ITV Local Sets

I have recently noticed on Central West's set that every few months they reset the lights which is a very neat blue, but after a week or so you notice it tints green and more green and goes off colour every time you see it. Do these sort of lights discolour after a certain amount of time and have to be reset? Because these problems don't seem to occur in other regions. Plus in Central West's set they don't seem to have those lines in the glass.

As regards to views, all regions seem nice compared to Central's, could'nt they go elswhere in the city and record shots like ITV west etc, its like a rusty back yard.

I'm against recording shots as ITV West or Westcountry have.
They are basically cheating the viewer so what happens on a snowy day or a rainy day?
What happens now it's Autumn and the trees are losing their leaves?
I agree the Central West shot is poor but that's the risk you take when you haven't got a landmark image like TTTV or London.

i know - the view that Central West has is horrible - it looks too busy and fuzzy. A nicer shot maybe with a bit of sky would be better.

Think the set does have those 'lines' in the glass though?!?!

Hmmm, I've noticed this on the Central East set... these caps show that from the jib the lights are blue but from the other cameras they are turquoise...

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/cne1.jpg
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/cne2.jpg
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/cne3.jpg
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/cne4.jpg

John

Lighting in most television studios starts off white, and is coloured using sheets of polyester or polycarbonate filter (sometimes called lighting "gel"). Filters wear out over time as they soak up the heat (infra-red) from the lighting fixture.

The colours will drift as some pigments fade faster than others. They should be changed regularly to make sure that the audience don't notice the difference (although to be fair, not many will).

A more modern type of lighting fixture is based on LED lights in clusters of tiny red/green/blue lamps. The colour they display is dependant on the settings of each of the primary colours. If this information is not stored, then it is possible another crew member would 'guess' at the correct colour.

LED lighting is used in (Christa's) Look North set to create that pink wall behind. It can then be altered easily to create a different colour for other programmes.

In conclusion, there are a number of reasons why the colour may appear to change and reset over time.

Thanks for that. It is just weird that all the other sets looks the same colour all the time and is just Central West's that discolours very quickly. I know that Central East appears differently on different shots, but you can tell the most on West's set. Also in ref. to those lines in the glass, is it maybe West does not have a light shining directley on them, resulting in not seeing them.

I agree with that, but Central West view at night is recorded and has been the same one since late last year, because the camera is in a different postion to the usual one, and seems to have a blue tint on it, especially at the programme today it was light at 6.00, but had the recorder video resulting in a view that is very dark.

Plus at the end of the short bulletins, you get a full screen of the camera view, and the picture quality is very poor, so it must be the camera on the roof that is the problem. Central's screen also appears smaller than other regions, as the seats strectch almost to the end of the screen, whereas other sets you can see the bars behind that hold up the screen.

There is also the issue that increasingly cameras are not being correctly operated - and if that happens the colour balance of the image you see can drift. If the person is also lighting, and doesn't know what they are doing, you can have real problems. If they are also having to colour balance in-vision screens - you can end up with a disaster.

The problem with some ITV operations is that the are de-skilled, compared to the days when they made proper shows as well as local news...

I see what you mean, thats obviously the case at Central then, dodgy camera angles, lighting, presentation etc etc.

Following from http://currentbuns.cjb.net/ shows you Central West at launch time last year and earlier this year:

BEFORE:
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/cn1.jpg
NOW:
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/cn2.jpg