BBC News Backdrop

I don't know if this has already been discussed here before but didn't anyone else think that the News 24 Backdrop used subsequent to the Bomb at TVC complemented the Network news moreso than the current one. I know the idea is to show the newsroom in the background but I think the set as a whole looked much better with the News 24 Backdrop. Does anyone agree?

I totally agree. It looked much much nicer.

I'm afraid I don't agree- it just looked too red to me (if that makes sense!) - the current one shows movement on is understated whereas I felt the red backdrop deflected from the presenter and didn't match the rest of the studio.

I can't work out why they used the red backdrop when they must have had the newsroom on tape as they used it for a few weeks (I think) afterwards because the News Centre was still damaged and half boarded up.

The backdrop was OK but BBC News in the Breakfast set was even better! http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tvstuff/bbcbomb/1eveend.jpg

i prefer the red on the studio.

http://mdta.energy-hosting.com/redstudio.jpg

I agree, they should use these studios for the short 5 min reports at lunch time and on Sat and Sun.

EDIT: Oops! Double-posting...

(Edited by dbfriends at 8:12 pm on June 25, 2001)

Hey! That's my image!

Actually I agree they should use the red more in the background. You can't see anything on the newsroom view anyway - and if you watch very carefully you can see BBC World in the News 24 backdrop!!!

I remember a couple of years ago that over Christmas the daytime BBC bulletins came from the Breakfast News studio with their presentation. NEver really figured out why.. anyone any ideas?

I think they tended to be the 0700/0800 news bulletins and maybe one later one. They came from BN studio as they were produced by the BN news team. That wouldn't happen now as Breakfast is now 7 days a week all year so any BBC1 bulletins when Breakfast isn't on BBC1 are just the first few minutes of the news that goes out on News 24. This happens quite a lot on Bank Holidays.

I have actually seen that a couple of times Nicky but never made the connection!
Thanks for clearing that up.

I wonder how much it actually costs to 'fire up' a main studio, such as the main BBC N6 studio?

When I interviewed Huw Edwards I asked if I could take some photos and he took me into N6 and got the engineers back from their lunch break to turn on all the screens, the backdrop, the lights, etc. I only took a few photos on they didn't come out brilliantly because of the lights!

Err... I was sort of involved with this... The red backdrop - used in static form for Moira at Breakfast, and moving form with (and now without) a column for UK Today - was the only backing available.

Whilst the Newsroom camera was available - it was not cleared for broadcast as it was showing a live crime scene, and the ongoing police investigation...

Once the area was cleared of police staff recordings of the newsroom were made... One at night - where the boarding-up was clearly visible, and one during the day where a superimposed mask (to reduce the effects of daylight burning out the camera) of blinds was added, hiding the boarding. These were replayed for a while, but now the live versions are used (with the mask for daytime)