The Newsroom

New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

(July 2006)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
ST
South Today
Marcela Whittingale making her debut on the 6:30 programme alongside John Young.


Ahhh I knew it wouldn't be long. She seems to be really in favour. Certainly in safe hands with the man that has been there since day one!

29 days later

MA
Markymark
If anyone was wondering what ex South Today presenter Pauline Brandt is doing these days, she popped up last night on C4's Grand Designs, building a house with her husband.
ST
South Today
If anyone was wondering what ex South Today presenter Pauline Brandt is doing these days, she popped up last night on C4's Grand Designs, building a house with her husband.


Ahhh she was brilliant with that voice! They did have some great characters once upon a time with the likes of Stuart Norval, Caroline Richardson and Dorcas Henry.
MA
Markymark
If anyone was wondering what ex South Today presenter Pauline Brandt is doing these days, she popped up last night on C4's Grand Designs, building a house with her husband.


Ahhh she was brilliant with that voice! They did have some great characters once upon a time with the likes of Stuart Norval, Caroline Richardson and Dorcas Henry.


Yes ! If you do some googling, Pauline has done a fair bit of voice over work, and audio description commentary since leaving ST.
Last edited by Markymark on 11 May 2019 7:46pm

37 days later

BA
Bail Moderator
I note South Today appears to have a relight recently with some new red led lighting under the newsroom panels, previously just a single white uplight it’s got a new light strip pointing down and both in red. Pictures look improved to my eye too. Anyone on the inside able to say what’s been done? Deejay?
MA
Markymark
Bail posted:
I note South Today appears to have a relight recently with some new red led lighting under the newsroom panels, previously just a single white uplight it’s got a new light strip pointing down and both in red. Pictures look improved to my eye too.


South Today is about the only thing I watch in SD these days, the picture is diabolical, so I haven't noticed things looking better due to the lighting. I probably need to move much further away from the screen !
LL
London Lite Founding member
Bail posted:
I note South Today appears to have a relight recently with some new red led lighting under the newsroom panels, previously just a single white uplight it’s got a new light strip pointing down and both in red. Pictures look improved to my eye too.


South Today is about the only thing I watch in SD these days, the picture is diabolical, so I haven't noticed things looking better due to the lighting. I probably need to move much further away from the screen !


I've found watching the SD news bulletins live on iPlayer with the slightly higher resolution makes the PQ more tolerable, which is certainly the case with SET. Look North Leeds still looks like the cameras are smeared in Vaseline though!
DE
deejay
Bail posted:
I note South Today appears to have a relight recently with some new red led lighting under the newsroom panels, previously just a single white uplight it’s got a new light strip pointing down and both in red. Pictures look improved to my eye too. Anyone on the inside able to say what’s been done? Deejay?


I think all they’ve done is change the led strips to red as you’ve spotted! Most studio sets were originally equipped with RGB (some RGBW) strips, so any colour is possible. Can’t say how the picture quality might be better though, as far as I know there’s no change to Southampton’s cameras. They use Sony HSC300s (I think). Oxford are still using Thomson 1707s. Incidentally the Oxford Set is lit red at the top/pale blue at the bottom for 1830 and a darker blue top & bottom at 2230, and has been since the Set was installed in 2014!

28 days later

MA
Markymark
All of South Today’s OS’s have lip sync errors, and it’s been like it for days now. Doesn’t matter whether it’s an SNG report or a DTL from London or Salford, they are all noticeably out. Live studio is fine. Looks to me that they haven’t set up their frame syncs properly?

25 days later

MA
Markymark
All of South Today’s OS’s have lip sync errors, and it’s been like it for days now. Doesn’t matter whether it’s an SNG report or a DTL from London or Salford, they are all noticeably out. Live studio is fine. Looks to me that they haven’t set up their frame syncs properly?


Still not fixed, far from impressive

EDIT : Aug 9th, at last problem fixed Thumbs up
Last edited by Markymark on 9 August 2019 6:42pm
LS
Lou Scannon
The opening headlines of the 18:30 South Today (Oxford) usually have the final headline being a pre-recorded insert by the Southampton presenter, with a (usually lighter / human interest / sport) story that will feature during the pan-regional latter half of the programme.

No such insert tonight. In fact, a grand total of just 2 headlines preceded the title sequence. The top story - about a murder in the Buckinghamshire village of Maids Moreton - dominated the Oxford sub-opt part of the programme.

I had started to wonder if it was going to be a full half-hour Oxford edition (as does happen occasionally when there's a big story in the sub-region), but it wasn't.

Look East (Cambridge) had the same top story - albeit much briefer coverage than on ST - with the somewhat tenuous qualifier that it was "near Milton Keynes". Maids Moreton is firmly in the Aylesbury Vale part of the county (about 19km west-SW of Milton Keynes, but only about 1.6km north of Buckingham).
BA
Bail Moderator
Bail posted:
I note South Today appears to have a relight recently with some new red led lighting under the newsroom panels, previously just a single white uplight it’s got a new light strip pointing down and both in red. Pictures look improved to my eye too. Anyone on the inside able to say what’s been done? Deejay?


Just spotted an old image I posted, show how much of a relight it actually got!

*
*

As you can see by the colour change on the set panels, the white balance is cooler than it was which has improved whites overall. Likewise the extra LED lighting on the bottom of the colour panels is new.

Newer posts