Election Night 2010

I think it was related to the BBC One special just after Brown resigned - because it was unexpected they happened to have two Labour and a Liberal figure in the studio at the time, meaning Robinson was continuously providing the Tory view as 'devil's advocate' for balance - this seems to have upset some on Twitter.

Everyone looks very orange in that temporary studio at Westminster tonight.

The autocue and the camera red lights are reflecting off the studio windows well too

Mhmm, I really like that mini studio, and I'd love for it to be kept. But it looks terrible in the evenings.

Very difficult to do windowed studios at night.

You need to balance inside light with outside light - and the only way to do this is to light the outside and/or reduce the light levels inside. If you run incandescent lights in a studio at lower and lower light levels using dimmers they go redder and redder - though I don't know what lights are being used in that studio. If you run at normal light levels the windows turn into mirrors...

It's obviously a tiny space - so red-light reflections are going to be an issue as the cameras are very close to the glass, and because it is curved the chances are you will see a reflection somehow. It is usually possible to switch the external red lights off on cameras (or cover them with gaffer tape) without losing the viewfinder internal red lights (so camera operators know when they are on-air), though if a presenter has more than one camera to read to, then this is less than ideal (as the red lights are useful for presenters in these situations)

Panorama was scheduled there at one time.

You have to run a studio like that with HMIs. Running tungsten lighting with full blue gels will simply not give you the output required. And tungsten lighting without some colour temperature correction would look dreadful. I notice that many of the broadcasters have been pointing HMIs at the Palace of Westminster too.

I don't know the total number - but the BBC had 38 satellite trucks out on Thursday night, plus the four main Scottish counts had BT fibre links, plus a few terrestrial hops in the regions. And their helicopter, and pooled feeds from ITN and Sky's helicopters. And wallboxes in Downing Street and College Green.
As well as pretty much all of the BBC's trucks, and some flyaways (even Wood Norton's dish), there were a few rented trucks from France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and possibly a few more.

There were five or six regional hubs, each keeping an eye on their local counts, and switching anything interesting to a 'super-hub' in TVC, which offered pictures to each of the studios. Remember there were effectively six BBC studios producing election coverage, plus radio, and each producer having different priorities.


That's right. I did spot London opting a few times through the evening, though I don't remember seeing any glitches. Either the round trip from TVC to BH was too brief to notice, or they were in circuit all night.
(London's opt switch is still in TVC, incidentally)

Well David Cameron says the Government will be in place for 4 years so we won't see the Election set again.

He's a Tory - he lies.

The way the Lib Dems are stamping their feet about Labour not agreeing to give up their principles in order to form a minority government with them I wouldn't say the Con-Lib deal is a certainty, and even if it is now, a lot can change within, well hours - never mind days. It's certainly not going to be a smooth coalition and the Lib Dems could walk away at anytime - or god forbid Cameron might get a surge in the polls and decide to call an election himself to get rid of them (which hopefully backfires and gets rid of both!).

Will the election ever come from TC1 at all. When News moves to Broadcasting house in 2 years time, it will be one hell of a job for them to be working in the newsroom in central london, but have the main activity coming from television centre. It would also be a rather exspensive exercise, relocating all of the technical staff over to Television Centre.

I find it slightly ironic, public-service broadcaster Channel 4 is showing Heston's 80s Feast.

(no? just me then!)