RTÉ News

Any ideas when RTÉ is 'supposed' to be going digital? I presume we can expect the move not to take place in this decade anyway...

By the way, isn't TV3 supposed to be going widescreen this month or is that just rubbish? I presume that if they do, they'll have new news pres, idents, weather, bigger newsroom desk so that you won't be seeing 1 and a half presenters when its supposed to be a single shot...

Well they have already gone digital on Sky, cable and MMDS, but DTT could be a while...

Check out www.dcmnr.gov.ie for the latest on the slowest moving project in broadcasting history...

Anyway TV3... yes they are supposed to be going widescreen, and meanwhile they are going to be getting a refresh of sorts (but it will, apparently, not be a relaunch, whatever that is supposed to mean). Am not a big fan of the current identity by any means, so lets wait and see...

Rumours abounded around March as to a trial beginning in April/May/June but that appears to have been nothing. Either way, Dublin will be the first area to be covered via the trial.
I've been following this too over the years too (who hasn't) and it has been met with footdragging, uninterest and ignorance since day one.
It must be pointed out that RTÉ is most certainly not to blame for any of this - indeed they have been very pro-active. The messing and delays can all be laid at the feet of Government.

A still here of Anne in the control room delivering her 'Tonight at Nine' link, broadcast in letterbox 14:9 on terrestrial.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/RTE1TV/Anne-ControlRoomSmall.jpg

I wonder if this camera (presumably a quick tripod set-up) is hardwired directly to Presentation?
It seems to be & would make sense, as the gallery behind is always empty so it's not being outputted via the Newsroom anyway...

Anne herself is standing just inside the control room, with the camera and light probably in the lobby, all neatly drawn out in the diagram below

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/RTE1TV/RTNewsPlan.jpg

The control room is located right next to Studio 3, the home of RTÉ News for many years. It is upstairs in the Television Centre, with the 'officey' newsroom running the entire length of the building, with a long corridor running parallel. On the other side of this corridor is the studio and gallery, with the corridor horizontal to this image at the bottom.

The desk closest to the monitors is as usual for director, P/A and vision mixer, while the rear desk is occupied by remote camara operator and maybe lighting. The sound desk is in there somewhere too

The circles in the studio are the five cameras, with the one closest to the door to the right being the only one that moves entirely, pedestal and all. This takes the wide shots, and occasionally moves at the end of News on Two, the very rare time for Nine, and at the beginning for all Six Ones.
All other cameras are fixed down, but the heads move for framing.
The furthest left I believe is the one that takes the 'and there we take a break' shot, as well as for shots of the presenter during interviews, or when they look at the wall monitor.


The more I think about 16:9, the more I think they may well invest in a 'new look' this September. If you note behind Anne in the pic above, all the monitors are still 4:3. Likewise all the cameras are.
It's going to be exceedingly difficult to upgrade both the gallery and studio without disrupting news services.

What usually happens when the look is changed is that a crappy temporary studio is built and used for a week while the old set is removed and the studio 'serviced' as it were. However this has become unacceptable in these modern times (remember in the past nothing but a blue-painted MDF desk was used in another studio downstairs, with a plain blue backdrop!).
In the last change in 2003, they very successfully managed the transition by (somehow) overnight, probably a Sunday night, hauled just the rear pink wall from the studio, along with the desk to one of the main studios downstairs, and used that for the next week without any viewer noticing that the rest of the set wasn't even there!
Well, except me of course . It was obvious because the cameras were being operated manually, so the wide zoom at the end was a bit dodgy. Also there was a nasty flicker between the switch from Presentation to the downstairs studio which really split the beans


But to bring in 16:9 is going to require a big overhaul - is it worth disrupting services, only to come back with the same look after all the effort? Maybe they'll build a new set and retain the graphics an tiltles etc.
Either way, the last couple of weeks of summer/Sept are those to look out for for indictions of change...

i actually remebered the tranition too. Before in the old RTE News studio, they had screens playing the globe animation looping all the time, but during the change, it was obvious that it was fake, nothing was moving, plus the background was brighter.

you have to give it to RTE that at that time they made the change quite quick and unnoticeably

Interesting information about Studio 3. May I ask how many TV studios are in Montrose, how big are they, and which programmes tend to come from each studio. It's slightly OT so if you want to PM me that'd be great.

Presumably you could achieve the same thing by cutting the camera up on mixer out, fading up the presenters mic, and cutting gallery sound monitoring? The gallery crew could then clear shot.

As long as the presenter could get network talkback in her ear she'd be able to hear her cue (assuming it is live and not recorded)

Good point, maybe they do it this way. I always look at the monitors closely behind to see if he/she is ever on one, but they never are. Maybe the camera just isn't outputted to the bank.

Here's the Newsroom gallery featured in one of the RTÉ idents:

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/images-2005/id-25d.jpg

- this was used a heck of a lot before the Nine when first launched but hasn't been seen in a while.

You're good Sky News Ireland - yes the monitors behind the gauze background weren't brought to the other studio, and the lighting was brighter! Still they managed it so well, was very impressed!
It should be easy to do the same with the current set should they change in Sept.

NorthDown 2, RTÉ is by and large very well equipped with studio facilities. The Television Building is divided up into roughly three sections on the ground floor, with a vast warehouse of sets and storage to the rear. followed by a line of studios, followed by admin and reception etc to the front

Back in the Newsroom, it's quite surprising how basic the layout is really in that (assuming you have a security swipecard) you can walk in the door of reception, up the stairs to the Newsroom corridor and straight into the news studio! No major security checks, protective corridors or semi-sealed area for the newsroom, pretty basic really! Stems from the 1960 layout which hasn't changed much.

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It'd be great if people could post other mock graphics in the Mocks section too - RTÉ doesn't get a look in over there!

Apart from the fact that the set and desk lighting is switched off, there are no seats in shot and that the panels along the floor have been removed from the front of the desk and the TV screen, I don't see anything particularly odd.

And something blue, of course, to match the RTÉ colours. How about a deep blue carpet with a green circle in the middle and on the circle you have a raised circular platform with the desk on top, rather like the current BBC national news studio. Just a thought but really, I don't have much taste when it comes to carpet...