BBC News Channel: Presentation

Technically they can - although it requires an extra person to do it and you're screwed if one of the Viz engines goes tits up. N6 has a main and a reserve Viz - for instance, during the nationals they swtich to the reserve so that the text producer can put astons up only on the NC if need be. However the director must keep an even closer watch on astons since there's not a text prod to manually do them in case there's a complicated sequence, but usually the text prod is on a break during the nationals any way so that's not an option.

It's not been done yet afaik, but it's there to give the NC the ability to have breaking news straps but not on BBC One.

Using the reserve Viz would probably be breaking the licencing for Viz. As the reserve engine is provided at a much reduced cost because it is a reserve. Using it for an alternative output would be quite expensive!

I would use it and let the legal department argue over how "reserve" is defined.

Suspect the definition of "reserve" is quite clearly defined in the sales documentation...

These days it is usually the software license that costs more than the hardware for many purposes - and thus buying a full license for a "hot spare" or "reserve" is usually not cost effective and manufacturers will sell you additional reduced cost licenses, allowing you to have a second box running as a backup.

Sorry if this is an old complaint (haven't had a chance to watch much since the revamp) but the screens look appalling here:
http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/badscreens.jpg

I noticed that screen was really bad during the One today. Hopefully while the Six is on from TC7 they will get chance to have a look at it. It looks particularly bad when they have graphics with predominantly white backgrounds, which they seem to do alot lately.

Yes, the screens always look this awful. Especially during the weather on the nationals.

You would have thought when it was this bad they would find a way around it; i.e. use a split screen with the presenter on the left and correspondent/guest on the right.

Oh come on, how hard is it to check the levels are all the same? Or is it more complicated than that?

I imagine they must either go out at times, or faults develop. If the fault develops at 0900 they are screwed for the day probably. Just would be better if they found ways around it - i.e. split screens. It's what some of the regions do. Look East (Norwich) do them all that way as they have no suitable screens to look towards.

I swear that crack between the two presenters is getting worse by the day as well.

I really can't see this studio having the same level of longevity as the last one. Three weeks in and we have had nightime backgrounds during Breakfast, a (as far as I'm concerned) pretty last minute simulcast with BBC World, a huge crack developing between the screen and the colour balance is all over the place.

Total mess.

It's not nearly as bad as you make out. There are some teeting problems but the studio is far superior to the old N24 one which had very limited "big screen" capabilities.