The Newsroom

Points West

(December 2008)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
NA
Nate
James Vertigan posted:
rmc posted:

There is a lot more to the West region than the south somerset and north dorset overlap - how about Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire?

It always amuses me how the West region is so glibly dismissed as small and insignificant when it covers twice as many counties as say BBC South East and a far more significant population than BBC Lincs & East Yorks and one of the country's major provincial cities.

Rob.


I wasn't dismissing it, I was just saying that it would be better if Points West could rebroadcast Spotlight than BBC South Today, because Spotlight covers patches of Dorset and Somerset as well so it would be a bit more relevant... I know if they had rebroadcast Spotlight you wouldn't get stuff about Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bristol, but it would still be a bit closer to home for the majority of viewers! I've seen many a news story being shared between Spotlight and Points West in the past due to the overlap.


BBC South though also covers most of Dorset (including northern parts) & a good chunk of Wiltshire, so is probably as relevant as Spotlight is for many viewers...
SD
SDigital
The programme was broadcast from the small reception area just outside the newsroom.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
I have it on very good authority it was the main studio but under the emergency power arrangement they can only light a very small part of it... badly.
DE
deejay
Steve in Pudsey posted:
I have it on very good authority it was the main studio but under the emergency power arrangement they can only light a very small part of it... badly.

This certainly used to be the case. The reserve power supply in main regional centres generally provides enough power to operate the bare minimum to get on air. Things like the presentation gallery, one camera, a mains soft light (which might explain why it was pretty flat looking!), the newsroom camera and one edit suite, would be considered what you might need. I think Bristol did a great job at shipping editing jobs out to the sat truck, districts etc and using the newsroom camera for sport and weather.

AFAIK, the reception area outside the newsroom was never provided with a wallbox to easily facilitate emergency broadcasting. The last time I was aware that PW had a major power failure affecting the 6.30pm programme, the whole thing came from the apparatus room at Whiteladies Road and was pretty shoddy. Clearly this time things were a bit more controlled and the power available obviously stretched to a running fairy lights on the Christmas Tree too!

Newer posts