BBC Newsline

On one hand, its nice to see some creativity with the NI weather, but if they were going to do something different, it'd be better if it was a BBC News virtual set, rather than that generic creation that looks like a default set you receive when you buy the software.

Surprising really weather has never (in the UK at least) been a bit more experimental with VR and AR. Obviously we've moved on from symbols to the radar style forecasts but essentially the weather is still presented in much the same manner as it was 30 years ago.

How did Newsline present the weather before? I’m thinking this is the default style from Meteogroup for VR or AR.

I’d like to know is the shot static when the camera moves or if it’s true VR. I ask because The Weather Company (formerly WSI) had a virtual set style that just was a generic chroma key and was used widely.

I guess This Morning was the only real innovator, but largely wiped from history for obvious reasons.

I don’t count This Morning weather as innovative. I think it can only really be described as gimicky. British people (stereotypically at least) take the weather pretty seriously and audience research has shown time and time again that they want clear concise forecasts, easy to understand and with local detail. The best way to achieve this is always going to be a relatively static map and easy to understand symbols.

I think you're forgetting Live TV's bouncing weather dwarf.

The weather and the Sport have swapped places, so Sport used the green screen and weather used the real screens before. The shot is not static, all 3 cameras can use the green screen/VR as we have had wide shots, zooming in shots and even behind the weather presenters when handing back to the newsreader.

The Newsline studio has full camera tracking for their VR area (I think they use the BBC-invented, Radamec-now-Shotoku-marketed 'FreeD' system that ITN also use) and rendering (I think using VizRT) - though whether the weather uses this I don't know.

What they should have done is extended the set virtually but made it match so it looked like the same set and that would’ve looked alright.

There was always a problem in the weather when it used real screens -there was refection from the behind the camera of the map of Northern Ireland so that there was a blue box clearly visible reflecting off the screen in studio.

The sport always appeared to have problems with chromakey and making the VR look as if it was real. They had a podium that seemed to cause no end of problems - it latter months it seems to have fabric laid on top or a more matt finish to avoid reflections.

I assume that the studio footprint is less than Glasgow and Cardiff?

Reporting Scotland hardly use the soft set of Studio C but looks a heck of a lot better.

BBC in Belfast have three studios - Studio A at Blackstaff House is their 6,000 Sq Ft entertainment, audience based studio. Studios B and 1 located in BBC Broadcasting House are the smaller studios, with Newsline based in Studio B which is around 2,000 Sq Ft, just like Studio 1.