What should the ITV News Channel do to improve?

Agree with that. Technically if they could use that studio and newsroom, they could do an old style Sky News and have the desk infront of the newsroom view and enter the newsroom to do other items/walks, etc.



I don't think that there is actually that much room after the newsroom.

I remember seeing the end of a news at 10:30 bulletin where the camera went too far round, so that you saw the end of the wall and the corner of the studio that must only be a couple of metres after the end of the wall.

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/itvnews_lunchtime090905.jpg
http://www.dolben.demon.co.uk/newschannel/050909_felicity_desk4.jpg

You'd be right. There's not exactly a lot of space in front of the desk for much else than the cameras.

Indeed. Not much room for anything, perhaps the screens after next to each end of the wall, as in Lee's mock!

Not much room then - though of course there could be an entire empty warehouse behind - or hopefully the newsroom, so you could just change it to a glass wall and have somekind of 360 degree studio!

Unlikely though!

Not much spare room then I think - you could possibly get away with turning the desk a bit and squeezing in a small podium area at the other end of the catwalk, but that be about it!

Just to add about the studio.

Someone mentioned earlier about the ITV NC using the main ITV News studio being an advantage as it's easily recognisable and a main selling point of the channel.

True. The problem is though the interuptions before the ITV1 bulletins as a result of switching studios (and therefore presenters) is the channels main weakness, however good the CSO is - and that's one of the main arguments for having a seperate News Channel studio.


What is required IMO is something that kind of covers both areas, so I'm thinking a similar arrangement to Big Brother, where BB has it's main studio space, but adjacent to it is space for BBLB, with BBLB able to use BB's space when required.

So I'd suggest that ITV1 and ITV NC would have effectively seperate studios, but they would be linked so the NC team could easily use the ITV1 space (i.e. the newswall), while the NC studio would feel as if it's part of the main studio.

Therefore most of the day the ITV NC would get free run of the whole studio, but in the hour or so before the ITV1 bulletins they are restricted to the news channel part of the studio. This should allow the period before ITV1 bulletins to run alot smoother without the need to change presenters.

Given that the Newswall is just a bit of green-screen and a bunch of PCs generating the virtual graphics, wouldn't it be easier just to share the technology that renders the wall, and build a second green screen elsewhere?

During the run-up to the election when the News Channel spent a lot of time coming from studio 1, we saw how effective the virtual recreation of the 'theatre of news' can be when it is used fully.

If they used the studios and technology they already have to their full potential, it would make all the difference. [However, I appreciate they don't currently have the people/cash to do so].

I'd be surprised if many ordinary viwers of the News Channel either noticed or cared that there is a studio switch before main ITV1 bulletins. Given the status and apparent regard the network has for the News Channel, it would be inconceivable that a second studio would be built for its exclusive use. When you actually count up the number of hours that the NC cannot use the main studio because of ITV1 programme rehearsals, it seems crazy not to allow them to use the studio the rest of the time. The bottom line is surely cost, cost, cost.

I thought they had. It's the second fully virtual studio.

The studio not - but I'm sure they'd notice the change of presenters - even though the ITV NC team often don't mention it!

True enough, but news channels have presenter changeovers all the time. I doubt if the average viewer could tell you presenter shift patterns or what time a specific ATV 'programme' starts and finishes. Surely news channels are for dipping in and out of, not continual viewing? From that point of view, I doubt those watching would even notice.

If the assumption is that ITV1 bulletins are simulcast on the NC (now there's a whole different debate!) then I would have thought the current system is perfectly workable.

It's not ITN's space anymore, since May this year it's been used by Big Game TV.