I was really looking forward to the vidiprinter- I thought this was a genuinely good idea...but in the end I don't think it worked at all. Broadcasting in just 2/3 of the screen most of the time just looked a bit odd.
I quite liked it - we had two TVs on, one on Sky, one on the BBC network feed, and found that with the BBC, you could easily miss calls - whereas with Sky, you could glance at the screen (well, more of a case of squint in our case, since our five reception wasn't too good) and see the last few. Plus the gains really stood out.
Incidentally, was anyone else a wee bit disappointed at 1pm on News 24, when they had that bloody subtitles trail? I reckon after the three minute or so end credit sequence with its fairly haunting music, a 60 second countdown would have slotted in quite nicely. Ah well.
It was good to see the BBC go back to their old theme after that hideous noise from the last election. I just wish they'd use the theme that they debuted in 1979.
Thought the Sky vidiprinter was very effective, actually. I'd have liked it to be a little bit bigger, but thought it was a far more logical approach to take than the BBC/ITV approach. If you look away for two seconds on the other two channels you can miss your own constiuency and sit there waiting for an hour before you realise it's been declared; that's not very viewing-friendly.
On the virtual studios, thought they were all pretty good, but Sky in the Lobby and overlooking the Commons from the balcony was very smart. Enjoyed Peter Snow's virtual steps.
Wasn't too keen on Sky being in that small window through the night. Would've been more effective if they'd just quickly gone through declarations so far every 20 minutes or so, but I think they got a bit tired of it when the results started to fly in and so went into 'normal' mode.
ITV looked very impressive, and quite liked the Beeb's animations, but what on earth did the BBC do to their graphs? They had some of the classiest looking charts at the last election, but this time they looked like they'd been dragged out of the 1990s. The 'swing' graphic was shockingly cheap.
Studios:
Sky's studio was ok, nothing more. Was a bit surprised that the blue panels weren't used for chromakeying, but thought it was an interesting touch when the whole studio turned red. As they've just spent a fortune on what is supposed to be an absolutely gobsmaking new set of studios, I don't think they could ever justify spending a huge amount, and there's no great incentive for them to do so. I imagine that election 2009 (if that's when it is) will come from the new news centre.
ITV's was a good effort, but nothing exciting. I liked the Beeb's, but didn't think it was a patch on 2001. It seemed to look almost dull and dark throughout the night, whereas 2001 was a very light and open affair.
Results:
Didn't watch much of ITV, but noticed they were up to their old tricks. Pretty much the same as 2001, only a bit tighter at the end, with ITV just pipping the other two at the post. I think speed of results is a bit of a misnomer. I saw plenty on Sky that took five minutes to appear on the Beeb, and vice versa. I don't think there's much kudos to be found in being the first to declare 324, when 2 hours earlier it was pretty damn obvious that was happening.
Very much liked Pippa Norris on Sky, and good to see her on an election night show. Anthony King was as good as ever.
Good effort all round. I think I could've sat down happily with either the Beeb or Sky. In the end I went for both!
Sky appear to have got a leak on the reshuffle and are already reporting on it, whereas the Beeb are outside Downing Street and have no idea what's going on... bit baffling.
Yes, the ITV News Channel seem to be the only channel still presenting full Election coverage from their Election studio with music, graphics and titles.
And at the flick of a switch the ITV News Channel can return to the previous studio in the space of a three minute advert break (except the election desk!!)
You do have to wonder if, in a fit of boredom, a graphic designer animated a version of the swingometer which hopped off the ceiling, stopmed across the balcony, and started rampaging around TV Centre.
Question for the tech people..... " That shots not arced". This was from the gallery. Does that mean there are widescreen pictures somewhere along the line?
Just thinking about five later...
There are also possible pool feeds coming from the BBC - which may well be 16:9 and need ARCing to 4:3 if Sky are running 4:3.
(They are being VERY brave if they are doing it all in 16:9 for Five!)
Nope, I was watching that, and it was just that Lisa Aziz's camera that wasn't in the right ratio, she was in squashyvision, they then had a look down at the other lines that they were about to go to and noticed the same problems on a few of them. "Is anyone actually looking at these things as they come in?" someone said.
The gallery feed was fun, but I only got to watch it before the results started coming in. Funny to hear them telling the reporters what times to say their results will be in, a couple seemed to disagree but were told it's what the newswires are saying, so it's what's on the graphic.
Anyway, as for the coverage, I moved between all the channels and I found myself enjoying the BBC's the most with Paxman, Snow (the battleground - finally a clear way to show the 3 party swings) and that fantastic set - they should have done Breakfast from Paxman's corner and had Darren Jordan at Fiona Bruce's desk for the 1. However, I found myself coming back to Sky for the results, the graphics worked for me, they were supposed to let you know what was happening as soon as you switched to them, and they did. Also enjoyed thier experts as usual. ITV was missing too many things for me, and that Elvis thing was far too confusing but that Atrium background was very good, it was difficult to think that they were in that same old boring studio.
