General Presentation/Logistics Questions

Ironically, given that we've been talking here all day about the A4 numbers stuck to the front of the cameras, which the viewer ain't supposed to see................BBC World have been using inventive shots for the last few hours on both The Hub and World Have Your Say, in which very wide studio shots have been used and which have all clearly shown us the makeshift camera numbers pasted on the front.

Funny, that.

I've seen one somewhere, but can't remember where. However this newspaper cutting (which someone uploaded to the MHP files section) shows it fairly well. Apparently the panels behind the presenter were changed according to the bulletin

It was shown on an episode of How Do They Do That? at the time, IIRC the different backgrounds were on a roller system mounted vertically.

I'm sure I heard something about how they went to the effort of shooting the Washington backdrops at 90 degrees, then whoever was mastering the DVD heard it was going to be used on a plasma at 90 degrees, so rotated it again with a DVE. This may, of course, be apocryphal.

As the person in the office who usually ends up ordering the stationery, can I ask where you're getting your paper from at that price?


I work with some people who regularly print out Dilbert cartoons and pin them to the wall. (It always surprises me to find that Dilbert's still going.)
I know of one control room which has a wall of shame - screengrabs of their colour bars on air. Or other people's colour bars on their channel. I think there may be bonus point for their colour bars on *other* channels...

On the BBC's virtual news studio:

Here is the BBC Six o'clock news from either N1 or N2 before the Virtual Reality look:


and in N2, here is the virtual reality set:


and here's how it looked on air:

(I think this was a publicity still - it looked slightly different to this on-air IIRC)

The VR look did actually transfer to N6 for a year or so when the News Centre first opened. They had room in N6 to have a larger set, thus reducing the amount of VR needed on the wide shot:

Thank you very much for posting these. I really liked that big, long desk. Somehow, authoritative.

In the first shot with Peter Sissons and Anna Ford, there appears to be a rolled-up curtain towards the right of the shot. I assume that could be stretched out along the curtain rail to give a different background situation? Did the Six and the Nine use the same studio/desk in those days, but just with different lighting and background?

Also quite interesting to see those fake VR hanging studio lights in the second-last shot.

Those curtains are known as cycs (short for cyclorama). I don't know for sure but I'm pretty sure they were used to achieve the different looks required for the various news programmes. The One had a white look, the Six blue and the Nine was CSO against the newsroom (or was it actually in the newsroom? Someone will know...)

The fake lights also did a lights-up and lights-down as part of the wide shots - timed presumably from a GPI out of the lighting desk...

Always wondered how the inset graphics to the side of the presenters in the virtual look was achieved. It doesn't look superimposed directly over the camera output, and yet those pictures above show the swirly blue backdrop which doesn't look like it would be suitable for keying.

On the topic of the virtual set, what would have happened if they'd continued with that look for another year or so past the move into widescreen. Presumably with the majority of what was seen on screen being virtual, they would have had either zoom and crop the picture, and have a loss of quality, or rerender the opening animation.

I have to ask..... anyone know what that small monitor on the floor was for?

I'm pretty sure that it only worked because the camera positions were fixed and the graphics produced so well that the join between the two was seemless.

'Virtual' isn't a great word for that set, especially after ITV's current and previous news sets which probably fit the description more... although of course no news set will be truly 'virtual'.

I remember someone, possibly on Points Of View around that time commenting on the BBC News minature railway layout... referring to the ventilation grill along the front of each of the desks!