intracube's posts

…and finally

A final post from me.

My emotions are still strong after hearing the news almost a month ago and wanted to expand on what I wrote before.

When I first got interested in TV branding over 20 years ago I had no idea that there were others out there who shared this passion, so I'm hugely grateful to have found TVHome and then this forum back then - and have been following the discussions (with some gaps!) ever since. I don't think my interests in 3d animation, graphic design and branding would be what they are today without this place. It's good to hear that it'll be archived going forwards.

Although I haven't been a contributor until recently, I've still felt part of the forum over the years. I've signed up on the new TV Live forum so might be more active there in the future and will hopefully see many of you and the discussions continue over there. It's really been a great run - so thank you Asa, mods and everyone else for the memories that have been shared in this unique place. I'm going to miss it greatly.

Thank you and goodbye.

…and finally

I already commented earlier in this thread, but as we're now down to the last couple of days - thanks again to Asa, the mods and everyone here for the last 20 years.

All the best.

The Sport Thread

I guess the brief is to make these virtual sets as large and impressive as possible, but I do wonder if they'd look better scaled back a bit. I'd also expect the view out the windows to look brighter (just going by the reflections in the floor).

Will be interesting to see how it looks on screen as it's partly the ultra-wide angle view that makes the space look so large.

Martin Lambie-Nairn has died

Same here. Back in 2002 or 2003 I had the opportunity to watch World at our neighbour's house as we were looking after it while she was out of the country visiting relatives. She had a 1m dish pointing at 13°E which was one of the few ways to see the channel back then. It also started my interest in multi-sat reception, but sadly by the time I got a spare dish set up the 1999-2003 era had passed.

The whole channel was great back then; succinct headline sequences, a broader mix of programs (Top Gear/Holiday, IIRC), those little motifs going into/out of ad breaks (interstitials?) and a warm and professional looking newsroom in N9, which felt like a real working environment. The asymettry of N9 also helped whereas N8 felt more like a theatre/set and always seemed to have less background staff (although still looked great on screen, especially after the additional red walls). The current NBH newsroom is similar to N9 from that era in some ways, although I miss all those pools of light from the downlighters.

There must have been some close coordination by Martin and the team designing the newsrooms as it was all put together brilliantly (ISTR a different company was contracted to do the sets?). Things started to drift apart in the 2003 refresh, but IIRC the later graphics weren't designed by MLN.

Hopefully the idents are uploaded to the YouTube tribute channel at some point.

Martin Lambie-Nairn has died

Yep, the clock sequence is some stunning work. A real shame it only lasted 4 years or so.

The 1999 BBC World rebrand along with the studio design and original David Lowe music still stands as my favourite BBC News era of the last 20 years and still looks great today:


A great legacy of work.

Martin Lambie-Nairn has died

Going by the shadow on the clock face as the hand moves, it looks like they filmed at least two versions (with and without hands) instead of compositing them in post (actually four, as there's the day/evening versions). Perhaps they decided late in the day the camera needed more movement but couldn't go back and re-film, so did it digitally.

It looks like they created the effect by mapping the video to a plane and 'flying/panning' over it in 3d, or something along those lines. But as the hands are spaced away from the clock face, the effect might not have looked as convincing; if the virtual camera moves too much or the original surface has a lot of depth, this type of illusion doesn't always work. So perhaps that's why they used the version without hands for most of the angles. Just a guess, though - the two things could be unrelated.

A lot of work was put into that clock model - I wonder what became of it.

BBC Select to return as a brand

I meant it in the loosest sense of the word! 6 months was also rather optimistic.

BBC Select to return as a brand

Yes, I can't see this is part of any bigger plan. Just a lone designer who's created alternate versions for the international market. Isn't it just the two examples so far?

You only have to look at past examples - the BBC doesn't have enough checks in place to make sure things like this don't slip through. Or if they do slip through, that they're spotted quickly and fixed. Give it another 6 months and we might see corrected versions.

Help with recording video over HDMI

I did a small amount of manual colourisation a while back using rotoscoping and it was easier to hide misalignments with low-res SD footage. I wouldn't want to try it again with HD source material. Of course commercial companies doing it on any scale will have streamlined workflows, so it'd be interesting to know what issues they faced there.

Perhaps after the first learning experience, the second quote just reflected the true cost of doing it

BBC Sport 1992 Ident Audio

Thanks very much! This is the best copy I've heard by some margin.

I had a look at the Ravensbourne BBC Archive and the 1996 version on there isn't in stereo, but TV Ark's is: https://www.tvark.org/?page=media&mediaid=122784

BBC Sport 1992 Ident Audio

Hi, this might be a long-shot but does anyone have a HQ audio recording of the 1992 Sport ident, pictured below?


I love the sound mixing from this era with the strong stereo effects and reverb, but all the versions on YouTube are all quite ropey. The previous late 1980s ident would also be interesting to hear if anyone has that (sounds very similar but possibly remixed?).

Finally, as a long-time TVForum reader and with this place closing soon; there's been some real gems posted even up until recently that I haven't heard clean or in full before (and possibly some that never made it to air) - so many thanks to everyone who's shared music here over the years.

One last hurrah - vote now!

I'm a bit late to this thread but wanted to say well done on all this. Some excellent layout diagrams and renders.

My favourite news eras have to be the 2nd gen N8 cream/red News 24 set and the N2 national news in 1993, so it's nice to see you've covered both.

The breakfast redesign a few pages back would also be interesting to explore as its arguably one of the most high profile national sets that really needs an overhaul. I feel a lot of the recent BBC sets are rather sterile with the minimal set dressing and backlit plastic, frosted glass and grey panels so any design which works in some softer elements like bookcases, mixed materials (wood, carpet and small areas of chrome or brushed metal) would be good, IMO.