BBC Midlands Today

Now that the fabulous new look for Central News (west) has launched, Midlands Today really need to pull their socks up.

Changing the shape of the weather wall does not constitute a dramatic improvement! The new view in the window is a step in the right direction, but teh window could also do with being more generously sized!

Yes - I've always been astounded by the cheapo little windows that some regions use. They just look stupid. I've never understood why most regions have decent-looking windows, but Birmingham, Nottingham and maybe a couple of others just make do with a tacky telly!

Not the NIA, what you're thinking of is the International Convention Centre (ICC).

Yes - Manchester also has a slightly nasty looking arrangement. It looks like they have got fake uPVC lead-light double-glazed windows - maybe it's a few plasmas arranged as a video wall.

Pity really when the Cambridge sub-opt has a nice large projector - they did some of their election coverage using it like the One/Six/Ten Bigscreen. I also think Cambridge has rather a nice 'window' showing King's College Chapel nicely. (Apart from at night when, the last time I saw it, it was just a few sparkling lights in a black screen. Cambridge architecture is not really lit after dark!)

When the Midlands Today studio links to a reporter in the newsroom, where is the newsroom?

Is it in Pebble Mill still, or is it at the Mailbox?

It it the same newsroom BBC WM uses, or do they have different facillities?

BTW sticking with BBC local radio in the Midlands, does anyone listen to Shabina Akthar's new Late Show on WM, or have they retuned to Alex Trellinski's relocated show from BBC Nottingham?

I would be very surprised if the newsroom and studios were not in the same building (or very close). I would therefore expect the Midlands Today newsroom to be still based at Pebble Mill - certainly the newsroom camera shot used for News 24 looks pretty much the same - though it has a glass backing which hasn't always been there.

Afraid I have no idea about BBC WM sharing a newsroom with Midlands Today - but I know that most BBC regional news operations share a common newsroom, and are based in the same building. (The Norwich/Radio Norfolk newsroom is an exception, in that the newsroom for radio and TV is in the TV building, with a small radio studio for newsreading, whilst the rest of the radio studios/production offices are based in a separate radio building, the other side of the road!)

Actually Midlands Today donated its tacky tellys to the Washington DC studio (I swear there the same! Although I dunno where the third one (the middle one that used to be a 4:3 screen on US election night) came from...), and we now have a small normal screen. (Dunno what sort of screen though). I dunno why it isnt bigger, as that would be nice. Perhaps they're wating until they move for an update of the set?

BTW perhaps the new weather window was put in when they moved to reception? It does look tacky, although its a bit better than the weather thing where we always got a bit of set in the picture.

The new Midlands Today backdrop is not on the Mailbox development - if it was you would get a nice view of New Street station if it was pointing towards the city.

It looks to me as it's placed (and quite a coup this for the Beeb if it is) on top of the Millenium Point building (where the last of the 'old look' Central News Wests came from a couple of weeks back)

And talking to a friend who does some freelance work for Radio WM. Both Midlands Today & BBC WM DO share the same newsroom. In the days before the glass backdrop in the newsroom, if MT did a newsroom piece at around 6.35, you could see the news and sport reader come out of the booth at the back of the room, after just finishing on BBC WM.

You're not biased though, are you Noggin

Not in the slightest

Assuming that BBC B'ham are still gonna move into The Mailbox, and that the 'window' camera is indeed on Millennium Point, this would not at all surprise me.

After all, I believe that a number of BBC regions/nations have their 'window' camera on a building other than their own rooftop (correct me if I'm wrong).

Isn't the LkNrth (Leeds) camera on top of a block of flats or something? By the way, where is the LkNrth (Hull opt-out) camera?

Am I right in thinking that East Midlands Today are still using the same camera for their 'window' as when they first went generic? I know the view has changed (from one of the BBC building to a Nottingham skyline), but I am under the impression that it is still the camera across the road from the BBC building, it's just that it's been turned around to face the city rather than the BBC.

As a matter of interest, what building is that EMT camera on? a factory? offices? a very tall lamp-post?

I think this is all because the exact location of a BBC regional base within whatever town/city it's in does not necessarily afford the best or most well known view from it's rooftop.

For example, LkEast (Close Up) might be in some tiny little back-street of Cambridge, overlooking a newsagent & a coffee shop or something. But, it is seemingly obligatory that if you're gonna have a view of Cambridge, it's got to include some of the University-type buildings. Therefore you have to put your 'window' camera on top of, say, the town hall (or whatever) to get the view you want.

A lot of major UK towns and cities have a certain view which is THE view you HAVE to use just like this. Hence having cameras not on BBC rooftops.

The BBC Cambridge camera is mounted on the roof of the University Library building I believe. It is pointing at Kings College Chapel - probably the most famous building in Cambridge!

The microwave link from the camera back to the Radio Cambridgeshire building (home of BBC TV and Radio in Cambridge) has failed in the past - there is a daytime and nighttime video tape backup available I believe. ]

And yes - the BBC Cambridge building is a long way from the town centre, opposite the rail station, with no real landmarks close by. (It is near the very nice University botanical gardens though !)