Anglia/East of England News Discussion

Look East from Norwich has just gone to the sustaining News Channel feed due to a fire alarm - made it sound like they wouldn't be coming back as they said it was where they were 'leaving' tonight's programme. Cambridge quite unfortunately didn't seem to know, as they handed back to Norwich with the usual trail ahead to the weather at the end of the programme, just as they were handing to the News Channel!

EDIT: And so we had Sportsday and then a bit of general News Channel until we crashed out of the NC forecast into the evening BBC One menu. Must admit I didn't hear the sound of the fire alarm going off in the background when Norwich handed back to London, thought a Royal had died!

Rewinding on iPlayer the alarm was very well-timed - Cambridge had just finished their portion of the programme so smoothly handed back as normal. I suppose they were pretty helpless because they wouldn't have had any of the packages Norwich was planning to run - can they opt of their own accord?

Any caps?

It would be useful if Cambridge had Norwich's VT's for emergencies such as today, so they could continue with the bulletin for both sub-opts.

You can catch the handover at the very end of the the Cambridge opt here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0911pn7/look-east-west-evening-news-16082017

Full programme from Cambs tonight with prerecorded weather.
And a apology from Janine regarding Wednesday night.

Any news on when Look East Norwich might get a new set? It's 9 years old and is looking incredibly tatty these days with the rear projection screens washed out, scruffy backdrop and scuffed/scratched floor. They dropped the full height desk for a sofa and coffee table breakfast type set up back in May which has helped but the whole thing needs a refit.

I don't think the new coffee table and chairs has helped if I'm honest. They're not in the centre of the set to allow standing pres from one of the screens meaning the whole thing looks a bit awkward, and the coffee table itself is not a BBC News design (as I've said before it looks like a resprayed Sunday Politics table). I've never seen any photos of it but apparently the studio is circular, so perhaps a refit would allow for a slightly bigger/more impressive set?

It's more curved than circular so a current BBC nationals look could fit the studio quite well. I've been in the studio itself and it is tiny. The gallery and cameras would probably need upgrading as its pretty much the same kit they've been using since they moved in 2000. One could argue a Cambridge-style move to a more suitable premesis would be better. I was very surprised when I went there in 2009 to see how cramped the whole setup was in the newsrooom, dressing rooms and studio.

Don't quite know why they didn't adopt the one off look they used a few years ago for the Royal Wedding.



It's rarely used but Cambridge do have a national coffee table style desk.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qxLQclhTPlY/Uvz3-ZQOi5I/AAAAAAAALT8/hkpfrYOZ_TU/s1600/ar20140212o.jpg

Didn't they move in back in 2004?

Their gallery set up is pretty much the same as most other regional centres built or refurbished between 2000 and 2007 (Nottingham, Southampton, Newcastle, Birmingham and Bristol), only without a pres gallery. They're all overdue a refurb but there's a change in the way English Regions will be delivering their TV content, moving to a more ITV style system (changes in the Coding and Mux setup similar to ViLOR for TV)

Apologies, got my years mixed up. Norwich moved from St Catherine's Close to The Forum in 2003, where they've been ever since. The Cambridge opt (and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire) moved from Hills Road to the Science Park near Cowley Road in 2009.

I think that you're mixing up two potential changes (though they may both happen)

1. VILOR style TV production - with the bulk of the broadcast kit in data centres, and just the control surfaces and audio and video I/O on site.
2. Centralised opting (where rather than network being fed to the regional centres / or regional equipment in a data centre VILOR style - and fed back permanently - instead the studio output is fed to playout/coding mux, and the opt-out switch done there, as ITV do)

Hopefully incorporating lessons learned from last week's catastrophic ViLoR failure!