally when The Mailbox and The Forum were being moved in to, there was a template for English regional centres, known as Project England. That template specified Quantel editing (and playout initially, though this was replaced with ServerPlay), Aston green or higher + BigTed control, GVG Zodiak vision mixer and so on. It set out the principle of having a "media hub" for ingest and lines recording/playout, newsroom based server viewing seats based on qCut, newsroom based basic edit seats using qEdit and 'craft' edit suites using qEdit Plus. Lots of these ideas were brand new in English regions, who had been tape based up to then, with traditional Multi Format dubbing areas, tape based TX suites, and 2- and 3-machine vt edit suites.

As time's gone on, some of the kit that was purchased back then remains in use but is getting pretty old. While quantel editing is still a fully supported system (and one they still sell I think) more recently refurbished centres couldn't get the exact kit as specified by the template, so procured newer vision mixers, different graphics solutions etc, so there is once again an increasingly disparate selection of technology across English regions.

Back to sets, when I've been involved in new set design and installation, that's all been paid for by the region in question. There are ways of saving money and still achieving a look that's connected to network style sets :- Jersey used a local shopfitting provider in their current set. Oxford used a local industrial flooring specialist to replace the wooden laminate with a decent vinyl floor. I've known bits of set turn up years later elsewhere having been stored in a scene dock somewhere and someone simply spotting it and asking if they can have it. You'd be staggered how much a bespoke desk design and build can cost, especially if it incorporates electrics, lighting etc.

I've just realised and added complication with Norwich. The studios at Norwich and and Cambridge have very similar designs - in fact to me Cambridge looks identical just scaled down a bit. If you refresh Norwich then to ensure a consistent programme for the West sub opt you'd probably need to do Cambridge. I guess if the region is happy with what they have and the flexibility it provides they'll hold off.

Thanks deejay for the reply. You can see some of that inconsistency with Norwich and Cambridge in fact. When Cambridge moved they ended up with a system that allowed Aston that are animated - Norwich having moved to The Forum many years earlier still have the original kit.

I presume refreshes for NWT and London are complicated in that they aren't just regional studios any more.

Without derailing this thread too much, the problem with the Norwich set in particular is the backdrop. It looks absolutely awful when the director uses an upper torso/head shot. The whole background looks like someone's just thrown a can of red paint at it.

Here's an example:

http://norfolksuffolkmentalhealthcrisis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Michael-Scott-on-BBC-Look-East-300x117.jpg

The side screens aren't much better when showing graphics or moving DTL shots. The video often judders and looks blurry.

There's also the washed-out picture quality, which isn't apparent on the Cambridge-opt so one would assume its a mixture of the set aging as well as the old technology at The Forum.

The Look East sets are now 8 years old, having been installed in 2009. I would assume when any set revamp happens the region would be broadcast as one for a few weeks with Norwich simulcasting Cambridge and then vice versa.

And the exact point of a yellow uplighter pointing at a wooden window frame, is?
Because there wasn't one in the old studio - and is way off 'corporate news brand colour pallet' as well.

Also, careful when walking on the carpet in front of the desk. Some of the crumples look right old trip hazards..

The warm uplight is presumably to make the space look more inviting. I don't see it as a colour that disregards the brand. You can see in the graphic on that screen right by it, that it has a touch of yellow in it too.

Serverplay was just a replacement for the Quantel playout panel (aka Janice) wasn't it? The actual playout server is still Quantel (just controlled by a different bit of software/hardware) isn't it? One of the cleverist bits of Quantel architecture is the playout bit (where it uses Frame Magic)?.