american designed sets

ok, i know what you are all going to say, that i should shut up about the US News. Well if you are going to say that, dont bother posting on this topic
Broadcast Design International

i came across this site online the other day, and it is of a US news set design team.
they also do designing for international news corps
then why doesnt the UK or Ireland (like anyone cares about us) use a decent designer(s) like this. BTW, alot of the sets are of regional US Networks, and they look better then some of the sets in place now in the UK. Just to show at the fact that the UK's tv sets arn't getting better, and internation designers are what are needed, IMO

Quite a few UK regional news operations got burned in the 90s when they used US consultants and set designers.

One of the worst ever Look East sets - the one where the 2 pairs of presenters - 2 news, 1 sport, 1 weather - sat opposite each other was apparently a US design - and universally described as a turkey. Within a matter of months they effectively sawed the desk in half and improved the studio massively...

You have to design for your audience - and the Americans didn't in this case.

There is some extremely high quality set designing talent in the UK - witness the fact that shows like The Weakest Link and Who Wants to Be a Millionnaire export their sets as well as their formats around the world.

There is some really bad studio design in the US as well.

There are good and bad designers the world over.

The camera angles must have been a nightmare - trying to shoot a presenter without the head of the presenter opposite poking into view

Got to say I wonder about some of these.

Go to this page: Click Here

and then click on WPIX New York.

They present from a breakfast bar!

If this is what US news channels use, I'm glad we don't have them!

The breakfast bar is only used for introducing 'lighter' items 2 person interviews, 'prop demonstrations' and traffic reports. Other times the sofa area is used, or items are linked standing-up.

On air it doesn't look too bad - it looks like a short depth high table than a perch bar.

There is a normal news desk that is shared by their 10pm local news. As mentioned, the breakfast bar is used for two-way interviews and near the end of each half-hour wheel. TV Ark has their opener with their news set...

Don't be so quick to slag it unless you've seen how it's used.

WB 11 Morning News

It was a nightmare...

Do we know which US firm is doing the Sky News Centre?

If, as it was suggested somewhere, that it is the same firm that designed the MSNBC set which the inspiration was taken for this new Sky News set, then it is PDS (Production Design Group). They don't seem to have a website, however.

They do have a website- but i cant remember the address. It hasn't got any mention of SKY but it has pics of MSNBC, ESPN, History Channel and some other american sets

www.pdgltd.com