Radio Studio Design

I prefer the lighting in Global's LBC studio. The rolling ticker comes over gimmicky to be honest, but is a lot better than what they had at Hatfields which has already been mentioned.

However there is speculation on Guido Fawkes that talkRADIO will morph into an opinionated Fox News style radio and tv station now that Rupe no longer has Sky News to worry about.

https://order-order.com/2019/05/21/talkradio-become-talktv/

I was surprised by that. I imagine Evans will be self opping, but a studio built for Talk Radio would almost certainly be built as a traditional Talks studio, driven from begin the glass with the presenter having limited controls (to take phone calls to air and operate the dump button)

I usually listen to Absolute and they often share videos via Twitter. I don’t mind their studio it suits the brand and it doesn’t scream in your face. If you listen to the Breakfast Show you actually realise by watching their clips all of the presenters aren’t in the same room technically speaking.

Whilst covering for @daveberry_tweet on the breakfast show, @benburrell was introduced to Petr Čech and Roger Taylor's football song.

One word:
WOW pic.twitter.com/lZz4iwlMdT

— Absolute Radio (@absoluteradio) May 15, 2019

I'm sure he might try, but that sort of thing has been tried before a few times, once by News UK in fact, and it never seems to work over here.

Plus under current broadcasting rules what Talk and LBC do is as opinionated as they're going to get,and that's very different from what you get in the US

Evans was self opping when using the talk studio - they just installed the Zetta playout pad and a small desk of faders. Now he’s move upstairs to the proper Virgin studios they removed those elements from the talk studio ready for talkRADIO to move in.

Virgin/Chris are already in their new studios, but Chris has made various comments on air that he doesn’t agree with radio shows being filmed all the time. So I can imagine that’s why it’s not being utilised for clips like talkSPORT/RADIO are.

I did notice that at the start of the new Virgin show, the weekly video highlights barely featured any view of Chris at all, and certainly not any front on shots:



But more recently it looks like he’s relented:



Chris’ show on the original Virgin back in the late ‘90s was briefly simulcast on TV with Sky One, so perhaps he wasn’t a fan of that arrangement.

I must say as someone who works in Radio, it’s a joy to see you guys talking about Radio Studio design!

I think the generic look of a radio studio is better. Nothing on the wall , a computer , a mic and chair.

Just like the radio i'm in

As a pres fan, I should in theory like the slick, well-lit, styled affairs offered up by the likes of Global. But in all honesty, to me they feel a bit too false, generic and purely cosmetic shine - a bit like the output of some of the group's stations, a cynic might add. Feels like they are just all part of a formula, nice and shiny and packaged up to consume.

I prefer the likes of Radio 1 where you know it was a studio first and they added the cameras later. More recently some 'props' and LEDs have been installed on the walls but it's not too overbearing. I like the fact you can see decks, equipment, cables and post-it notes stuck on computer screens. Looks more like a real workplace than a sterile box.









I guess Radio 2 is the same (they even get away with food in the studio). Starting to show it's age a bit, and looks a bit cramped when there are a few guests, but I suppose Wogan House has some space limitations.

I remember when Radio 1 first put their webcams up in 1999 and it brought home how really non-telegenic the studios were. Of course it was just a still image every 30 mins at the start but gradually the logos started getting bigger and the studios tidier. I think it was 2005 when they did the first, all-black rebuild of the studios to make them better for photos/video (it's featured in the promo 1'36" in here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkMJLbr0EPE and looks a bit rubbish now but at the time was quite a departure )

Incidentally the Radio 1 webcam stayed up right up until they left Yalding House in 2012, taking a still photo every 10 minutes by that point!

Yes, that seems to be the way the BBC do it - radio studio first, with cameras in for when needed.

That Absolute clip shows the big problem with a lot of radio 'visualisation' and that is auto cutting between cameras. It just looks awful and so confusing when it's cutting between contributors for everything they say. It's like a video conference call

Webcams were the first time cameras were regularly in radio studios at the BBC, and they were not universally popular.
There are quite a lot of radio folks that like the way it sounds on air, and that definately doesn't need to look good for cameras.
At one point they considered putting a webcam in the main London Control Room.
We managed to stop that - who wants their nightshift documented every 30 seconds?

Edit - and there are times the webcams could just look a bit odd.
It's been posted on here before, here are Mark & Lard on Radio 1 in the old Studio A at NBH while the radio studio was being refurbished, complete with Question of Sport logo in the background
https://i.imgur.com/nSgfP7v.png