Look East

No there are no insets at 1330 or 1830. (I think they were called "flags" at Look East.) However the image in the inset has not had a story picture for quite a while - instead it just said Look East. In fact I'm not sure Look East used them that much latterly in their old studio.

Never mind - the forum looks cool. That's the word - insets!!! Cheers. I'm getting in trouble on the Midlands Today forum for my jealousy of new look Look East!!!

I agree, especially when it's an such impressive looking building as The Forum (a title sequence featuring their former home - the Georgian listed building - would perhaps have not been a good idea).

I would love Midlands Today to copy Look East, in terms of title sequence and accompanying music, when they move to The Mailbox. And East Midlands Today should do the same too, as their building looks great, and the pre-generic look thay had in which the Nottingham building was shown-off, hadn't been around for long enough by the time they were forced to go corporate.

Moving on... I think Cambridge should have got rid of their desk, in order to blend in with Norwich better. It's like jumping back to the old look partway through the 1830 show - although the Cambridge plasma now shows the new LDN-style Look East (or Close Up) logo.

Maybe they should also have replaced the view of Cambridge Uni in the window with a view of, say, the BBC Cambridge newsroom or something. I say that because it seems odd that Norwich's policy for the window has now changed to an indoor view, whilst Cambridge retains an outdoor view. If they both went for an indoor view, it would all look better co-ordinated. Also Cambridge should upgrade to proper 16:9.

The Cambridge 2225 titles are composed of the same scenes-from-around-the-region as before, but the music and endcap have been replaced with the new LDN-style ones.

I don't think the Cambridge Newsroom would look too good behind the presenters - it is hardly an exciting backdrop (an open plan office) - when you have a nice view of Cambridge available (arguably one of the best backdrops of any region during the day)

As for Cambridge moving to 16:9 - they were the last 4:3 analogue region to be built I believe (So'ton and Hull were just tweaks of existing facilities in gallery terms - and I think So'ton got a digital desk...) Given that the kit at Cambridge is mainly less than 6 years old, whereas most 4:3 regions have 12-13 year old kit, Cambridge can't be that high up the queue.

From what I hear it is more likely that Cambridge will re-equip when they re-locate. (The newsroom is currently housed in its second home since the launch of the sub-opt - and I don't think they have a longterm home)

Last rumour was that the West Opt would be relocating to Milton Keynes with 3CR - as there was no suitable buildings in Cambridge for a combined TV and radio newsroom and studio operation. (I would expect a small regional centre like Tunbridge Wells might be built?)

Fair point, it is a jolly nice view. But at night, it looks almost as if they've forgot to switch the "window" on! Almost complete blackness, apart from a few meaningless small dots of light.



I hope moving to MK won't be unpopular, like it was for Wimledon FC! By the way, 3CR (BBC Three Counties radio), which three counties is it? I'm guessing Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire - but the name is stupidly ambiguous, it could be anywhere (e.g. Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, if you didn't know any better).

EDIT: Found confirmation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/threecounties
I notice it has a different frequency in each county.

Yep - Beds, Bucks and Herts. Not sure if it was created by a merger - or just a rename of Radio Bedfordshire (to acknowledge that it covered other counties as well?) Others who post here will know better than me.

There are a few other local radio stations with ambiguous names - Southern Counties Radio as well - I'd class Kent as Southern...

Did anyone see the titles in the East of the Region at 22:25pm? Also today are they will using The Forum opening titles at lunch?

The Forum titles were used for the 22:25 bulletin in the east of the region last night.

I agree, surely it would not be too much to remove the desk and place a chair, table and laptop, it would look so much more uniform.

I understand that the rules governing the generic look have been relaxed at some point, hence each region showing more of their own take of the look whilst still broadly conforming. I'm all in favour of this.

But for one individual region to not be uniform within itself is a bit poor IMHO.

BBC Three Counties Radio (which started in 1993) was indeed just a renaming of Radio Bedfordshire, which, despite the name, did cover all of the three counties since it started in 1985. Indeed, in its final months it was known by the rather cumbersome title of 'Radio Bedfordshire with Herts and Bucks'.

I guess it is the same as Southampton / Oxford though... Just because there was effort and money to relocate the Norwich studio centre doesn't instantly mean that money appears for a new set for Cambridge - even a new table. Licence fee money doesn't grow on trees - and I expect all the BBC East scene and graphics effort was working towards the Norwich relaunch.