NI election Campaign 2016

Just to let you know tonight BBC Northern Ireland are running a debate between 5 party leaders so I assume it will be the same personnel as the UTV debate so it will be Arlene Foster (DUP), Mike Nesbitt (UUP), Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein) Colum Eastwood (SDLP) and David Ford (Alliance) chaired by Noel Thompson from 8pm-9pm on BBC One NI followed by the Spin Room with Tara Mills from 9pm-9.40pm featuring analysis and debate from the smaller NI parties which according to the BBC website is TUV Leader Jim Allister, David McNarry from UKIP and Clare Bailey from the Green Party.

Edit: According to this tweet below by BBC Spotlight the Leaders Debate is also being shown Live by the BBC News Channel who also covered the Good Friday Agreement Generation Young Voters Debate a few weeks ago

NI Assembly Election 2016 - The Leaders' Debate : Tuesday at 8pm, BBC One NI - https://t.co/ewbywm18Z7 #BBCNIdebate pic.twitter.com/ZfOd2NGoWN

— BBC Spotlight NI (@BBCSpotlightNI) April 30, 2016

Studio B looking very well for the election coverage. The main desk seems to have three different glass tops available now: small, medium and large width. The small top is used for Sunday Politics; medium width for Newsline and the large width is being used for the election programmes (as well as larger studio debates on Sunday Politics). The larger top also now seems to have (perhaps unsurprisingly) two support rods underneath.

The screens and lighting are providing great flexibility now, allowing them to produce multiple programme titles off the same fixed set (Northern Ireland Final Score is also broadcast from there).

The Election programme is also making good use of the VR set.

One minor technical incident last night at c. 11.30pm: Broadcasting House suffered a brief power glitch, which knocked out some of the studio lighting for about a minute or so. The incident was replayed at the start of this morning's BBC Two NI broadcast at 10.30am.

It looks as though BBC One NI are taking their own special bulletin at 6pm (delayed from 5:10pm), but it's live on the NC (and with the ticker).

Kate Silverton just said "more on the channel later" at the end of the 10 min bulletin, rather than the usual "and now the news in your part . . . "