Well they could at least make the location a bit larger. Hard to read.
How is it hard to read?! I'm watching in a 3 inch wide box in the corner of my computer monitor and I can read it perfectly well. Just because "LIVE" graphics were big in the previous look, doesn't mean they *have* to be! Think outside the box for once!
Why? Can't you read it? Are you so shallow that you'll only watch if they have a huge LIVE graphic in the corner? I don't see anything wrong with having it subtle as it is.
Well I've watched quite a bit of it now, and here are some thoughts.
Nice and subtle ticker+clock+dog graphics at the bottom. Very un-intrusive. Neat use of the gap between 4:3 and 16:9 to carry the press-red etc. stuff - be interesting to see if they are forcing a 4:3 or 16:9 AFD on DTT - or whether some boxes are displaying it in 14:9 letterbox, and thus chopping off half of this. Also not sure how 4:3 safe the SKY NEWS logo is. Not sure the name captions are clear enough though. The graphics package is very nicely integrated - and nice to see a return of boxes for two-ways, the old package was pretty poor when it came to this. Not sure about the live+locator graphic - seems to be very similar to the N24 version that was re-designed as it will clash with people's heads.
Set is undoubtedly big and impressive - but there seemed to be lots of moving between locations for no real reason but to show you that there were lots of locations. Nice use of moving cameras - when they didn't wobble or hit something. Some aspects of the set struck me as a little too american - and even a bit dated - especially the purple and orange scheme. There are lots of verticals and horizontals growing out of people's heads, and I'm not keen on the very square perspex bits (I'm much more a fan of curves) The mezzanine coffee table area was pretty messy for me - and when there were four people around it it felt quite cramped.
The LED screen looks great in wide shots, and they are using it VERY similarly to the ITV News virtual wall in some ways. The panel structure of the LED screen is more noticable than I had expected though - I suspect this is because of the curve. On a tight 2s on the desk, when there is a bright image you can really see the panel edges. The screen in the desk (just like Liquid News used to have!) is a nice touch.
They seem to be framing all the shots to be conservatively 4:3 nice, rather than 4:3 safe, so in widescreen it does feel a bit distant (some of the 2 and 3 shots at the desk are VERY wide) Nice use of camera moves though.
Quite like the music - not keen on the top of the hour countdown sequence. Just like the Look East opening titles, we may get sick of seeing the same people in shot every time. I think I prefer the N24 countdown as it is slightly more energetic, and more abstract in some ways. It also gives a sense of being everywhere, rather than in the studio.
Content - not fair to judge so far - but Sunrise didn't feel very newsy to me. Just felt like a wander round a studio interrupted by papers and weather and a few news stories. They have to sort the weather CSO out - it was appalling.
Was it me or was Eamonn noticably uneasy? He stumbled quite a lot and seemed a bit nervous. I guess presenting a news show on the hoof is a bit of an interesting change. Whilst I'm sure the news tablets are great - it must be odd not having paper scripts as a security blanket.
Music - nice if you like that sort of thing, but a bit cliched and overly american for my liking, as is the "voice of God" voiceover. Certainly not as funky as the BBC, nor as iconic as ITV, just a bit ordinary. Very nicely produced, but didn't make as much of a statement as I would have expected.
So - nice graphics, impressive set, OK music. Not convinced that there is an overall "feel" for the various positions in the set for presentation - it may be we get used to the different areas or that in time a few become more used and a few less used.
A major improvement visually (especially in the on-screen furniture), and they've certainly put some money on the screen. They've also obviously looked at what N24 CAN'T do and decided to do it in spades - so there are moving cameras and jibs, large areas of space, presenters moving around etc. Whether the actual CONTENT is improved and better than News 24 we'll have to wait and see.
Well, the scenes behind the 6 O'Clock News are all fake, and previously when they used to have the BBC newsroom, it was a loop, so sometimes you would see the same blokes walking about in the background and talking? I don't think Joe Public will notice.
The original newsroom backing wasn't a loop. It was a live shot on one screen, and then a reversed and delayed shot in the other screen - to avoid the mirror image of people walking downstairs.
When the bomb went off and the live shot had to be dispensed with a recorded loop was introduced.
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Like the new set and titles, and music - the music is a masterpiece- and the newswall now looks very ITV-newsesque because of its curvature. Also, the new refit must have cost quite a bit, nearly every screen is an LCD and each computer has 3 screens now - and also those chairs; the Herman Miller 'Aeron' ones, around £500 or so
apiece
. And what's with all the presenters having a tablet PC - it just looks a bit odd when all of them stand together with them placed upon the high table at the newswall.
I suspect that the workstations you can see with 3 LCDs are, like the BBC News 24 3xLCD PCs used for ingest and basic editing. You have one PC with the newsroom computer system, one computer that controls the server system, and a full-size monitor to look at the video. Much better than running with all three systems on one monitor - especially if you have to work quickly and accurately, and make judgements about 4:3/16:9 stuff.
The chairs will need to be pretty ergonomic if they are intensively used - and as they are in-shot they need to look pretty. I suspect they decided if they were spending £10millions on a set they could afford nice chairs.
The tablet PCs seem to be the same as used on Five. They are linked to the newsroom computer I believe - and are used instead of paper scripts it seems to me. Not sure I'd be as comfortable without paper - though it is much neater on-screen (and you don't have to pay for someone to print them...)
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And what's with all the 4:3 adverts on this now widescreen channel? When I recorded it earlier at 6am to watch later as I am usually not around that time during a vacation, I was confused as to whether it HAD actually gone 16:9. The transition from 4:3 to 16:9 at each ad break is a bit of an odd one IMO, it just doesn't look right.
Sky don't have 16:9 breaks on any of their channels AFAIK - it is becauase they only cache a 14:9 letterbox in a 4:3 frame version that can be used on all outlets. If they wanted 16:9 ads they'd either have to cache two versions (doubling the storage requirements) or they'd have to put ARCs in every 4:3 playout area to convert the 16:9 ad to 4:3 on playout.
The 16:9/4:3 switching looks odd because there is no buffer between the 16:9 studio and the 4:3 ads - no short sting or interstital bumper or even a fade. There is just a hard cut - so nowhere to hide the aspect ratio switch (which is not frame accurate on Sky Digital)
Just worth pointing out, if someone hasn't already, that the new website doesn't work at all with Safari on Mac. Ironic, considering a screenshot of it was posted here the other day in Safari!
Bloody irritating.
doesn't work properly in firefox either.
Well it's very impressive from what I've seen. Lovely studio (much nicer than five's) and I like the new graphics myself.
However they are still *BACKWARDS*. It's so infuriatingly urrghh. I want to tear my own nails out when I see them they annoy me so much.
Otherwise good job. N24's titls really show up as poor now.
oh and I sharnt even comment on the weather - it makes the BBC look legible.
Just worth pointing out, if someone hasn't already, that the new website doesn't work at all with Safari on Mac. Ironic, considering a screenshot of it was posted here the other day in Safari!
The new logo on the endcap