RTÉ News

Looking on The TV Room again, I'm kind of in two minds. While the look is mostly crap, there are nice elements.

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-17.jpg
This shot probably shows the set at its best. And there is blue, as I had hoped earlier.

Maybe McGrianna's crapness distracted me. The set has potential.

Agreed - but I hate the shimmering CSO.


Oh dear - this is rather longer than I thought

Right. It’s very easy to go off on a looper here, so lets try to introduce some balance

Titles
Feckin woeful – truly and utterly astoundingly bad. As described elsewhere: “Some CGI mechanical 'being' with lots of moving parts, what sort of relevance is that to anything, never mind news?!.”
Precisely. None. No relevance at all. They are embarrassingly RTÉ-early-90s in concept, with a tarted up modern-day execution. The colours are equally horrible, with bright orange and jarring blue in the mix; as incongruous as the orange in the 2003-2006 set. The forming of the endcap is particularly clumsy:

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-08.jpg

The music is very weak indeed, somewhat similar to 2000-2003 in terms of its directionless nature, but at least it had drama and gravitas – this has nothing.
All in all, the titles are a massive let down – dismally poor. The previous green titles were miles better, bya long shot.

Set
It does have its strong points. A school photograph backdrop is an excellent description , but I think it looks quite elegant all the same. The Celtic-influenced weird curvy lines are a bit jarring at first, but grow on you very quickly. The brown, and the airbrushed pattern has a muted elegance to it – well designed I think.

In terms of general impression however, the set looks dismally small, embarrassingly so for a national broadcaster. At least we haven’t seen a wide yet, so there may be room for improvement, but so far it’s not looking good – very regional newsish as mentioned.
But the desk is distinctly underwhelming in size too – it looks like a counter-top that the newscasters sit at on stools after bulletins to drink their lattes. There’s no sense of permanence or gravitas. You need a substantial, solid looking desk, not a contrived breakfast bar with dinky laptops perched on the edge. Indeed it’s more the finicky, flimsy little desk that really lets the scheme down in terms of scale, much more so than the size of Studio 3. Good God I’ve realised, BBC Newsline has by far the bigger news set! Cringe or what.

The white illuminated parts look crass, harsh and unforgiving, especially contrasted with the dark brown. In raking side shots, there’s way too much in shot, resulting in a harsh burning out on screen. Also the lower white skirting isn’t even straight with the standard mid-shot which is exceptionally off-putting:

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-01.jpg

Very jarring – the very first thing that hit me.


Lovely lighting of Aengus (though he was slightly over-exposed by camera op), but David Murphy was not as mentioned earlier. Similarly a poor side-profile shot of Murphy too, and what the heck was with the sound?!!! I don’t think I’ve ever heard such poor sound on a news bulletin in my life! Those desk mics – which they still haven’t got rid of - pick up absolutely everything, from echo, to studio buzz, to rustling clothes, to shifting papers. It also made things so feckin obvious that Aengus wasn’t listening to a word Murphy was saying with all that paper shuffling going on. Anne Doyle always does the same.


The picture window/insert is too narrow in 14:9 letterbox to be satisfactory. It looks fine in 16:9 however:

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-15.jpg

The DOG is a bit clunky and pointless where it is, though at least the top of the shot is nice and clear now. The 2002ish DOG should have been reintroduced - why mess with a winning formula?

Note the darker grading of colour in the setabove , which is precisely positioned so as to blend the insert into the set. The contrast with the bright left-hand side is equally clever.
The laptop however is an absolute farce, as all laptops are on formatted news bulletins. There’s simply no excuse for them to be intruding in shot, and it’s particularly embarrassing that RTÉ is using them considering they barely ever have to rely on ENG, and everyone knows damn well they’re just there for effect.
MacGrianna only has Solitaire up on it. I also hate laptops in how they suggest the newscaster is getting information that you're not. I know that sounds silly, but especially during breaking news it looks terrible to see them leaning down blinking at the monitor (that you're seeing the ignorant back of), churning out material to hte viewer. At least if you have desk-sunk monitors, it looks like the newscaster is reading of sheets of paper which have just been handed to them, which looks so much more natural. The back arse of a laptop is so ignorant, and disrespectful to the viewer I think.


At least the desk mics are counter-sunk this time round:

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-14.jpg

Their continued use would suggest RTÉ refuse to use lapel mics for in-studio news guests as this means you need a floor manager to put them for them – just a theory…


Graphics
Astons etc are a BIG improvement on the previous scheme, but they look untidy. They probably looked great on a high-grade PC monitor during composition, but in real life you can barely make out the fine detail surrounding the edges, and the grading in colour. Is the bottom bar brown – I can’t even make it out!

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-18.jpg

The fonts are lovely, so well done there, but again, when the aston appears on screen and sits on top of the DOG, it looks very clumsy with that blank black massing in the corner. This is going to have to be fine tuned I think – you just can’t make out detail, and what’s brown and what’s black. It’s all too dark.
It’s nice though – just needs adjusting/completely redoing
Also, don’t know about others, but that fine line to the right of the DOG is a bit irritating – it could look better without it. Apparently it’s not 4:3 safe on skyboxes by the way!

The shimmering CSO screen is a disaster – back to the good aul days of 1997 it seems. Give us a standards plazma any day over that cheapness. What a shame

The data graphics seem just bit too rich in their brownness perhaps, but overall very nice indeed. However the autocue graphics weren’t 14:9 safe – on the very first day!

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-28.jpg

You can’t see it in the above example, but there were two letter spaces cut off to the right.

Siún looking lovely
Indeed the principal newscaster lighting was absolutely flawless – I have never seen RT News with such surperb lighting. It has never been so beautiful, making it better than many BBC Nationals. Top marks on the lighting front!


Can’t wait for Six one, though remember we’re still seemingly on the half hour by the looks of things, so we may not get the 3-presenter format, nor any decent wide shots. It seems One was limited in that respect too – that shooting script may still change a bit next week. Note in the wide by the way the various paches of luminous brown/orange:

http://tvtitles.thetvroomplus.com/images-news/rte/2006-2/one-23.jpg

These are the carefully positioned presenter backdrop positions (as per One) for the principal mid-shots, so already we can see where they’ll be sitting


All in all a very mixed shame. The titles are an absolute travesty – my Irish inferiority complex makes me mortified to think we’re airing our dirty laundry on a UK pres website like this . Similarly the ‘new’ size of Studio 3 and dinky desk are equally embarrassing for a flagship national news service (not to mention MacGrianna of all people launching the service ) but there’s still many things to be proud about, from the backdrop (I think…), to the quality execution of the desk, to the stunning lighting, to the generally nice new graphics.

Roll on Six One and Nine!

Pictures from www.thetvroom.com

A very mixed scheme rather - Freudian slip

It seems sitting in corners is the in thing at the moment.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't a standing up area too, as that's also in vogue.

The white panels are way too bright and that chocolate orange background is hideous.

The shape of the desk won't make it easy to get guests in and out. The mics in the desk should only be for backup purposes in this day and age and could have been lowered and hidden.

I hate those halogen downlights on the front of the desk. Very UTV-esque.

I don't know how to describe the title sequence, perhaps if I knew what it was supposed to be I'd be able to make some sort of more defined comment. All I know is they are bizarre and I don't like them.

The graphics are fine (nothing terribly remarkable, but fine) though are a bit tight for 4:3 if you're particular over such things.

excellent article teilifís... you have a knack in hitting the nail on the head... if only it were the nails on the coffin of RTE we'd be in for a treat!!

I think that the reason the desk is so off centre is to allow for stand-up presentation. But that'll look terrible because the studio is too feckin small!

I like the curved desk (minus the massive 14" dell laptop... mad when they have 12" ones on offer too... for less than that bloody thing!) but I think the fundamental flaw in the desk is not its appearance, but its curvature. It's too semi-circular. If it were more elliptical in shape it'd be better, you'd still have the curve and have space to shove a few guests in... it'll be interesting to see TWIP with 2 or three guests at that table!! If it were softer in tone aswell to the front... someone mentioned veneer earlier, and that's what it looks like... like a massive sheet of 1980s chipboard that was veneered in lovely mahogany style (lovely at the time!!).

Did someone mention the colours changing?? maybe for the Evening news that hideously brown thing at the back will change to a soft green and navy??

I think I know how it would change colours. You know how when you take a school picture, when the light is turned off the background is grey? Then when you get the picture back it is a different colour cause they applied some flash thing. I bet you that's what they did.I think they would apply a filter to the background and it would change colour. I think the 6.1 would be a soft purple.

Edit:
I'm surprised nobody mentioned this, but Irelnad AM relaunched today. Any caps?

I'm keen on the top and bottom parts of the background, the white perspex bits, but the brown is just a smeared mess.

As to the titles, erm, what the hell are they about! I quite like the music, I think the titles let it down. Brown Orange and Blue is an interesting colour scheme and I quite like it, just the titles are a completely random obscure mess!

I'm sure they're supposed to mean something or be something, you can even make out the RTE news logo looking out on the second last shot. Just what is beyond me.

Is there actually any clever glass in this set, or was that just unfounded rumours?

The titles are different but pretentious - whilst they may suit a documentary series, they don't feel right for a news programme - white and brown tones don't carry the same authority in the titles.

I'm not keen on the RTE News and Current Affairs logo on the titles - it seems pointless to indicate that RTE News is made by N& CA at the start, you have two on-screen references to RTE News in the space of a few seconds, I reckon it's superfluous. The BBC don't stick a BBC logo at the start of their news logo so it surprises me that RTE have bothered with this duality.

The set backdrop reminds me of the 1991 BBC1 globe - perhaps the inspiration for the whole look? - and from the closing shot, the angle at which the desk is located from the backdrop isn't straight and gives the impression the desk was just dumped there rather than positioned in a more natural, linear positioning. Why do they also have mics on the desk as well as lapel mics?!? The frosted glass panel on the desk seems unnecessary, IMO desktops look better in a news studio when everything is on the same level. I agree with Telefis regarding the lighting though - shame they couldn't improve any other aspect of Mr McG's presentation style.

I like the graphics though - but the astons are another BBC rip off, and I don't like the positioning of the DOG and it's slightly too small. And is my eye deceiving me or are the end credits in a different font to the rest of the look (Futura Book instead of Helvetica Light)?

Will try to catch video footage later if I remember...

Where to start ! I won't take away form Telefis' excellent post by writing a big essay but I don't know what to make of it really. Its all very wishy-washy isn't it? Neither one thing nor the other. The titles are disastrous. I'm not as bothered by the visuals as I am by the music - its utterly repulsive! Where is it going? What is it supposed to be? And why is there a stupid 'beeping watch' sound in it? Obviously the same person who composed the music for Nationwide has been let out of the straight-jacket again Very disappointing music I must say. What a shame.

The set itself is OK-ish. Is that a LED video-wall or not? I presume it isn't because (A) it isn't animated, (B) they had to lay on the live link-up during the One this afternoon and (C) it hasn't changed a bit since the One. How disappointing. I like the contrast between the backgound and the white squares but they are far too bright. The desk goes well with the overall scheme but it looks dyre the way they have it positioned. The laptops do give it a bit more UUMMPH but they are far too intrusive in the shot. And the non-horizontal line in the MCU is very distracting - its fine behind the sports reader though. The set does look very cramped but what could they do? It looks better than what we had before at least.

The graphics are only mediocre - way outside the 4:3 safe area but I didn't expect them to bother themselves by making them safe anyway. Nice fonts though. A bit uninspiring to go with helvetica like Sky and BBC but what do you expect - they never have their own original ideas - except for those ghastly titles! Glad to see the picture windows are still there but again far too much space between the reader and the window. And they seem to be cropping everything fully to 16:9. The report from Guatemala was mercilessly cropped with heads missing all over the place! And the astons are far too dark and dull - they really need brightening up.

The best thing about it is the lighting - very well done but thats the only thing that has impressed me! This two-way is nice and I presume this is what the 6.01 will look like when they return to full length:

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/ch045_0828_182716.jpg

Eurgh. That shot is awful.

The set on the whole is disappointing. I'm presuming there's a bit more space off to the left of the desk but considering it's still the hols, I doubt we'll see that until next week. Or possibly 9 tonight.

If that's what the six-one looks like then I think TV3 will be the answer for a lot of Irish pres anoraks.

And I forgot to mention this before but the director was clearly audible at the start of 6.01 today - you could hear her say 'OK Sharon...' just before Sharon began talking. Unfortuately the webstream started too late to pick that up. And the webstream is still in squashed 4:3 even though the rest of RTÉ's online 16:9 output is in the correct aspect ratio!

I just thought I'd post a few more caps from 6.01 here for the benefit of those of you who can't recieve RTÉ.

Here's Sharon with picture window. Nice but very cramped-looking. The laptop is ridiculously conspicuous!

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/pvr001.jpg

This shot of the sports presenter (presumably Bryan when the 6.01 returns to full length) is much better than the shot above and should be used instead IMO. No distracting lines to contend with (even though it is still actually crooked in this shot):

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/pvr000_001.jpg

Here are the map graphics; they're alright apart from the awful yellow 'knobs' where the cities are supposed to be:

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/pvr000_000.jpg