Spotlight CI

Couldn't agree more with you on the set, It is very impressive, a far cry from the 'broom cupboard'.

And after looking at more screen grabs, I think I noticed a weather presenter, will this be a permanent fixture, I think its definetely a good idea to have a weather presenter as not only will they go through temp and general conditions, but they can also forecast sea conditions too!

Yeah David Braine will be presenting a Channel Islands specific forecast that will go out after the CI bulletin and before we jump back into Plymouth.

You can watch the bulletin at bbc.co.uk/jersey.

perhaps leftof themiddle and mr stabby may know? are spotlight ci going to have a change in title music, like that of look east, look north etc?

I believe it's staying the same - I expect if mainland Spotlight decided to change we would follow suit though.

It is def a plasma screen...those Islanders get all the perks!

And by the way the mainland Spotlight theme changed months ago to the LDN version, then switched back 3 days later. Abit like North West Tonight. hehe

Stuart, perhaps you'd know the answer to this.

Do Plymouth get the Channel Island news too? Because you always hear the main spotlight news team saying "And first the news for the Channel Islands with..." whoever. Was just wondering if they record that especially for CI viewers or do Plymouth viewers get it too.

Mr Stabby that's recorded specifically for Channel Island viewers and played out locally as part of the CI opt

Having channel-hopped on Sky (rapidly flicking between 957 and 958 at 18:30), there are definately two separate versions of the opening headlines. So, Teresa and Justin obviously must record the Channel Islands variant, which mainland viewers therefore won't see.

That must get tedious, because presumably they'd have to record a fresh one every day.

Plymouth record the top of the islands version late afternoon and it's sent down the line to St Helier to be played in at 18:30.

I just wish they'd vary the out cue a bit. I get fed up with "David will be along with the weather later, but first it's the Channel Islands news with Emma" being exactly the same (other, obviously, than the names) every night.

You can always tell the bits that were recorded in Plymouth and sent down the line, as the faces are always a much deeper red.

I think that Plymouth record the CI headlines and then feed them via a "store and forward" device that sends them quite a bit slower than realtime over an ISDN or broadband style data link.

The real-time circuits from Jersey to Plymouth are also delivered using data circuits as well I believe.

I watched the CI opt into the Ten on Sky last night. The set is a big improvement - but the audio quality on the edited reports was a bit on the dodgy side (levels all over the place, and some overmod-ing / distorion on some) - and the studio cameras were certainly not delivering amazing pictures. (They looked a bit "sat-up" and soft)

In technical terms I think Channel Report have a better quality product. (Better lighting, sound, camera picture quality etc.)

However the new CI opt IS a major improvement over the old one - and given the undoubtedly tiny budget and high levels of multi-skilling my comments aren't a criticism of the people working on the show. I'm sure they are doing their very best - and things could be a lot worse.

The studio cameras are a bit on the soft side, and although the video quality on the reports have improved a lot over the last few months, the sound quality is still a little touchy, and sound edits are sometimes very abrupt. As the reporter does the camera work, do you think that they just use the on-camera microphone for whenever they're on-screen themselves? If so that might be the reason for some of the quality issues.

As for Channel having a higher technical quality set up, that is undoubtedly the case. You do have to remember though that they no doubt have a lot more cash to spend plus there is more than likely 2 or 3 people doing the same job that one person is doing at the BBC. Especially the journalists who I believe research the report, write it up, make all the necessary calls, go out and film it themselves and edit it themselves also. Correct me if i'm wrong on that. And after all that i still believe they deliver a much more interesting set of news than Channel do. Technical quality is far from everything. Although it can sometimes be distracting i admit.