ITV NEWS studio set-up

If you can cope with the giant thread of the same name I think the full explanation is near the start.

Each of the cameras has a VR feedback sensor on it so the computer knows where in space it is, and its zoom, pan and tilt settings.



No no, lets discuss it some more and possible create our own schedules.

thanks for that Gavin.
I'm thinking it looks great, graphics can be a bit 'National Enquirer' at times, but on the whole it's a good look, and hugely entertaining when it goes awry.

"and that's Thursday's ITV Evening Nooooos" - Mark Austin : The Bionic Man's newscasting superhero son

Yes i've resorted to calling ITV Evening Noos now the "Robot Show" Mary Nightingale walks like a robot, and Mark Austin looks like a robot. It's a wonder that we never see them being oiled by an engineer. Both of them also seem to speak quite robotically (sp?)

can't help but love 'em though... even if Mary does occasionally sound like she's being strangled, and it takes some skill to throw one's papers down on the desk at the end of the bulletin in time to the music a la Austin.

I have to say I like the way Mary stands model-esque, with one toe pointing ahead and one out to the side.

I'm quite shallow, but I enjoy the theatre of news. I watch more ITV news than I ever have.

me too Gavin, me too. It's the drama of it all

Lol, me too! I've been watching a bit more of ITV News than I have before. I didn't like the last look very much - I think the music was far too overpowering and pompous, whereas the new mix has brought it more up to date. Thumbs up from me.

Indeed, itsto, indeed.... the 99-04 era was quite American looking as well I thought, way too much colour and wood going on in the studio, and remember those tv screen stacks.... my god! turn of the century and they were actually tv screens, not plasma you understand - I realise now I was actually embarrassed for them for nearly 5 years....
I REALLY NEED TO GET SOME SORT OF A LIFE

Don't think that it is the dots on the floor. I think ITN are now using the "FreeD" system to detect what the cameras are looking at.

This sensing system was invented by the BBC, and is marketed by Radamec. It uses a combination of lens sensors (to judge the amount of zoom on the shot) and also possibly pan and tilt sensors on the camera head to detect the direction the camera is pointing.

There is then the issue of detecting where the camera is in the studio. This is done using the clever bit. The lighting grid in the ceiling is covered with circular discs with bar codes on them. Every camera that moves around on the floor has a small CCTV camera and cluster of bright LEDs mounted on it, pointing straight up towards the ceiling, and as long as this little camera can see enough discs in the ceiling it can work out where it is on the studio floor, and in what direction it is pointing.

Tie all this information with a 3D model of the real studio, add in the video/graphics feeds you want to include, splurge it all through very powerful computers, and you get a virtual background rendered that matches the real camera shots. This is then composited together using traditional chroma-key technology - with a slight twist. The BBC use a similar system for the Peter Snow Election VR graphics.

The only downside is that the processing and rendering takes time, so there is a delay in the camera moving and the background moving. To compensate the foreground camera video is delayed by the same amount prior to chroma-keying, as is the audio from the studio microphones.

Ah - that would account for the audio frequently being out of sync on the News Channel, and suddenly jumping and being corrected.

I do prefer the new set too. The other night, when there were no titles and Mark and Mary were sat down, it looked awfully boring, AND old stylesque!

This could be to do with the move to and from the CSO studio and the main studio? AIUI the ITVNC comes from the same gallery pretty much all the time, and they switch which studio feeds which gallery. This may mean they have to switch audio delays in and out of the mic feeds if both sets of studio mics switch and appear in the same place on the sound desk?