RTÉ News

Ye it was good! Shame they don't have a good closing line, at the moment its the same thing night in night out

Yes - it's getting very repetitive, even said on the same tone.

Sharon: "Well that's Wednesday's Six One - from all the team, have a good evening"
Bryan: (with a laughing smile) "Bye for now"

It's up to Sharon to change as Bryan's said what he says for years. It is she that must be a bit more inventive.

Just a thing that's annoyed me for ages ever since they were introduced a number or years ago now - why do RTÉ News still insist on using those ridiculous poley desk mics in light of (a) the development of discreet lapel mics over a decade ago, and (b) the fact that there are many better desk-mounted alternatives - notably these tiny mics used by RTÉ way back in 1995 - 10 YEARS ago!

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/rte-one-news/9-interv-94.jpg
www.thetvroom.com

Gay's Late Late also brought these in in around 1996.
Why do they insist on using this rubbish that crassly enters every shot with either a guest or sports reader?

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/rte-one-news/images-2005/six-one/sport-2.jpg
www.thetvroom.com

It's a joke! Who do they think they are - TV3 or someone?
Okay these mics are standard in broadcasting - even the BBC uses them for Crimewatch etc, but not on the flippin news! And even when they are used for studio production they're supposed to be discreet!

Indeed RTÉ's record on microphones in general had been dismal - especially on news.

RTÉ News only started using lapel mics for the first time about halfway through the 1997 scheme - so around 1998-9 or so.
In a way the station's usual ineptitude did them a favour I think as its newsreaders never had to 'dirty' themselves up by clipping on a messy black mic and loop of wire onto their clothes, esp women in light blazers etc where it always looks terrible. So in a way it was a sad day when RTÉ finally caved in to the trends set in the UK - albethey ten years old by then

And when they did change, what a mess they made of it. The mics chopped and changed like nothing on earth: one day they'd have a proper small discreet black mic, another a farcical 70s silver lump the size of tin of beans, another day a big black box of a yoke from 1988 found in the back of the wardrobe - "oh but it works fine - sure if we wanted modern ones to make ourselves look professional we'd have to spend some money"

Indeed the silver 70s mic was a regular guest on Questions and Answers up until last year! It was just a joke, especially when one considers that recent BBC skit studio programme (what's it called?) in which they went out of their way to find some 70s mics silver mics to use for the programme! They probably asked RTÉ for a loan!

But for them to be used on flagship News in the late 1990s was truly unbelievable. Indeed you'd have to wonder if they'd still be using them today only for that fact they finally fell apart a few months ago...

When lapels were introduced to News in c1998, they still used a back-up mic on the desk - which really defeated the purpose in a way - why not have them both on the desk as before?

But in 2000 when this snazzy glass-topped scheme came in (blatent BBC rip-off), they finally decided to eradicate mics from the surface...

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/rte-one-news/01-1-start.jpg

...and so the back-up mic joined the main lapel as we see today, resulting in a rather messy double lapel.

http://thetvroom.com/images-rte-one/rte-one-news/images-01/nine-h.jpg

It looks very unsightly on white clothes as Anne Doyle tends to wear a lot, and the fact that she often doesn't attach it properly doesn't help either. And heaven forbid an RTÉ News director would seek to point that out

The double lapel is all right as a compromise to clear the desk of mics - though saying that I don't know how the BBC get away with just one lapel, as there's no back-ups on their desk....

Even if RTÉ just replaced the ridiculous poley ones that they have at the moment with smaller ones it would be an improvement. It looks so bad when they have Charlie Bird or someone in studio and no less than two of the flippin things standing in front of him side by side!
(not to mention the attendant cables trailing across the desk).

Or just invest in some more lapels, they only cost a couple of hundred for goodness sake; I know of a media college who have just bought in a batch load of decent broadcast ones for a couple of grand! And the national broadcaster can't do it!!!

In fact RTÉ as an organisation only bought a new stock of mics about two years ago on foot of very public complaints by sound engineers who didn't even have enough mics to mic up the various acts for The Late Late Show! Presumably this is where the new batch of lapels for Q&A also came in...

15/10/2005

Anyone see Six One tonight? The most hilarious cock-up occurred with Sharon Ní Bheoláin being reduced to a state of choking over a frog in her throat - so bad that she had to get Bryan to take over
Only typically the gallery weren't quick enough with a 'clean' camera for Bryan so she was left sitting in shot and was forced to continue the story

And hurray! - it's kindly been put online for our entertainment - scroll to about 28.35 to observe the choking fit unfold:

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/2082758.smil

Sharon's golden girl status has been abruptly shattered - Una O'Hagan would never embarrass RTÉ News like that.....

But I think this event with Sharon is reflective of the broader problem I think she has - her voice is fundamentally unstable for a newsreader. It can change quite substantially from bulletin to bulletin, and even within programmes. It doesn't have a steady tone or level, nor does her delivery.

Also a lot of her presenting style seems to be dictated by her voice limitations; she's often overly earnest and shouty as if to make up for a lack of confidence in her voice. Most newsreaders hold a lot of faith in their voice - both in how it sounds on a basic level, and how it emerges in the way they intended from their head.
Ní Bheoláin does not have this confidence and it shows. While she will undoubtedly improve over time, I don't think she's yet ready for Six One.
Her positioning alongside Bryan also comes across as rather tokenistic, like a fluffy piece of eye candy alongside the 'real' presenter that is Dobson.
The Dobson-O'Hagan combination was much more balanced, similar to Thompson-Traynor for BBC Newsline.

Saying that, Ní Bheoláin can across as very professional when presenting from the Ploughing Championship so she certainly has her good points.
Still, I think the loss of O'Hagan from Six One is highly regrettable.
It seems that similar to Anne Doyle in the 1990s, she is being groomed on Six One to eventually take over the Nine once Doyle chooses to leave. She'll be waiting a while.

Have I missed something? What bulletin does Una present now? I like Sharon Ní Bheolaín, but I liked Una on the Six One better.

Sharon always sounds as if she has something in her throat though.

Yes she does - so much so I don't think she would have gotton as far as she has were it not for her looks. That's not intended as derogatory, rather ever since she started on Network Two she instantly became known for her appearance and little else.
Likewise I've been at events where she's attended and the reaction amongst everyone was "it's Sharon the 'looker'" as it were, rather than Sharon the newsreader
Even Dustin's reaction to her on the Den, or DJs on the radio, or print media etc etc - it all focuses on her appearance; she has become famous because of this.
And it is this fame coupled with her fluency in Irish that has got her on Six One, in spite of her seemingly not being a professional newsreader. Her voice just is not good enough at times. Perhaps it would improve with training...
She's quite excellent on that Turas Teanga programme so certainly she's more than competent as a television presenter.



TELEVISION it seems Una has been permanently ditched from Six One - she's now doing late night bulletins on television and radio.
Having presented Six One for at least eight years, it is most suprising that there hasn't been a whimper in the media about this.
Don't know if she wanted to leave herself, or was forced out...

I miss her too, as do a lot of people it seems

Have to say, while I'm back in Norn Irn for a short while and now able to watch RTÉ, I've been keeping an eye on their news bulletins and there's not as bad as I thought they could be - they are as good as I suppose RTÉ can produce them.

Aonghus MacGreanna (sp?) - He is awful, while it's good to see that Anthony Murnane has progressed to the role of Editor for the News on Two programme, it's a shame it rules him out of presenting. For some reason he reminds me of Peter Levy on Look North Hull...

Tuesday night's Six One - did Sharon Ní Bheolain come off the set from a Dracula movie?

The mahogany desk - it needs a good damp dusting I reckon, at the end of most bulletins you can see buff marks, or perhaps it's damage caused by the studio lights...

I've also noticed that recently she's been wearing clothes that look like they've come out of the 16th century! I wonder if she really has been made permanent or is she just filling in for Una for a few months?

Whose currently presenting RTE News On Two?

Its varying at the moment between Aonghus McG, Anthony Murnane, Mary Calpin and I saw Vivienne Traynor doing it the other evening.

...and all with the exception of Murnane being quite appalling. Either inexperienced, rigid with terror or just downright woeful as with Mac Grianna, their just not natural televison people. They make for dead televison.

Murnane has been editing News on Two for quite a while. What used to happen was the producing and presenting would alternate between him and Ní Bheoláin every week, but since Sharon left for Six One all these pole-up-their-arse reporters have been coming in to present as Murnane seems to be the only one experienced enough to be editor - all to the detriment of the on-air presentation.

Considering most of RTÉ's reporters are appalling at presentation in their conventional jobs, it is nothing short of ludicrous that they're now being drafted in for newsreading, both News on Two and the One bulletin. Their myriad faults magnify ten times over in the controlled distraction-less environment of a news studio.


lol re Sharon's clothes. Yes she's worn that black yoke a few times now - a cross between Catwoman, a Dynasty cast-member and an Elizabethian lady-in-waiting
She also has numerous rather dubious Victorian costumes, and an Edwardian ensemble which admittedly looked very well at the Ploughing Championships as I recall
Certainly stood out from the crowd...

Yes the desk needs a good wipe down every day - only yesterday in the wide at the end of the Nine it had bits of white fluff or paper about the surface clearly apparent.
Also for the past week since the Week in Politics on Sunday, the set hasn't been proporly reassembled resulting in a thick deep blue line running along the length of the top of the back-lit background
Have a look on the wide two-shot on Six One.....