BBC Breakfast

Personally, I like the breakfast set. Simple and neat. Although some of the camera angles are atrocious, but there is a severe lack of space in the studio, if I remember correctly the sofa cameras are literally right up at the baking tray. As mentioned and debated so many times before, they've done there best with the space. Hopefully they'll get a new set this year though. As it would be 3 years this April, however this seems very unlikely.

From a recreation of the set I made as a 3D model - admitted based on some guesswork but I would say it's reasonably realistic - I think they could fit one of the newer curved sets quite well, though obviously without some of the height. From looking at some of the behind-the-scenes photos and 360 images (and the 3D model) the space they have doesn't seem to be exactly cavernous but bigger than it looks on screen. The studio is an odd, wide shape with angled walls but there is some space to the right of the studio that I think is wasted - the backlit panels that are only really ever used for very rare music performances.

Usual argument is that there is no 'relationship' between the studio interviewer and the guest (though how much relationship can you have with a TV screen?) - and it's cold, distancing and 'newsy'.

I think probably a reaction to the 80s and early 90s when they were everywhere and large screens were poor quality and expensive, so it was a choice of DVE boxes, small CRT direct-view, or larger Mitsubishi/Barco CRT projectors (which were often a bit dim and murky)

In those days, before plasmas, affordable bright projectors etc. DVE boxes were often the least worst solution. (Though they did require a dual channel DVE - or some Heath Robinson box wipes and off-set framing, or cameras pointed at floor monitors...)

Once plasmas etc. arrived in the mid-to-late 90s, along with affordable projectors with decent performance, in-vision screens became dominant. ITN even simulate them in their virtual set.

I've never been a fan of the North West Tonight set - the old version was much better, and although the ratings show ultimately it doesn't matter from purely a presentation point of view this set isn't good enough for Breakfast. It's that classic thing of round sofas in a sqaure set - just doesn't look great IMO.

As for other options, what studio space (of their own) do the BBC actually have at Salford. Always thought the sports news set looked far better than the national news, and although the secondard sport set can sometimes look like a cupboard with a little bit of work it would be more than suitable for North West Tonight. They've got the Blue Peter/CBBC/Newsround set which I think is one studio, and then the main BBC Sport set - though I think that is either leased when required or shared with something else.

One option surely though would be a trip back down to London for a couple of weeks if the show couldn't be anchored at Salford.

Blue Peter has studio HQ7 in MediaCityUK. Then Newsround and CBBC share HQ5. HQ6 is used for Cbeebies.

I think the Breakfast set is nice, just it needs an update. Maybe a change of graphics or new lighting as I think it is a space that could look brilliant.

I wonder whether getting rid of the big red sofa and going for something a bit more like the Andrew Marr set would work better in that space?

Maybe. But those Red sofas have been a part of Breakfast for a long time.

Can anyone make any mocks and we could all work together to send to the editor of Breakfast- I'm thinking a new forum is needed!

How about, er, no.

It would be a completely pointless exercise, unless, for some reason, you think the BBC producers (for Breakfast in this case, but also for Newsround and all the regions) are sitting there with a big bundle of cash for new sets, new production facilities and new design work, but have simply run out of ideas and can't think of any ways of getting rid of that money.

Oh good lord...

Was there ever any consensus on whether this studio had windows or not? There was a photo posted on here when the studio was mid-build which seemed to have a lightsource that looked like a window, and I'm sure I read on here that the plasmas were almost directly in-front of said windows?!



A high horse indeed.

The studio has no windows ever in vision, although is on the 2nd (officially 1st) floor of BBC Quay House and as it is build on an office floor there is one window to the side which is covered by a curtain.

I know because I have been in that studio.

It does have windows which the screens (& drapes) cover up. You can see the light coming over the top / under the bottom of the drapes in Nick Garrod's photos.