BBC News Rebrand - This Monday

There have been three distinct sets of music and titles since the Barco screens arrived - though the differences between the second and third were of the "blink and you'll miss them" variety.

When the Barco set first launched - the titles had a slightly purple hue during the end reveal of the studio, that was no longer a mix and became a keyed wipe effect. Some of the music changed, but not all of it. The music on the titles had a "juddering" start to smooth the regional opt. At this point some bulletins still used the fixed - 5 seconds per headline - bongs, whilst others used variable bongs to allow headlines to be longer or shorter, and to contain upsound of a variable length.

Then the titles were tweaked, and lost the purple hue, but had a very long opt-in buffer. The Ten O'Clock news gained a very long set of opening titles for their headline recap.

Then, last year, the music for all bulletins was revamped - with the headlines gaining a musical note, and a slightly less prominent drum beat bed. This made the variable bongs less "off beat" on occasions. At the same point the long titles used on the One Six and Ten got a bit shorter (though the visuals remained the same), and the Ten O'Clock News titles for the headline recap got a lot shorter.

First relaunch with the Barcos was in spring 2006, and final tweak of music was in April 2007 ISTR. Can't remember where the middle titles tweak took place - but it wasn't long before the most recent tweak.

Oh yes they was I remember now.
They ruind the style introduced in 2004 and they didnt really have a climax at the end just straight into the tracker music. and the BBC logo seemed tinny.

Yes, indeed I do

Hate to burst the revamp bubble, but it's exactly the same as it's always been and no changes are being made to N8 just yet.

Yup all that's happening is safety testing - the gallery's covered in yellow sticky notes.

Could somebody explain to me (probably noggin or newsmonkey) how the screens work in N8. Whenever they are turned off you just see a "frosted" view of the wall behind, nothing that looks like projection equipment.

Similarly, when you get long shots of the set you can see the back of the screens, but nothing that looks capable of projecting an image.

What are the screens actually made of?

There are projectors hanging in the newsroom behind the screens, well I presume thats what they are. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davesfavoritepictures/1252097620/sizes/o/in/set-72157601700116822/

I've always assumed that what you're talking about is not actually the screens "turned off", but just an image projected onto them that looks like a continuation of the walls. I'm pretty sure it's just an illusion! Otherwise, as you say, surely all we'd see would be a hole in the wall behind them, or just a grey screen.

They are seldom, if ever, turned off. On some shows they project a bland, set-like, frosted in-fill rather than black or a logo. Weekend Breakfast is a prime example of the "make the screen look like set" look I believe.

The technology itself is a glass projector screen with the projector(s) I think there are two so that if one dies the other can take over suspended from the ceiling in the newsroom. Because the projector is shining through a brightly lit office, with nothing stopping light spilling onto the back of the screen, they look washed out and desaturated. Blacks don't appear anything like black...

I am still surprised they continue to push projectors when there are 50, 60 and 103 inch plasmas and LCD displays (which aren't as good on-camera as plasmas - but would outperform the projectors) between 103 and 60 these days.



You CAN see the projectors - they are normal domestic / office grade devices - Sanyo I think - nothing as butch as a decent Christie or similar (which is what BBC Sport use for their projected set in a studio with controlled lighitng) Occasionally you see a bright spot at ceiling, or just below, height.



Coated glass. The coating is designed to make them as bright as possible when rear-projected onto.

BBC World's original Sport Today set had a similar bit of technology - nicknamed the Holoscreen - which appeared transparent when not illuminated - but this only really worked when it had black behind it - making the screen appear to disappear. In an office light level set the result is far less remarkable.

The projectors are probably the least-good bit of the current News 24 set, followed swiftly by the appalling guest and presenter eyelines during interviews. (The set precludes cameras getting far enough upstage for decent eyelines on a desk that shape)

Meaning they are things happening in N6 lol, anyway we'll find out soon enough!

Doesn't at all.

as I said we'll find out very soon