BBC News Studios

BBC Global Minds asked their members to decide what background the World News studio would have and they unanimously voted for the London backdrop.

The desk does not rotate, however there is no reason why presenters cant sit at different places as the cameras can be positioned at various different angles on the track you can see in the image.

(I'm pretty sure all this has been covered in the BBC World News and Broadcasting House threads.)

You may have also missed that Diana is dead, the twin towers are no more, and Germany lost the war.

Do keep up!

A totally unnecessary response - do grow up! Not that I needed to, but I did apologise for perhaps having missed it. Send a note to santa and ask him for some forum etiquette.

It made me smile

I'm here all week - try the fish.

Eyelines are the shots you get of guests or presenters when they are looking at each other or a down-the-line screen, rather than specifically looking to camera. Relative positioning of the presenter/guest/screen and camera is key to getting a good eyeline.

Good eyelines are pretty frontal - and should include both eyes. Bad eyelines are less frontal, or worse almost profiley and only showing one eye.

If your cameras are on a radial track and your presenter is likely to look radially, then tracking around the radius will let you potentially get much better eyelines than cameras in fixed positions that can only pan/tilt/zoom (aaka PTZ) and elevate/depress. If you can't move the cameras between set-ups, then you end up with compromise positions that are less than ideal for each set-up. If you CAN move cameras between set-ups, and put them in the right place, then huge improvement in shots is possible - even if they don't move on-camera (and I suspect they will)

I suspect tracking cameras are a lot more cost-effective than fully robotic cameras which could move fully around the studio (as BBC News had in one of their 6th floor studios for a number of years until 1998)

To answer your question - yes - height can also be an issue with eyelines, you don't want to shoot too high or too low - but that's not a function of camera positioning (just adjustment within position).

Thanks noggin

It was hardly unanimous. It was the most popular, but not everyone voted for it,

Is there a technical term to describe what Bill Turnbull does when he twists himself around - almost, it seems, putting his back out - rests one hand over the back of the sofa, and looks a screen that still isn't facing him?

Yep - a complete mess. It looks rubbish every day.

At least we can see all the creases on the back of his jacket in HD.