North American Affilliates/Network Set Design

WGN 9 Chicago finally debuted it new set. They have been on the old set for more than a decade and it started to show its age. I like elements of the new set. But it does feel dated. But frankly Im not a fan of the brick look and the metal trellis around the top. Its been done. I know why they did it. To reflect the built enviroment of the city. The El and so forth....eh. just not a fan. I think they were badly advised on the screen on the front of the desk. Its very low res and has a moire pattern. Sadly it doesnt look good. I absolutely LOOOVE the dura trans behind the video wall the features the city streets. That is brilliant. The desk is over is nice. And the new logo clean and updated graphics are fairly good. They nice showcase the city and their commitment to being CHICAGO'S VERY OWN. They are now 100% independent since they recently dumped CW affiliation. Hope the deal with the conservative Sinclair group fails. They do need to rethink the live view from the top of Sears Tower as the beauty shot. The angle looks strange. Over all a fairly decent if already dated effort from the Tribune Group. They have started incorporating boom shots now which is new for WGN. Not sure it will last though.

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Comparing the Tribune's legacy stations, the Mothership WGN (Chicago) and then KTLA (LA) and WPIX (NY). Clearly you can see the same designed must have created the WPIX and WGN sets. Not a huge fan of either frankly.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/marketshare/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/WPIX-NEW-LOOK-4.jpg


The new station Idents are nice and simple. No flash or dash. Sounds like the voice is one of country's most famous meteorologist WGN's Tom Skilling. (also the highest paid)

From Newscastudio

KWGN 2 Denver Newscast studio has exclusives of the news set debuting tommorrow.
Lots of wood and rocks. Very Colorado

Here's a video:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154267417346642&id=337983416641&_rdr

WDSU, the Hearst owned NBC affiliate in New Orleans, launched a new set Monday. The set was designed by Devlin Design Group and came as a bit of a surprise. Lately set installations seem to involve moving into another studio or to the newsroom temporarily. However WDSU decided to build their new set in their adjacent studio. It looks quite nice based in this video. However it appears WDSU still has. Not transitioned to an HD newscast workflow.

Morning Joe launched a new desk and video backdrop.

I'd say it's an improvement on the previous mish-mash of a Morning Joe set. But it does look quite cramped, and I always thought the round-table set-up worked really well with the format of the show.

Well Greta is back in her old studio with no noticeable changes. However during the Comey testimony NBC debuted a new studio that's U shaped with LED videowall backdrop (like MSNBC). They're using the same style desk.

Live from D.C. with my friend @SavannahGuthrie for @TODAYshow this morning pic.twitter.com/h0EBfkv2Z5

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) June 8, 2017

This will shed some light on the changes:
http://www.newscaststudio.com/2017/06/09/nbc-news-updates-capitol-hill-studio/

Morning Joe was in that studio today and had the real window backdrop opened with the LED tiles for the rest of them. One thing that I didn't like when Greta took over the studio was how they covered up two windows. Both have TV placed on them.

On Wednesday night Greta used the studio and none of this was visible. I'm amazed at how quickly it was installed. I wouldn't expect the tiles to be so flexible / easily movable. The article says they are wall tracking sections but I'm wondering where the track leads to?

One suggestion would be to get a 4K or 1080p camera on the roof to feed their video wall.

Edit 2 : Video from Morning Joe:

.@NancyPelosi has some advice for the president. #morningjoe pic.twitter.com/l7iEyihY7v

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) June 9, 2017

Edit 3 : Seeing the Twitter video makes me wonder if the panels fold to the sides for that one window. I don't recall the columns being that deep.

WLEX - Lexington Kentucky NBC 18
Whilst the new set that have been launching in past few year are using similar elements. Such as the video wall etc. Many of the new sets are very modern in design especially considering the small markets stations that use them. This is a rather decent effort soon to launch in WLEX.

WPVI the ABC owned station and the highest rated news station for decades in Philadelphia has launched a new hi tech set. It features 52 monitors, nine cameras and augmented reality. See a video of the set at their website here.

Edit : Heres a short video courtesy of WCAUNBC10 over at TVNewsTalk.net

What are those faux-brick sections with blotches of grey paint supposed to be? It looks awful.