Other BBC News Outlets (Arabic, Persian, Africa Etc) - Sets

I believe it's the same studio in the video. It doesn't look too cramped on-air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYpUPgvh1sk

You answered that question yourself

I don't like the titles in the Swahili bulletins, and to be honest all the World Service language bulletins. They are badly edited from the generic NC titles for their show.

Swahili's using the NC titles with yellow added in and Focus on Africa music that just doesn't seem to work and doesn't feel right to me.

None of the World Service titles are 'badly' edited versions of the News Channel titles. There are 3 distinct main types of titles currently in use on WS bulletins so to say that you don't like any, even those that are identical to the NC, An La or Focus is painting with a very broad brush.
1) Standard NC titles with NBH exterior instead of newsroom - used for bulletins using Newsroom backdrop
2) An La Globe - Used in Blue and Red for Persian and Orange for Arabic.
3) Focus on Africa style - These are all independently created for each service, BBC Russian uses a red and blue palette, BBC Urdu, BBC Hindi and a few others use a red palette. Dira ya Dunia used Focus on Africa titles with red rather than green until their rebrand in June/July when they also started using the new style graphics and a new style of titles. While the Dira ya Dunia titles do look a little odd and the timing is a little out, the reason they use the Focus on Africa music is because the two shows both launched as part of the BBC's expansion into the African market.

Do BBC Arabic still have their newsroom view studio anymore? Or indeed, what studios does BBC Arabic actually use now? Looking at the live stream on YouTube which has something like a 3 hour rewind, the newsroom view studio doesn't feature at all, although a variety of sets and studios do make an appearance. First, a real set, that seems to be combination of bits from all the other NBH news studios:





For some reason there is both a computer inside the desk and laptop on top of the desk - it would seem that the screen of the laptop is being captured by some software and broadcast on one of the side screens for when they take a look at what's on the website. Scrolling through three hours this short segment only happened a few times and frankly looks messy and quite shoddy, when the laptop big and bulky, with cables all coming out of the side of it. Surely there are better ways of doing this than making the presenter scroll through the website on a separate computer?





From midday, they for some reason change to a virtual set, as seen above, which is halfway between the real set seen above and Studio B. The laptop is in use again here but because the black surface on the desk isn't glass and is opaque - do the virtual studios used by World Service things not have the capability to do reflection like Studio A? There is a 'newswall' area to this set but I don't think they actually use it, and the set looks incredibly fake, making the old BBC News at 9 set in Studio A almost lifelike!

A few other sets seen on air:




Firstly, a real set with a large (possibly BARCO) display they use for some programmes. I think this one has (had?) a newsroom view to the right of the social media screens in the first cap.



Another virtual set for their version of HARDtalk, making use of recoloured titles and so different (quite hideous) music.



And then this 'on the cheap' set being used presumably at a BBC News bureau somewhere - this looks like how someone who is trying to parody BBC News might design a desk.

BBC Persian, meanwhile, makes use of that real set with BARCO wall above, along with their window studio - they also have the new (2013 onwards) OSG graphics rather than the 2008 ones.

Great work Critique, BBC Persian seems to have better idents and are using the new BBC lower style graphics, whilst Arabic still has the old graphics.

First time I've seen Arabic for a while, at 1900 UK Time, they have a show with a Newsnight look to it. Including a nice London backdrop
Title endboard


Studio

Oh wow. That looks beautiful.

Shows what you can do with a studio space with a low ceiling. BBC Breakfast got it all wrong with vertical elements highlighting how small it is.

Great captures by the way!

That's not Studio D is it?

No Studio D has a C/E style desk rather than a B style desk and doesn't have the cross over lightboxes above the screens. That one is the one used for the Newsnight style programme above and I believe that set is opposite the one with the big screen.

Are these World Service outlets powered by Viz as well?

Pretty certain that the Arabic and Farsi services use VizRT for their on-screen graphics.

I don't know if the VR studio uses a Viz solution to render the backgrounds. I wouldn't be surprised either way, but I'm not sure how sophisticated the studio is and whether it can cope with moving cameras.