RTÉ News & Current Affairs must have had been through a very busy period today on Armistice Day because they had to cover the events this morning & the Inauguration of Michael D Higgins second term as President of Ireland. The staff at RTÉ must have done a great job today to cover the events today. Their news reports on the Nine O'Clock News tonight are giving an excellent round up of today's events.
I wonder when they will be kicked out of Studio 3 for the refurbishment? It must be happening soon, as apparently early 2019 will be the relaunch of RTE News.
On most occasions over recent years; the RTÉ News had kept studio 3 as their main news studio right up to when it was imminent in getting it's new look. But now; they have an extra mini studio in their newsroom that they can use which is currently for the weekend summaries while the building of their new home is taking place behind the scenes in Studio 3.
I'm talking about this studio right here. RTÉ News have a lot good potential to use this one for now when the upgrade is in progress.
They really have a lack of facilities elsewhere in RTÉ to give their regular news bulletins. Using this studio above on a temporary basis would make a lot of sense for RTÉ News to have in the time being. It has worked out very well presentation wise before when it was used for full weekend bulletins that came up sometimes for viewers on RTÉ One.
If anyone else thinks would not be a good idea to use at what is nearly approaching to be a critical transition period for RTÉ News; you would really have a good reason why you would be against this idea.
My own feelings on it is that a specific job of revamping a news studio is really not an easy task for many people to do overnight. That is an impossible goal to achieve for any broadcaster. It does take a lot of time & effort to actually getting the equipment testing & working in the right way so there are fit for broadcast TV news for the viewer especially when a new look is put in place for it's broadcaster. RTÉ, in particular, are in a real tight spot on nearly every occasion with how they will attempt to revamp their current facilities in Studio 3 with a new look every time. It is a very demanding task for them to do at Montrose in that everything has to be organized well in advance of beginning construction. It does not become easy when they have to do three main news bulletins out live to viewers everyday while not including their news summaries in the off peak periods of the day.
Virgin Media Ireland did not have any real issue with building their own current news setup in Ballymount. They were very resourceful in how they kept their news bulletins on air while having their old news studio on site providing very little distruption in giving the news to their own viewers. To have that flexibility was great for Virgin Media to do their job of rebranding their news output properly right up to the time when they launched their new look for 3 News Ireland from Day 1. They then, after such time, rebranded to Virgin Media News with very little physical change in the studio desk & news wall because of changes to TV3 News went ahead when Virgin Media took over the company. Yes; it is great for a commercial broadcaster to allow that flexibility coming in from Virgin Media.
But then again RTÉ do not have that luxury as of now. With all of their staff newsroom being stuck in the same place in Studio 3. They have to make do with what facilites they have now in order to make the quality of their output better. And that is a huge challenge for RTÉ News to do that very quickly. If RTÉ had newer studio facilities on hand in Montrose as of this moment in time; the changeover to a new look may not require a whole lot of effort in execution. The delays in building of a new home for RTÉ is currently going at a snail's pace. But with time; they are going in the right direction with how they are trying to modernize their site to let it make way for it's new home if it eventually gets the green light from the planning authorities in the state.