North American Affilliates/Network Set Design

WBFF the Sinclair broadcasting flagship (Sinclair is HQ 10 miles from the station) station unveiled a state of the art set and a brand new graphics package.



You can see a longer video on Facebook.

The late news open:



Despite Sinclair being known for penny pinching it helps when your owners up the road even if it’s the third or fourth rated station in a four newscast marker. With this new set and technology they launched OverDrive and installed Ross CamBot robotics and likely a result of jobs. Previously I believe their show was punched by hand and the floor operator probably was the camera operator. When they went HD they had five Sony studio cameras so they didn’t really have to be moved that often.

It’s... quite ugly!

What's with the bricks? Looks bad.

Well it's a typical US style local new set, nothing stunning. "Big Awesome Monitor" please.

No worse than 'Screeny'.

I think it’s a nod to our ancient brick streets and townhomes along with Fort McHenry. I kind of liked the circuit print that’s there in the headers. Some of their sets have nods to local or station history. For example their station in Seattle, KOMO, had a devastating helicopter crash as it took off their building and they “honored” the deceased by working a propeller blade into the set.

That set looks extremely bland for 'state of the art'.

Without wishing to be rude, there is nothing ancient about those brick buildings in Baltimore, a city less than 300 years old.

The definition of ancient is normally reserved for buildings, areas or culture adopted or inhabited by humans in the 3,000 BCE - 500 CE period.

That doesn't mean that you should't observe the heritage, but perhaps at least by accepting that they are historic, not ancient.

To be fair, 'Screeny McScreenFace' was simply the continuation of a national joke following on from 'Boaty McBoatFace', and originally 'Hooty McOwlFace' in 2012.

You’re right. The area of Baltimore I was thinking of was Fells Point which was settled in 1620 and incorporated in 1732 - well before the birth of the the US.

Anyway here’s a montage of the 11PM news. Complete with an annoying weather alert bug.



(I almost think they’re using one piece of hardware to generate the bug and then inserting it in the around six different program streams they have going out of the building.)

I agree its not an attractive set at all. But lets not start throwing stones. Those black-bar-ed ITV regional sets and the same-y BBC sets arent modern beauties either when compared with continental counterparts. So fall back a bit.

I think people are confusing a flashy set with a nice set. This does the job of reinforcing the brand of a responsible, reliable local news service with its subdued blue colour scheme and understated backdrops.