London 2012: THE FINAL GOODBYE

Although the studios were a bit makeshift, I have to say I really appreciated something 'real' being the backdrop to the news studios rather than screens. It just seemed quite nice. Not saying it has to be a cityscape, and good weather helped a lot with that, but it added something worthwhile to the look of the broadcasts to me.

Even on the days when it was raining, the backdrop still looked superb and you could see each drop of rain on the glass, just like looking out of your living room window. It was probably so clear because of the camera proximity to window and how exposed the box was; the look of the back drop no doubt helped by a nice view. But I do wish they'd have attempted a glass fronted studio for when they move to their new location or even on BBC Breakfast (bearing in mind Salford Quays is stunning in the dark which instantly eliminates the problem ITV had).

The ITV Evening News was the last one to come from Westfield's car park, Mark said that he would be back in the studio for News at Ten.

Was Mark there every night or did other presenters do a stint, whenever I watched ITV News all the other presenters didn't seem to leave the studio.

I saw Steve on one of the weekend bulletins, but he was there throughout the week too so that would be a natural handover of sorts.

I notice he made a comment about the Paralympics in 16 days- there is no doubt it will be a relatively low key affair in comparison to the Olympics, but it will be interesting to see if ITV (and the BBC for that matter) send a senior anchor to cover it, giving it a fair amount of air time or if they just put a sports reporter there and air coverage in the second half of the bulletin.

I don't think it does. Stunning or not, people don't want dark and gloomy sets at Breakfast time. It worked for the Olympics because it's August.

From a presentation point of view I agree the makeshift sets were nice, but from an editorial decision, I think it was a very bad one. Too much news dedicated to the Olympics, particularly on national bulletins. Friends who really loved the Olympics agree with me too; at 21:50 the Olympics coverage would recap all the day's events and then come ten we had Fiona Bruce repeating the same story, with just five or so minutes of other news. News 24 had a relatively good balance I felt, considering they are a rolling news channel, but I think the 1,6 and 10 could have done with remaining in TVC and providing much needed rest bite from the coverage.

Specifically it was the fact that the studio background showed the rising sun(it sometimes happens in Salford). Even with polarising filters and smart glass is was outside of proper control.
DAybreak studio faced nort, so it wasn't a problem for them, although they did pay to have some buildings illuminated to break up the gloom.(that's the gloom associated with lumens and not the programme content.)

Is this an excuse though for an OB that was 7 years in the planning? It should have been spot on from day 1. Even on the last day there was a lengthy sound gap (minutes) on the news channel.

I disagree.

They will have had plans, drawings and possibly a chance to assemble the "studio", insofar as they could put walls together with the windows - but they couldn't rehearse all the elements until the space existed. There's always the potential for things that work on paper to fail when it comes to show time.

You can model acoustics and lighting in a computer but reality is always different.

What they managed to fix, mask and improve by day three was more telling than the issues they hadn't anticipated - and when we got to the point that an autocue reflection was the only distracting element then I say they did fantastically well.

I can't even envisage routing and switching issues from the site back to the news channel - but I certainly wont criticise them for it not being razor sharp all the time.

Gavin, you miss the point that access to Lund has been available for months so there is no excuse for getting things like lighting and sound wrong. For the biggest Ob in decades, you simply recce more than once it and nail it. Simple as that. Not try to rectify once on air. No excuses accepted, you get something this big and this important right first time. I have heard that one craft element had to take advice from an "expert" at base several days in to the Olympics on how to correct the problem.
I am no longer with BBC news although know many people upset that the craft quality was simply "not there".

I respect your "disagreement", although disagree with that ....if you get what I mean.

Basically put, we agree to disagree.....

Agreed, missing it already

You make a powerful argument for excellence in all crafts first time every time - but is that a realistic proposition these days? I don't work for the BBC but I've heard enough over the years that would suggest to me that a lot of the skills have been watered down through rationalisation and outsourcing, and general down-skilling (or is that multi-skilling to a lesser level in every category?). In any event, I've been on the receiving end of a BBC enquiry on how to fix a technical issue before - whilst its not ideal, its not the end of the world, and sometimes there's no one better than the manufacturer or supplier to call on. The BBC are more likely to buy/lease a product that exists in the marketplace than have one made to their specification. That didn't used to be true.

I suppose, aside from duplication of shifts, there's no real reason why they didn't rehearse for an extra couple of days - so I will concede on that point.

But you know, sometimes it takes Joe Public to call in with a complaint about sound or picture before they fix the problem anyway!

Erk..