RTÉ News

Nice idea there diarmy ... very refreshing and you're right - there's no need for the word 'news' in the DOG - RTÉ on its own would do just fine. But I don't follow you about the clock ... surely its not necessary for a half-hour bulletin? Or perhaps your mock is for a news channel , is it?

Anyway I'm not getting involved in this "age" discussion so I'll ignore that, channel2tv! I was looking at Google Earth recently and saw RTÉ's studios on it. I wonder could Telefis (or somebody else - you're welcome to do it) identify the buildings I have boxed off in yellow? If I'm not mistaken, the biggest box is Studio 4 but apart from that I'm not too sure whats what.

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/ge001.jpg

Although I can't ID any of the ringed buildings, a few other sights from the whistle stop flyover tour of Parc de Montrose:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~noelfirl/rtemontrose.jpg

Google Earth - good thinking Phen!

Nice mock there diarmy - agreed about the clock, it's only needed for rolling news. Though it would be nice for major news events wouldn't it?

Have to admit I'm not a fan of the RTÉ logo colours being used - they've got a bit frumpy at this stage, and is the main reason RTÉ have gradually ditched them of late in favour of classic white. The green in particular is a rather flat and lifeless 1990s shade - I also don't think they'd go in for large blocks of hard white anymore - hopefully they've learned from the current crass astons! But it's a nice and clean simple look you have alright.

channel2tv I don't get it - of course she has aged, and yes she mightn’t be the most dazzling bulb in the chandelier, but so what?!


As for the campus Phen – here ya go

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/rte_campus_copy1.jpg


Also that video you ordered sir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23pPiGea7mg

Saw some of RTÉ's coverage of the commemeration of the Battle of the Somme at the weekend - amazing the astons created for that one-off occasion were a lot better than the ones they use regularly on RTÉ News. They did bare a passing resemble to the BBC News 1/6/10's new look though.

ah the mock was only an idea... i'm sure RedBee will blow our socks off with the colours, set, astons, graphics, DOGs and of course, theme tunes. As to whether or not RTE directors and other civil servants will have the incentive to carry it off 3 times a day every day remains to be seen.

Good job on the video Teilifis, considering it's from VHS you've managed to ace it first time!

It's a shame there aren't more background programmes on RTE. The Beeb have a good few that i've seen, i.e. how News 24 is made, the set for WWTBAM on ITV etc. It'd be nice to see the daggers behind the cloak!

Thanks for the info guys. Very interesting. And Telefis, I wasn't "ordering" you to post that video - I merely asked would you post it because I thought it might be interesting - and it was - so thanks!

That report must be from around 2001 is it? It raised interesting issues that thankfully have been reversed in recent years but I remember you said it wasn't the Eurovision Song Contests that sent them into the red so then what was it? Bad management and general slowness on RTÉ's part?

EDIT: I wonder why RTÉ don't do tours like the BBC? Surely there'd be enough people interested to justify them doing it? Cough cough...

And diarmy - just wondering are you sure that RedBee will be doing the news revamp as well as the general RTÉ One revamp?

I've a feeling they're not involved, but would be open to correction...

No it wasn't Eurovisions at all Phen that caused the disaster in the late 1990s: an urban myth - rather it was a dire financial arrangement whereby the licence fee hadn't increased in real terms for the best part of a decade, in the face of soaring production costs, and where commercial income was increasingly making up the balance, so as to make the station 65%-35% dependent on advertising. What really hit home however was the minor blip in the economy in 2001 which rocked the advertising market that RTÉ was then so dependent on, meaning the station was now losing out on both licence fee and advertising.

It's bizarre alright to see that report isn't it, it is from around 2001. Very different times...
The comments re the Late Late are particularly stark in light of its most successful season ever last year - with nearly 3/4 of a million tuning in about three times over the season - astronomical figures for any television programme in Ireland.

Annoyed I missed the Somme Commemorations on Sat morning – had a feeling the production values would be better than usual!


An absolutely disasterous Nine tonight – the satellite link went down again!!! What the heck is going on with these people??!!
And an APPALLING performance by Doyle – probably the worst ever, if that’s possible! She doesn’t seem to care that she’s acting like Robocop gone crazy – this clip is unreal!!! And it’s so bizarre as she starts off apologising in a convivial manner, and then descends into stern schoolmistress as if flicked by a switch – why is she always so inconsistent like this? Sometimes she’s fantastic at handling things, and other times she’s appalling – here she manages to be both!!

Scroll to 23.07. To be honest I’m surprised they even uploaded it. The clip is a bit unstable, so you might need to let it play from the start for a few secs, and then drag the yoke across:

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/2154559.smil


Note the vision mixer (again) couldn’t cut to the sat feed so was forced to stay with Anne. Also the director starts speaking to Anne just as she’s about to turn to Tony – note the falling expression
Why oh why was she so appalling with the paper script though?! – she reads radio scripts every day of the week for goodness sake! And she couldn’t even deliver her closing greeting naturally! Dear oh dear oh dear……

Also, that is one p*ssed newscaster at the end

"So ... the main point of this evening's news ... "

I mean that really is shocking but I'm actually getting immune to all this messing so it no longer surprises me. Its just funny now at this stage. She must have been steaming after that episode! They're probably not too bothered about straightening things out at this stage because we're so close now to the relaunch. I hope the boss up there sits everybody down and gives them a good telling-off before they go on air with the new look!

Well, I'm not going to be too optimistic about September. I'm keeping my expectations low.

I remember someone posted a something about RTE News's use of "pole mics" here before and how bad they are. I stumbled onto a TV3 News report and they do the same thing. I guess it is the norm on all the channels.

The video, btw, is here, and it talks about Sinn Fein disrupting an auction of Easter Uprising artifacts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knNEGHvwSYs

I gotta say, I love the new graphics and set, and with all the talks here lately about the space of some news sets (or the lack of it), I'd say the set on TV3 is quite spacious!

I'm not 100% positive if RedBee are re-vamping the news, but common sense would dictate they are. Even if they were hired to just do new idents for the station and work on theme tunes, they'd surely be in close proximity to the odd news broadcast and would have to (as ethical businesses) offer their services for that too.

RTÉ have done their own in-house stuff in the past, and up until that rotten pink and purple phase with a theme tune that started off brilliant and just faded out into oblivion, they had a good thing going. Today though (and I saw that Nine too last night as I was writing my post) RTÉ news is falling apart at the seams. Traditionally RTÉ keeps their sets and news graphics fresh every 2-3 years, which is in line with September also. I can't really see RedBee just doing idents and tunes for RTE One on it's own. The news is where the money is for them. Besides, they'd contrast too much - RTÉ designed news versus RedBee idents. Look at the stuff on RedBee's website RED BEE MEDIA and you'll see they usually do fantastic stuff for idents... an RTÉ redesign of the fledgling news service would be disastrous side-by-side

I found this intriguing pic on RedBee's site:
http://www.redbeemedia.com/images/playout/services/playout_services_01.jpg

Contrast it with this:
http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/gallery_1.jpg

See how the RedBee media graphic (probably from the BBC's gallery) has giant plasma screens with miniature 16:9 screens on it? The flat-screen monitors, the professionalism about the place... no wonder RTÉ news falls flat on it's face every night... i'd be fairly pi**ed off too if I worked in that pokey little box!