RTÉ News

I'd agree that it doesn't seem quite right - the use of the same set, graphics & largely the same format as conventional bulletins, but just tweaking it with 'hipper' presenters is kinda weird if nothing else.

Particularly the set-up of having the newreader clinging on behind the last inches of the desk at the far side of the studio: it is so clumsy and last-minute-arrangement in appearance. Having the presenter so squat and low down in the shot and the vast expanse of monitor dominating behind is equally strange and unthought through.

As for the general format, it was inevitable that News 2 would be merged with the mainstream RTÉ News - it appears it was just too much hassle to have a different look, and all that CG stuff, and having to use the same studio space for it as the main news etc.

Not that I don't think that merging the two bulletins is a bad thing - it just needs to be thought out better. If you think of the BBC's current format & set etc, you can imagine very easily how an alternative bulletin could be composed out of it, but using the same trademark features that tie all bulletins together.

As for the 2000 set , yes the headline 'banner' was only used for Nine - thank God...

DAS - you have convinced me to some extent about that look - I suppose, as Telefís says, that it just grated on me towards the end. Looking back on it, it does look excellent compared to what we have now. It's just that some aspects of it were badly carried out, in particular that ridiculous looking "newswall" thing on the Nine, and those godawful astons.

Also, stuff like this:
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/weekendninea.jpg
It just looks so amateurish, moreso on TV

Telefis - I agree with your earlier comment about the lack of a punchline, you seem to have changed your mind since. I actually really liked the start of the titles, and felt it was the end that was lacking in something. It seemed particularly weak compared to the theme that came before it (though admittedly that was a bit OTT)

As for News on Two, at least we're no longer subjected to seeing Anthony Murnane point at the screen, tellin us to stay put.

BTW, what's happened to Sharon Ní Bheoláin. She doesn't seem to be around as much as she used to be.

She was in Japan over the past week, covering President McAleese's visit there...absolutely appallingly...
She really ought to stick to Turas Teanga...

Yes I have changed my mind on the 2000 titles - it was the first part of it that formed my negative opinion, but on the 'punchline,' I think that while it has a definite close, it's not quite what you were expecting

Exactly what I was trying to say. Thank you.

lol - so true, or clapping his hands together, or his little jumps forward. or his sweeping of sheets of paper across the desk, or his silly one-liners - ah you gotta like him

Saying that, he is really excellent on the mainstream bulletins at weekends - very good. He has the perfect voice, is well paced and his whole disposition just commands attention.

2/5/2005

Justin Treacy - RTÉ's most recent sportsreading recruit made a rather funny Freudian slip last night while promoting Sunday Sport which would feature 'All the gay's latest GAA action' instead of all the day's action
You can see it at the very end of the bulletin here if you can be bothered: http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/9news.smil

I'm easily amused.

Is it true that RTÉ News will be going widescreen when they give it a revamp in the autumn?

Surely not a revamp after 2 years of the current look?

Also The TV Room have the Opening Titles etc for the current look now, a good set of titles it has without using a Globe or a Satellite Dish IMO.

Well RTÉ are beginning (finally) to move towards widescreen now and News and Current Affairs is I believe to switch later this year. This doesn't necesarily mean a new look for RTÉ News, it may simply mean a revision of the existing look. But RTÉ News (and RTÉ One) tend to change every three years or so, so maybe they will take the opportunity to revamp.

RTÉ are broadcasting in widescreen on Sky Digital now, though the only real difference in presentation is that the DOGs (including the News one) are presented in Squashyvision... take a look at the channels (if you can) and you'll see what I mean...

lol

This is being discussed a lot on another forum too, but I don't get how they are compressed - surely they are being over-stretched?

That's interesting about Current Affairs switching over in Sept - is it from a reliable source rdd?
This will mean at least some physical changes in the Newsroom as it simlpy won't be possible to get a decent all-cyclorama background in 16:9 without either the 'mahongany' yoke impinging substantially in shot, or the low wall that comes in as it is with 4:3

Also the picture windows will have to be altered. I most certainly hope RTÉ won't go down the BBC route of just ditching them for convenience.
They're one of the few things that RTÉ News is excellent at doing - their picture team knows what works and what doesn't and often comes up with some really good stuff.

I wonder if they'll change the whole scheme - as has been said it's only been two years. Also one must consider that some sort of rolling-news service will probably be announced over the next two years, however minimal, coming into force in maybe 3/4 years time, which if the case will call for nothing short of a total regime change in terms of how the newsroom operates whatever about its presentation.
I wonder if they'd build a new news facility in Montrose as they're quickly running out of space upstairs there...

Presumably all of this is being considered, in which case the last conventional presentation package may well be the last for little aul Studio 3.

A recent RTÉ press release posted on another forum said that RTÉ plans to have all its commissioned and in-house material in widescreen at the end of the year, so that would seem to confirm a switch. I don't know whether that press release is genuine cause RTÉ haven't posted it on their website, but RTÉ Public Affairs is desperately bad at posting things on their website (the recent summer schedule release didn't go up either) so that's no indicator.

What seems to be happening, as far as Squashyvision is concened, is that the DOGs are sent out in 16:9 ratio even when a 4:3 picture is being transmitted. The DOGs are fine for 16:9 programming, but look squashed on 4:3 programming. The "solution" would be to transmit 4:3 pictures pillorboxed on the digital service, as the BBC do for certain programming, but as far as I'm concerned that's the work of the devil...