ITV News

Ah, thanks for that. I understand what you mean. That was quite well done then, as I'd never noticed it to be CSO.

The newsroom backdrops also use a bit of trickery. They are not back projection or CSO, they are just printed images of a computer generated newsroom (there were some pictures of the original images someone did for ITN, can't remember the website, but I think they were taken down anyway).

In the overhead shot, notice how the image is different to the one behind the cameras, it has the right perspective as though looking into the newsroom from a high up angle. Those were added in a simular way to the balcony, superimposed over the real backdrop images on the set, it all makes it look a bit more realistic, without this, the backdrop would look very flat from the same overhead angle.

Again, many thanks for that. Having thought it was all real, that has come as quite a shock to me. All credit must go to the designers and the ITN team for managing the create and sustain it without any noticeable differences from programme to programme. For all this time, I didn't have a clue that most of it was fake!

You COULD tell the difference at the weekends when sometimes the walkway at the top of the screen was missing and you could see the actual studio rather than a superimposed image.
Also a few times I remember seeing the 'background' newsroom images as cut-out shapes (what ever that means!!!)

Tonight there was a bit of a cockup at the start of the 19:00 hour on the ITV News Channel.

Firstly we had this for a bit:-

http://members.lycos.co.uk/ohwhatanight/itvncstartup1900b.JPG

Then Owen appeared but everything seemed a bit flustered and rushed. For some reason there was a number 2 on the screen (bottom left)

http://members.lycos.co.uk/ohwhatanight/itvncstartup1900a.JPG

Then Owen introduced the first report but it failed and he huffed and puffed before he started to question a studio guest who was luckily there! Owen managed to resurrect a very poor start and got straight into the interview and acted as if nothing went wrong. Everything else seemed to work and plodded along nicely.

The ITVNC need to stop running those "familiar faces at fixed time trailers" because it's become a mockery.

What's the point of showing Joyce Ohaja as being on every night 7-8, when in what should be her slot, it's currently Owen Thomas.

Nicholas Owen doesn't always follow the Lunchtime News, Steve Scott and Felicity Barr don't seem to do 4-5.30 regularly anymore, Mark and Mary even less so at 3, Leyla Deybelge is all over the place, looks like Angie Rippon has gone away for a few weeks and Live with Alistair Stewart is 10-11.45, not 12 as billed.

There is little point running these when the schedule is all over the place.

Yes they are inaccurate and need to be replaced. The most annoying thing is when a few of those promotions are used to fill a 'gap' and essentially each of the promotions are IDENTICAL apart from the few seconds at the end featuring the presenter(s) and the time.

I find it annoying to see the 'same' promotion one after the other - as most people will think its an error and forget which presenters actually appeared on the previous promotion!

The News Channel really needs to rethink their whole framing issue. The shots are so wide it is ridiculous. It is impossible to have any kind of engagement with the presenter. They had Phil Gayle on his own last night. The shot was so wide, there was a full length reflection of him in the glass desk. Why do they want to show us the front of the desk or the whole bank of second rate graphics? That's not what newscasting is about

What do you mean by 'wide' ? And what relevance has this got to do with a reflection in a piece of glass? I dont understand!

I remember a couple of occassions at the beginning when the presenter was standing to present infront of the big screen when an arm disappeared behind the background.

Nice to see Owen presenting one of the main sequences on the News Channel with Felicity this afternoon.

(I realise he may have done it before but I haven't seen much of the News Channel for a couple of weeks)

I prefer the wider shots where you can see more of the desk - it gives the shots a better sense of depth.

I just wish they'd sort out the reflection shown on the top of the desk in the CSO second studio

Saw this on the ITV News website and thought some of you would find it interesting.


http://www.itv.com/news/1727610.html


New look for ITV News
11.38AM, Tue Jul 13 2004


ITV News has undergone a redesign with a revolutionary studio design that gives viewers a 'theatre of news'.

It reflects the strength of ITV following the merger of Granada and Carlton to make ITV plc - the UK's largest commercial broadcaster.

The ITV news group, which will encompass the broadcaster's international, national and regional operations, is one of the divisions created by the merger.

And it gives ITV News the chance to build further on our reputation for the best news service on TV.

Our flagship ITV1 news bulletin is the News at 10.30 - on the dot every weekday with Sir Trevor McDonald.

Mary Nightingale and Mark Austin also present the new bulletin on a regular basis.

And the news comes from a revolutionary studio design - the centrepiece being an oval, silver presenting desk with a big, curved "news wall" video screen behind it, modelled on Imax cinemas.

What it relies on is a backdrop 22 metres across and 3 metres tall made of a material on which we can play film and show our reporters live at the scene of breaking news.

It allows a reporter to call up four video sources at one time and tell a story by walking from one side of the semicircular studio fixture to the other.

The studio is equipped with five cameras: one fixed and the other four free to move, one of which is a jib (overhead unit).

The camera movement is tracked in three dimensions using the Radamec Freed system.

The VizRt software allows us 2 full bandwidth transmission channels plus 3 lower-quality preview channels, while two transmission channels allow us the ability to mix between cameras.

The complete image is 'glued together' using an 'Ultimatte 9' keyer, one per camera.

The whole operation - camera cutting, scene selection and animation - is controlled through a Thompson DD35 Xten vision mixer.

Four back-projectors provide low-level pictures to aid the presenter to interact more naturally with the virtual reality environment.

ITV News Editor-in-Chief David Mannion said: "The relaunch of our network news isn't about us simply freshening up the overall look of our programmes.

"We wanted to be original, distinctive and modern - the set that we wanted just didn't exist; it couldn't just be picked up off the shelf so we had to invent it.

"ITN's designers and technicians have created a world first in that it marries reality and virtual reality in a way that hasn't been done before.

"It will allow us to deliver the news to our audience in a completely different way and give us much more flexibility.

"We will be able to tell non-visual stories in a more interesting way and it will also help us to deconstruct complex issues which need clear explanation."

And the ITV News Channel will use the same design, with the emphasis on full coverage of the day's breaking news and top stories.

ITV is also to introduce a more uniform on-screen look for its national and regional news bulletins.