RTÉ News

Indeed, TV Room, we're all very tired of complaining about it! I'm not too bothered about them staying in Studio 3. It looked great (at least I thought it did) in the 2000-2003 look and hopefully they'll return it to its former glory! Up until recently, I thought the current RTÉ One look was not in need of replacement but I've changed my mind. That wishy-washy pale blue is getting exhausted. And don't get me started about the Late Late...only ONCE have I seen the titles in the correct aspect ratio since they went widescreen (ie: eurosong 2006).

RTÉ Two presentation is great apart from the logo in the promos (all you get when watching in 4:3 is É TWO). I wonder will they give the weather a make-over in September? I think they should...the BBC's (of course), TV3's and even TG4's weather graphics are far better at the moment. And whats this we heard a few months ago about a possible new corporate logo? Was there ever any truth in those rumours? I hope not!

If anyone here is a fan or Eurovision, you'll probably be aware that Brian Kennedy's song is being tipped to do well...some even saying that if he were to qualify for the final and get one of the last running slots in it, he could do the business...but I think thats a long shot...it'll be an achievement to qualify alone nevermind win it! Nevertheless, it got me thinking about what RTÉ would do if a miracle were to happen. Would they seek outside help? From the BBC maybe? If I'm not mistaken, ERT is doing it all themselves so surely RTÉ would manage it themselves given that they've done it so often, even if it was 10 years ago since our string of victories. Come to think of it...eurovision is the only thing that RTÉ actually did well. And where would they hold it? The Point would probably be the obvious choice but these days, it would seem to be a bit too small. Anyway...nothing has happened yet but its interesting to hypothesize about these things!

Article in the Hearld tonight about the forthcoming relaunch - p13 "Anne and Bryan ready for RTÉ News set makeover".

Not much in it that we don't know already, apart from the fact that the new Grainne Seoige show is going to an indie, rather than being produced in-house.

Apparently it was noticed that the new look was old fashioned not long after it was launched...

Any chance of posting up the Herald article please?

I presume you're talking about the current look? In all fairness...i never thought RTÉ would really have believed that the 2003 set was a step in the right direction! it was a quick job and they know it!

With every respect to the set designer, the current studio scheme should never have survived this long. I have to admit that I half expected a gradual reworking of the set after a few months - I really did think it was *that* bad.

This relaunch really has to be something special. Having endured three years of *that*, I think we're owed something really good!

It's strange, because that designer has churned out some decent stuff for other programmes - notably the very swish Crimeline set about three years ago as far as I know, long since forgotton. Very elegant with downlighters, quality desks, red carpets and an impressive lighting scheme - all rather Lambe Nairn.
The major problem with the current set is that it simply looks as it is - sheets of plywood clad in cream wallpaper squeezed into a small space.

Television sets should rarely look 'as they are' - the boundaries ought to be blurred, distances maintained from presenters, lighting suitably muted. The only way you can get away with such 'reality' is simply to have the space, as per BBC 1999, not to mention quality design. The current RTÉ look is lacking in both, and so the shoddiness of it all is truly apparent especially when there's guests in studio. They give you something to compare the space with and make you realise just how cramped, tatty and God-awful the whole thing really is.
There is potential to do a lot with Studio 3 provided the investment is made. The space is afterall roughly the same size as BBC N6 was with the old projectors in there.

As for Eurovision, RTÉ are more than capable of handling it by themselves. In spite of being a small broadcaster, by eastern European standards they are highly developed and experienced operating in the competitive and sophisticated marketplace that they do. These small broadcasters rarely have exposure to such events (though increasingly are), whereas RTÉ can churn them out in their sleep (even if badly in cases we won't mention).

Lovely tracking and deflating by the robot camera on tonight's Nine for the opening wide shot - now why can't they do that every night?

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0516/9news.html

We haven't seen that level of movement not to mention so smooth, in yonks! It looks very impressive on a television set.
If you listen very carefully over Anne's first line you can just hear its rolling rumbling coming to a halt.

Note the silver part at the bottom of the desk has disappeared, making the desk look even more horredous. Things are gradually falling apart with that set..

Bryan Dobson had a somewhat embarrassing moment on tonight's Six-One. During a live interview, he believed that the interviewee - who was still responding to a previous question - could no longer hear him. Bryan proceeded to talk over the interviewee and I think he even referred by name to someone in the gallery re the sounds problems. It was the most bizarre situation.

If you check out the Six-One video download on the RTE site, go to 25:15 and watch for yourself.

That's very strange - the 'watch the entire show' option is not available today. Are they finally on to us?

Well, if you try here:

http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/6news.smil

...you should be able to access it until later today.

I think he's referring to Miriam who's one of the directors on the show, but she just stayed with it until he did finish, which probably was the best thing to do given the situation.

Even then, on most cases their should be a floor manager or someone there who's listening to gallery and presenter / reporter and not the contributers feed which generally won't have his voice incase that kind of thing happens when comms go down.

Unless of course RTE are so cheap to just stick up an aerial and use a of RTE ONE in the truck so they can hear presenters ask questions that way, feeding it to the guest, and turn it down when the guy is speaking so he doesn't hear himself and subsequently can't hear Brian tell him to shut up.

Extremely bizzare and embarassing, that one was!