BBC News 24

What planet are you on? Andrew had given the news to News 24 hours before that happened and they'd been rolling with it ever since.

Nick sounds like he's battling over Adam talking at the minute (albeit not live on Sky News). He bounced well between N24 then the National then back to N24 all within a couple of minutes just now.

Absolutely not. Working in the industry myself, I know how manic things would be. What you see on air is really the very tip of the iceberg. With something this big, I think it adds to the flavour of the breaking news. What you are seeing is news in action, getting you, the viewer, the information as soon as possible, not wasting time to make everything look beautiful and picture perfect. You simply cannot do that with big stories like this on rolling news channels. Ok, not as big as 9/11 or 7/7, but still a very significant story. The gallery would be alive, more so than normal, and frankly James rigging up Andrew Marr on air added to the whole taste and speed and delivery of this exciting story.

James' earpeace would be moulded for his ear and thus would not fit Andrew's, so this would have to be swopped or simply pop the amplifier, which normally dangles just below the neck, could be popped in, which I believe is what happened here.

Sky took the GB exclusive with BBC astons. I don't think Sky News viewers would want to wait for a clean copy!

Cameron looking like death now on News 24 giving his reaction. Should we wait for him to get some make-up? I think not.

Things like this can be cleaned up for the Nationals, and later use on rolling news channels, but for the immediate news on a 24 hour news channel there really is no point fannying around making everything look like work of art. A bit of on air action and a few cut corners really does not matter. Personally, I like it!

I don't think it was quite hours. The earlier news was that Gordon Brown was expected to rule out an Autumn election which obviously BBC and Sky were reporting. The news could only be confirmed once Andrew Marr had come out of 10 Downing Street.

http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/am6_edit.jpghttp://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/am7_edit.jpg



http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/am2_edit.jpghttp://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/am3_edit.jpg
http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/am5_edit.jpg

Who's doing the pooled interview with Cameron currently showing on Sky and N24?

Not a voice I recognise. Probably a local crew with suggested questions from political bods in London. Could be wrong.

Anorak technical point.

The bit that goes in the ear is just a bit of moulded plastic connected to a tube. (You have your earcast taken by having gunk injected into your ear to take a mould of your outer ear canal, and usually have both left and right moulds made so you can chose which ear to wear your earpiece in to minimise its visibility)

At the other end of the tube is a plastic clip that clips onto a standard earpiece transducer (i.e. an earphone without anything to stick in your ear - the same device can have a generic "deaf aid" type attachment clipped on instead to stick in your ear - which have a tendency to fall out) This transducer is normally hanging somewhere below your jacket collar, towards the small of your back (though it depends on the length of tube - curly earpiece tubes are often shorter) This transducer isn't an amplifier - it is the bit that turns the electrical signals into sound (or air vibrations) that then travel up the tube to the ear. The transducer usually has a small 2 pin connector that can be removed - allowing people to keep the transducer clipped to their earpiece in some situations.

Many BBC earpieces will also have (they all should unless a different approach is being taken - which is rare) a rectangular plastic lump somewhere in the cable between the transducer and the connection to the talkback receiver or talkback unit. This is a limiter, and is present for health and safety reasons, to ensure that whatever sound level is pumped into the cable, the sound level generated by the earpiece is within a safe amount. (Many people don't like them because they find the safe level too quiet...)

There are other systems in use (which have a small radio or induction receiver that actually sits in your ear) - but these are used for larger studio and OB shows, not news lives.

Cheers, noggin. I have one myself. In my rush to post my description was crap to say the least! I can always rely on you for a more reliable in-depth description. Always appreciated!

Interesting to note, Jane Hill appeared to be wearing a black plastic ear-piece when in Portugal recently.

Why start a post with 'Absolutely not' and then go on to agree with what I said? I said the BBC coverage was a mess, you confirmed that and pointed out other things that I didn't such as Andrew Marr getting his earpiece put in on air.



I agree with this, just a shame the BBC would rather wait until Andrew Marr's interview is edited and ready for broadcast in the morning instead of putting it to air now.



Me too.

Aplogies if my wording was ambiguous. Not really that important though.


Anyone else want to take David up on this? I haven't the strength.

Enjoying the carefully chosen words from DC being chucked about for tomorrow's papers. Weakness, indecision, humiliating, retreat, spin, just for starters.

What are those Sky News graphics?

Its the Sky News Active graphics.
They look like the graphics they were going to use for the 2005 relaunch if I'm not mistaken.