As has been seen at the end of June and increasingly now, the BBC Six O'Clock News is presented live on location when there is a big story. Did this happen in the virtual and pre-virtual era? I would be grateful to know if it did? I certainly can't remember it!
Certainly when you think back to things like the death of Diana you remember the coverage coming from the studio, not from a tunnel in Paris.
Similarly for the funeral, I think the actual funeral was anchored in a studio "on location", but the subsequent news bulletins were in the studio.
Only possible exceptions I can think of are the release of Nelson Mandela and the fall of the Berlin Wall - but I think I'm thinking of them because famous newsreaders are associated with both stories (Trevor, Paxman) - but they could have been there in purely a reporting role.
Perhaps the Gulf War in 1991 too - but from clips I've seen they were anchored in the studio.
I'd say ITV more than the BBC have led the way on this, especially since Mark Austin replaced Dermot on the Evening News, quickly establishing a niche for himself as an on-location anchor during the Iraq War in 2003.
September 11th though was probably the watershed moment, though I vaguely recall Dermot Murnaghan hosting the Nightly News on location during the Kosovo war in the late 1990s.
I remember Michael Buerk anchoring on location a few times in Britain, for example after train crashes, but I'm not sure if this was during or after the virtual era.
Forgive my ignorance but how was September 11th a watershed moment? No-one was able to get to the site for quite some time due to the increased security and the main bulletins were from London?
During the 70s and 80s, ITN News at Ten always had the lead anchor (usually Alistair Burnet) on location in a studio at the party political conferences, and he led the bulletin from there, whilst the second presenter (Sandy Gall, Pamela Armstrong, Selina Scott, Anna Ford, Leonard Parkin) would remain at ITN in London, "with the rest of the news". Alistair in Brighton or Blackpool or wherever would also read out other stories not related to the conference in the way that News at Ten usually did in the studio, alternating one story and the next between the two presenters.
In fact, those bulletins also had a closing end cap which showed split screen concurrent live pictures of the newsreaders and their names, in a similar way to the current endings on BBC World's "The World Today".
I seem to remember that Martyn Lewis anchored the Six from Edinburgh on the final day of the Virtual Era in May 1999 to mark the first elections to the Scottish Parliament.
I seem to remember that Martyn Lewis anchored the Six from Edinburgh on the final day of the Virtual Era in May 1999 to mark the first elections to the Scottish Parliament.
But didn't the headlines come from Jennie Bond alone in the London studio? Then she handed over to Martyn after a brief introduction on the top story.
I seem to remember that Martyn Lewis anchored the Six from Edinburgh on the final day of the Virtual Era in May 1999 to mark the first elections to the Scottish Parliament.
But didn't the headlines come from Jennie Bond alone in the London studio? Then she handed over to Martyn after a brief introduction on the top story.
With the set up of titles leading to wide shot then headlines it would have seemed odd to instantly cut to Martyn in Edinburgh. The "virtual studio" setup was probably quite restrictive in this case.
I can see the point of anchoring the main story from the location, as they are obviously gathering the latest part of the story and need to be on-site to do that.
What I don't understand are some of the "live" reports from the likes of:
Downing Street (where everyone had long since gone home, so couldn't supply further information),
and worst of all, outside TVC - why not do it from the studio, after all it's inside the building behind you!
I can see the point of anchoring the main story from the location, ................
and worst of all, outside TVC - why not do it from the studio, after all it's inside the building behind you!
ha..ha Would it not be better to anchor from the pub where all the journos and CID officers are sharing the gen?
Seriously, do British TV news broadcast ever actually do this properly? It used to be quite a common event for US 1800 (or 1830) HRS news shows to anchor live from location/abroad, often for no reason than the star presenter happened to be in the place at the time. When they do this there's no alternative head to do non specific items, the whole thing is fronted from location. A memorable event for me was Tom Brokaw doing the 6 O’ Clock News from a makeshift platform at Shad Thames, in the rain at 2330 HRS. The stories included US domestic politics, economics and the Ladbroke Grove train crash. The script was created in Rockefeller Center and displayed locally on a teleprompt. As well as the local CNBC vision (off Astra) there were audio ccts feeding DIRT and foldback of WNBC, and three guys huddled out of vision behind Brokaw who would come up and sponge his suit off whilst the piece was running.
The US news isn’t as slick and professional a that now (and doesn’t appear so on air); but there’s less of this cras Fred Carno on location stuff when its only Fred and the cleaners.
Outside broadcasting technology has improved, and gone down in price, and with e-mails and powerful laptops, it means it is more practical these days to do it.
Downing Street (where everyone had long since gone home, so couldn't supply further information),