As for improving the acoustics there is an obsession with so much glass in these new studios that acoustically they are shocking anyway!
That I'm not going to argue with. Covering entire walls in glass in any broadcast studio does all sorts of nasty acoustic things.
However the South Asia Hub at Bush (AKA: The Production House Of The Future) has broadcast studios made nearly entirely of glass, and these designs were copied into Arabic radio studios at BH. The trick seems to be to use the glass to reflect the noise into an dead acoustic surface and put all the panels at odd angles to each other so the sound can not bounce off multiple glass surfaces, and then provide additional deadening in the ceiling tiles and the carpet. It is a bit of an odd sensation walking over the extra deep carpet when you are not used to it.
I've found a report on the Bush studio acoustics here while trying to find some pictures - and failing miserably to find any that properly show off how much glass there is in the area. The studios do work very well BTW, not perfect. But good enough to use regular microphones in the 2nd generation Arabic studios. The Bush studios use a boom mic from the presenter's cans to provide a bit more noise isolation, this was found not to be needed for Arabic.
While I'm not going to get into the politics of this argument for obvious reasons, I'd like to pick up on something.
BBC Persian TV is aimed at Farsi speakers where ever they are in the world. While the primary market is in Iran, if we were only interested in that market then we would not bother with the live streams or any other internet activity - because access to the BBC internet sites is blocked from Iran, and has been for several years now.
There is a substantial Farsi speaking diaspora in the USA for example, and they will be able to watch online for now, and through other platforms as the distribution deals are signed and delivered. Just because at launch there is only satellite distribution in one region, that does not mean that is the limit of where it will be available in the future.
If I recall correctly the BBC has closed down several of its radio stations (like the Bulgarian service, the Polish service and others) in order to save money to launch the Arabic and Persian TV channels, so it's not really £15 milion coming from nowhere.
Not quite. The grant in aid provided by the FCO to the BBC to run the World Service is reviewed every 3 years, the last review being for 2008-2010 financial years IIRC. During the previous review period the FCO did not provide any additional funding to start BBC Arabic TV, therefore cuts were made within the BBC World Service to fund it's creation. This means that BBC Arabic was started at no additional cost to the FCO and therefore the taxpayer.
In the current funding review the BBC Persian TV channel was proposed, and the extension of BBC Arabic TV to provide a 24 hour service. This time round additional funding was agreed for these services.
Something else also approved was something we are calling 'Global Local', From the 2009 financial year World Service will receive additional funding of £1 million per annum to make the language services more accessible to the residents of the UK who speak them - but currently are not directly targeted by the services. While I have no idea how this money will be spent, I could see how adding the TV services to Astra 2 could be within scope - but this is
pure speculation
on my part rather than any insider knowledge I have.
Also please don't think this is the end of the TV ambitions for the World Service. I've heard rumours of another two services that want to move into TV, but I suspect they will have to wait until the next spending review.
If I recall correctly the BBC has closed down several of its radio stations (like the Bulgarian service, the Polish service and others) in order to save money to launch the Arabic and Persian TV channels, so it's not really £15 milion coming from nowhere.
Not quite. The grant in aid provided by the FCO to the BBC to run the World Service is reviewed every 3 years, the last review being for 2008-2010 financial years IIRC. During the previous review period the FCO did not provide any additional funding to start BBC Arabic TV, therefore cuts were made within the BBC World Service to fund it's creation. This means that BBC Arabic was started at no additional cost to the FCO and therefore the taxpayer.
In the current funding review the BBC Persian TV channel was proposed, and the extension of BBC Arabic TV to provide a 24 hour service. This time round additional funding was agreed for these services.
Something else also approved was something we are calling 'Global Local', From the 2009 financial year World Service will receive additional funding of £1 million per annum to make the language services more accessible to the residents of the UK who speak them - but currently are not directly targeted by the services. While I have no idea how this money will be spent, I could see how adding the TV services to Astra 2 could be within scope - but this is
pure speculation
on my part rather than any insider knowledge I have.
Also please don't think this is the end of the TV ambitions for the World Service. I've heard rumours of another two services that want to move into TV, but I suspect they will have to wait until the next spending review.
they should be broadcasting now on Astra 2 as well, I don't see why it needs additional funding to do this!
In the oft-mentioned preview video barker for the channel, did I see a large newswall-type display display in the newsroom? It appears in the background from around 1:29 to 1:37 on the BBC version of the video (I didn't what time it appears on the YouTube video).
This looks like it's in the wrong place to be in any part of the main set (at least from what can be seen of it on the main video), and appears to be on the far wall of a newsroom area. If this is a video wall, will it also be used to present any programming, in addition to the use of the video wall evident to the left of the main set?
The first two have the outside windows obscured (second one most obivously), but there's no sign of this at all in the third.
Also, the second one seems to have the fifth window repeated on the sixth - there are some obvious columns, but on the other two pictures, there's nothing that could be confused for columns.
There's also something suspicous about how the blue & red lights seem to be colouring the background, but I suppose this could be some kind of window coating.
they should be broadcasting now on Astra 2 as well, I don't see why it needs additional funding to do this!
How do you expect anyone to broadcast to Astra 2 without leasing part of a transponder and paying uplink and platform EPG fees first? I'd be surprised if much change was had from 100K - although it's been a few years since I was involved in a channel on the Sky platform.
If this is a video wall, will it also be used to present any programming, in addition to the use of the video wall evident to the left of the main set?
The main non-bulletin use is during the phone in discussion programme - just like it is with Arabic.
There's also something suspicous about how the blue & red lights seem to be colouring the background, but I suppose this could be some kind of window coating.
You're right. There's a more obvious issue. If you look on the day shot you can see two large chunks of building cladding that overlap the top part of the windows each side. In the night shot they have gone. Also if you look during the day there appears to be a line across the windows at just above desk height behind the presenter, again this has gone in the evening shot.
I'll ask what the story is next time I'm over there, but I'm 99% sure the window is real.