The Newsroom

BBC News Rebrand - This Monday

New look BBC News output from Monday (January 2008)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
WO
Worzel
noggin posted:
Worzel posted:
I don't know if this question has been asked before...

But why do the BBC insist on shoving News 24 into a studio/set that is no bigger than a broom cupboard?


Well 10 years ago News 24 was made by a totally different department (Continuous News - also home to CEEFAX/Online, Five Live and BBC World news production) to the One/Six/Ten and Newsnight etc. BBC News 24 had a tiny budget - and wanted a "bright and breezy, informal" look presented from a newsroom not a studio.

That is why they have an office based set and a gallery designed to be run by two or three people - and with the production values that delivers.

Of course they are now all one big family - and News 24 and BBC One bulletins will be sharing the more studio-like studio previously used by BBC One bulletins.

However the shows currently in the large news studio - particularly Newsnight, Newsnight Review, The Andrew Marr Show and The Politics Show all really need the higher production values that the studio delivers - as they are not "News" programmes per se - and have an expectation of higher values. There is also the issue that Newsround pay to use that studio - as Newsround is not a BBC News production, but is made by BBC Children's using BBC News facilities. If Newsround were shunted into a broom cupboard by News they'd lose a chunk of income I suspect...

Quote:

Instead of using N6 as the main studio - why not use TC7 which is much larger and would accomodate BBC News 24 much better than N6, the ceiling is far too low and it looks like the presenters heads are touching the huge light cubes above them.


News 24 in the large studio would be a bit odd though - they wouldn't be able to put a newsroom in the space - so you'd end up with two presenters in an aircraft hangar in silence for much of the time - or would waste a lot of the space.

I think the real question is why is News 24 going into a studio at all - when a newsroom backdrop is the key to a continuous news channel feeling like a news operation and not a bulletin. Even a mocked up newsroom - as ITV have and had - doesn't really do it.

Quote:

When they eventually move into Broadcasting House in 2011/2012 time, will they actually give the channel a bigger set or is that too much to ask.

I'm not a fan of Sky News really, but giving the presenters a decent video wall and space to move around would be a start.


But Sky have a newsroom in their studio...

Though you have to ask WHY do presenters need to walk around ?


I tend to agree with most of that (especially the husstle and bustle of the newsroom happening in the background).

I would like to see BBC News 24 get a studio (much like Sky News') will this happen with they move into BH?

I must say though that when BBC World used TC7 as a Temp studio it didn't look out of place at all (albeit the really bad Backdrop).
MD
mdtauk
This is the way News 24 should be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRiL3DkHzEo

EDIT: We need the return of colour, glass and metal look and feel, and make use of the newsroom desks for weather, sport, and business.
MO
Moz
martinDTanderson posted:
This is the way News 24 should be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRiL3DkHzEo

Ew! No thanks!
DO
dosxuk
martinDTanderson posted:
can those who have seen it, let us know a few tidbits about the changes, I know you cannot describe them, or even tell us the theme, but surely you can answer some queries?


Kind of following on from this, but would it be possible for those who have access to the studio / gallery take some photos for release after the rebrand is launched so we can see some behind the scenes stuff?

I would love to see how cramped N6 actually is, and there's virtually no decent resolution photos on the net that I've seen, and once N24 is running in there I'd assume access would be even more limited than before.
NG
noggin Founding member
martinDTanderson posted:
This is the way News 24 should be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRiL3DkHzEo

EDIT: We need the return of colour, glass and metal look and feel, and make use of the newsroom desks for weather, sport, and business.


Oh God - I'd almost managed to blot out that particular set from my memory - but now it is back. Thanks...

It was christened "The Conservatory After A Hurricane" look... Every close up had a line growing out of someone's head - and the newsroom blinds had to be closed all day to stop the background totally bleaching out.

It was the first set that News 24 had in its current home, after moving from the area currently occupied by BBC World. There was a desk with a newsroom backdrop - but with bits of set containig far too many different types of material as well - shooting over the mezzanine area, and opposite it was a very nice sofa set (much nicer than the news set) used for Zero 30 and other live non-News programmes like Europe Direct.

(It also dates back to when there was a weather position in the Newsroom. The one bit of the output you didn't see the newsroom in the back of shot - but ironically the CSO screen was so close to the newsroom it was the position you heard the most "noises off" from).

That was also the first time that the playout automation system could drive more than the bottom row of the vision mixer - hence you had keys over headlines and wipes between them. It also heralded journalists deciding how the output would be vision mixed by entering codes into the script...
NG
noggin Founding member
Worzel posted:

I tend to agree with most of that (especially the husstle and bustle of the newsroom happening in the background).


Yep - very difficult to fake the increase in activity as a new story breaks...

Quote:

I would like to see BBC News 24 get a studio (much like Sky News') will this happen with they move into BH?

Sky News doesn't come from a studio (i.e. a soundproof box with a decent lighting grid and just a set) - they come from a newsroom.

I think you mean you want them to have a newsroom set like Sky's.

Quote:

I must say though that when BBC World used TC7 as a Temp studio it didn't look out of place at all (albeit the really bad Backdrop).


I think BBC World is a bit different to News 24. They are much more built around 30 minute bulletins - and before they moved into their current studio they used to have a mix of newsroom presentation (from a camera in their 7th floor newsroom) and studio presentation (from a desk much the same as the BBC One/Six/Nine blue set) I suspect World would work much better from a studio - particularly their strand programmes.
MD
mdtauk
World should really be going into N6, and News 24 moving into World's studio/newsroom which I imagine is cheaper than News 24's
SP
Steve in Pudsey
martinDTanderson posted:
World should really be going into N6, and News 24 moving into World's studio/newsroom which I imagine is cheaper than News 24's


Where would the domestic news come from?
DJ
DJ Dave
Moz posted:
martinDTanderson posted:
This is the way News 24 should be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRiL3DkHzEo

Ew! No thanks!


I have never seen that set and don't want to again. Shocked
NG
noggin Founding member
martinDTanderson posted:
World should really be going into N6, and News 24 moving into World's studio/newsroom which I imagine is cheaper than News 24's


News 24's current space is in the News Centre, whilst BBC World's is not - so if you were to stop having one space for cost reasons it would make sense to get rid of the current BBC World space (which used to be Post Production's telecine area I believe)

With BBC News merging all the newsrooms - the space in the BBC World area is just too small - you couldn't fit radio, TV, online etc. for all BBC domestic output into the small BBC World newsroom.

If they are closing a space then the BBC World space is the one to close. (Though they are retaining the BBC World set and gallery for resilience purposes I believe)
BR
Brekkie
noggin posted:
Though you have to ask WHY do presenters need to walk around ?



You could also ask WHY presenters need to sit down to?


TVN posted:
I know it might be unpopular with some on here but I would be willing to throw a parade for them if they would bring back voice over annos ("The Ten O'Clock News from the BBC with Huw Edwards" and so on) it sounds professional and gives the newsreaders the credit they deserve as now not many of the regions announce the nationals readers (particularly at six)


I think it's quite a while since the BBC did voice over announcements - certainly not since 1993 when the virtual era was introduced, and I don't think in the era before that. I associate the announcements more with ITN - with the BBC having the newsreader introduced by the CA over the clock.
NR
Norma
I think the One and the Six used voice over announcements until the virtual era; the Nine had them in the flying fish fingers era, but abandonded them when it went solo in 1988.

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