RTÉ News

No - that was just an 'introductory' image, showing when she was in her prime in the late 90s. If you look back at videos from that time she was so much better than today in how she delivered the news.
Nothing at all to do with appearance. What does have to do with aesthetics however is camera framing , which leaves a lot to be desired today.

From what it looks like it could have been on one effect bus of the mixer being keyed in blue so that only that area is keyed hence you see the image, and then that's mixed with a sized square wipe between the keyed source and the non keyed source and the result is the above picture.

Blinds are out of the question, as you can see the reflection of the original blue square ish source on the desk.

It could be used on backup as it's a bit fiddley to set up and the results might not be the best as seen, so could be put in as a backup.

I'm more amused at their titles, whizzing about etc yes nice background, but rotating numbers? Come on!

Whoa there Peter! I get the gist of what you're saying but could you laymanise it just a little please?

LOL. Basically the blue is keyed out so it fills through that wooden frame, and that is one source on the mixer.

The other is the clean non keyed shot.

So you've got two sources, one with the keyed graphics and the other clean. A square wipe is then used and held at about 50% of the way through and moved into position so to only show the source that's been keyed in the square with the remaining being the non keyed source. Hopefully that helps.

it's quite a complex one to do on a vision mixer which is probably why they don't do it that often. Why they don't just use a blind is beyond me, just make it chroma green so that the blue of the set doesn't get interfered with!

Right, I'm almost with you here

So the hole is keyed out like this:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/RTE1TV/ChromaBlue1.jpg

...and then the picture, which is larger than the keyed area for safety, is laid over it with a mix? So it's only blue areas that the picture is laid on to that 'respond' as it were - that's why the newsreader's arm is 'active' because it's blue and the picture is accidentally laid over it?

Assuming I've interpreted you correctly, a standard square shape is surely used to generate the keyed area. In which case how do you explain the 'excess' picture areas outside of the standard square shape that I drew above, which are clearly evident in this rather bizarre inverted image below?

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

How are these areas 'active' assuming a standard square/rectangle shape is used? The on-air output is not a perfect square or rectangle:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37/RTE1TV/Chroma3.jpg

Here we go in picture terms this time lol
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/origset.jpg
Here's the original camera shot - well I've faked it a bit.

So, we take the blue and key it out completely to give us the option of overlaying it as shown here...
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/keyed_set.jpg

To fill that window, we'll use the output from the graphics i.e. the still to be placed there as shown here, scaled to size...
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/orig_bg.jpg

The keyed camera output is then layered on top of this background as shown here...
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/versionlayered.jpg

Notice how it's going into the presenters jacket on here, maybe you can see how and why it's doing that now more clearly as i've shown. as the entire jacket is see "see thorugh" you see the edge of the picture frame behind in where the jacket is.

Now with the aid of a transition of a square (which can be put into any size of square / rectangle by changing length and height values you get the finished composition!

tada....

And it's what you see on screen but without the border obviously !
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/final.jpg

Hopefully that makes it a bit clearer and shows how part of the jacket had the picture in it and more importantly, the corner of it. Oh and how complex it might be to get on a switcher and how the whole thing could be made simpler if it was just bright green blind or something to put in there

Wow - thanks for all that Peter

Yes that's pretty much along the lines of what I thought, though not taking all blue out. So does what you're doing above essentially mean the picture is relying on the 'blueness' of the set at the back of the hole to work?!
Is that not a bit dodgy considering how varied the shading is in the pattern of the set?

I know that you cannot get RTE/TV3 in mainland UK via Sky box, is there any other way?

I'm afraid the only way you'll decrypt RTE is to get your hands on an Irish SKY card. As far as I'm aware, its not possible otherwise. Its also highly unlikely that RTE One or Two will ever be free-to-air due to rights issues. Besides, they're locked into a deal with SKY until 2008. However there has been talk of setting up a separate 'international' RTE TV service (aimed primarily at the UK). Unless that goes ahead, it'll be next to impossible to view RTE in mainland UK.


On a different point (which isn't related to RTE News but doesn't deserve a thread of its own), has anybody seen TG4's new weather graphics (when I say new I mean about a month old)? I saw an international weather forecast tonight and I was astounded by their new graphics . They're fantastic! Just like the BBC's new ones - zooming all over the globe with nice animations - they do look very expensive indeed! With these and TV3's new ones, RTE's look so boring and static! They're definately worth a look.

Is this due to the fact that they show the same programmes from BBC Television and among others?

They could launch RTE Digital, broadcasting the best Irish original programmes from RTE Television, along with live RTE News.

Haven't RTE already done thing with TARA which folded a few years ago?

Yup, though I don't believe RTÉ owned 100% of it, I think there was another player in TARA, plus didn't this have some TV3 output or am I going mad? The channel flolded due to heavy losses, it's launch was only seen by a minority of Cable viewers, the channel went to Sky Digital but didn't suceed there either, so it was closed.

I have heard the same rumours about RTÉ wishing to launch an Irish TV service for the UK or even Europe.

Frankly I don't know why some people are so desperate to watch RTÉ One and RTÉ Two in the UK, alot of it is the same output as of the BBC, ITV and imported shows. Though I would like to see a channel setup showcasing what RTÉ has to offer, as anything remotely Irish gets shown on British TV.