Aha! Yes, I captured those very images at the time! I'd completely forgotten about that. I can't remember the reason for it now. I'd pinpoint that to some time in 2002 - BBC Four News only launched in early (March?) 2002 and N6 got its new studio in early 2003 as I recall. I'm assuming it was because of a problem in N8 but sadly it's too long ago to remember exactly.
The CSO of Darren is pretty good. I remember the bulletin Peter did wasn't quite so convincing on screen, as there was a bit of fringing on his head which caused most of his hair to disappear, and as you can see in the final shot on that clip, he seems to be sitting in the middle of the desk rather than behind it. But the way they managed to get all the different camera angles made it look pretty decent.
I tried uploading the following videos on YouTube but for some reason they ended up out of sync. Must be YouTube, as they work fine on my computer. So, I've put them on the Metropol Upload service. Unfortunately, they're Real Media files as that's what was popular back when I recorded them. Hope most of you can still play them:
Thanks for those, though I can't seem to play the first video. As you say, they're very convincing and the camera angles haven't been that restricted either. I suppose that this sort of system is cheap and quick to put into place? Perhaps they could use this sort of system in event of a breakdown. Obviously, an actual studio is better but this alternative isn't bad at all.
I tried uploading the following videos on YouTube but for some reason they ended up out of sync. Must be YouTube, as they work fine on my computer. So, I've put them on the Metropol Upload service. Unfortunately, they're Real Media files as that's what was popular back when I recorded them. Hope most of you can still play them:
Thanks for those clips, Rob, although as said above I couldn't get the first one to play either.
Have to love Peter Sissons in that last clip. You could always rely on him to make mistakes, bless! At least his genuine errors started to happen after they stopped simulcasting with World, LOL
Sorry about that first video not working properly. I downloaded it from the Metropol server and it doesn't play here either - yet the original video I uploaded does! Anyway, I've successfully located some software that can convert RM files to WMV and I've now been able to upload all three videos YouTube without synchronisation problems:
To be fair though, it does seem as if there were problems in the gallery; the in brief bed playing for the headline recap for example.
I agree that it seems the gallery was having problems there, although they were correct to play out the 'in brief' bed for the headlines. They started doing that at some point in 2003, as I recall. I think part of the problem for Peter in that video was a) being in a different studio and b) not knowing which outlet(s) he was going out on at any particular time. Only the first 25 minutes of each hour went out on both BBC News 24 and BBC World and, as such, were branded as "BBC News". After that, it reverted back to "BBC News 24" until the next TOTH. Must have been quite confusing!
Originally, the first one was used at the bottom of the hour and the second one (shorter) was only seen after weather forecasts. So, for example, coming up to the bottom of any given hour you'd have the weather, followed by the short sting, then a trailer or two, then the BOTH sting. A couple of years later they did away with a sting after the weather and used the shorter sting for the BOTH instead.
Note the man in the background at 3:17 - I think he was the only person seen in the background loop, and made an appearance every 10 minutes or so. Must have been quite a busy guy!
Thanks itsrobert. Excellent channel, with great new clips!
Also in these videos, where was the Sport done from? It was the red background with the screens. Are these screens the same ones as those in the pod of the N8 World News studio now?
Thanks itsrobert. Excellent channel, with great new clips!
Also in these videos, where was the Sport done from? It was the red background with the screens. Are these screens the same ones as those in the pod of the N8 World News studio now?
Between 1999 and 2003 the sport updates were presented from a tiny set in the middle of the sports newsroom, not far from N8 itself. It basically consisted of a desk with a background of plasma screens. Once the 2003 rebrand happened and N8 was redesigned, the sport moved into N8 from one of the 'pods'.
As for whether they are the same screens as in N8 now, I doubt it, but obviously can't be sure. We're talking about a gap of several years between the sport set being dismantled and BBC World moving into N8.