New Sky News set

A bit of an exclusive here! My friend has just been on a tour of Sky News, and has seen the new studio. He didn't quite understand my excitement, but here's what he saw:

The building work is still going on, apparently. It has NOT yet been completed.

The set is NOT open-plan, as we'd all predicted. There IS a glass window between the studio and newsroom BUT the window is much bigger than before, and runs from floor to ceiling.

The desk is, in his words, 'banana-shaped' (sounds a bit like the old one!). And it's NOT light wood - he said is was black/navy blue!

The rest of the set is apparently fairly dark, too.

The videowall DOES have a stage by it, and WILL be used for BBC News-style illustrative pieces. But apparently (and this is the unexpected bit) it's main purpose will be for 'general election coverage', in the words of the guy who took the tour.

That's all I got from my brief phone conversation with him, but I'll try to find out more later. In the meantime, let the debate begin....




(Edited by mark at 2:06 pm on Aug. 11, 2001)

Well if the glass bit is much bigger it will look more open-plan. Maybe the glass is because there would be too much noise. The colours could sound good - maybe lighting will change the look of the colours of the studio and the darkness aspect.

Sounds quite good - surely they will use the videowall for more than just elections!!

I'm sure they will - I wasn't able to get much info from him because we only had a very brief chat this morning, and he was quite confused as to why I was so interested in it! Also, he's never seen sky news so he doesn't know what the old set/newsroom looked like.

Oh, and another thing he said that I almost forgot about is that there are still some upgrades to come in terms of technical stuff - but that's as much as I can remember! Still, at least we now have a bit of an idea about what it's going to look like - when I meet up with him next week I'll get him to draw me a picture of what it looks like so I can get a better idea!

Well at least we now have some more information.

Of course, we'll have to see exactly what it looks like on the 3rd September. Even if the studio was open plan then there would have to be some kind of sound proof material installed around the set else it would be far too loud, especially in the day.

Anyway, it would be great if you could obtain any more information, I'm all excited now.

Open plan sets are a bit of a disaster, no matter how much I like them.
If you've ever heard an interview on CNN - where the interviewee is sitting at the desk and the presenter turns so the mike is near the newsroom - you can hardly hear them at all.
I watched Beijing win the Olympics on CNN US and you could actually hear people in the background saying '...yeah, I think he's in Paris' - talking about the correspondent they were going to next.

It sounds quite good actually, the desk sounds very... interesting!

This dark look sounds quite... cosy, but this means one thing...
A dark set... they cannot be keeping those astons, because they're white!

Black and navy blue sounds nice for a desk.
But is the desk in the soft area? I hope it is, then we get a bigger looking newsroom.
Also - Sky like to use the window they have at the moment to put images on, they did that during the lunar eclipse and it looked really good. So they may want to carry on that theme.

To quote Martin Stanford... sounds 'posh'.

Yep..and Kay Burley says the studio is 'fabulous'!

I can also announce to TV Home that one of the competition prizes for YoungJournalists.com when it launches on August 20th will be a tour of Sky News. Stay tuned for more details!

(Edited by Steve Naylor at 7:47 pm on Aug. 10, 2001)

The 'News on the Hour' line will also need to be dropped in the relaunch since Sky News is now often 'News on the half hour', with the introduction of 1/2 hour rolling bulletins

I doubt they would drop News on the Hour - it's been going since launch.
And 'Sky News on the Hour... every hour' - such a nice slogan.
There's bound to be a lot of publicity about this in the Sky mag.
Steve - you know I'm going to win that prize with my amazing column.

By popular demand, I've e-mailed my friend with further questions about the new studio, and here's what he had to say. I'll quote directly from his email...

Q:Where is the studio in relation to videowall?

A: 'camera-desk-window-editor/scriptwriters' desks-small stage-video wall'
(so I guess that means the same place as the old studio!)

Q: What is the video wall for?

A: 'Vaughan Rogers, head of sound, said the video wall was for people to stand against and point at charts, like for elections'
(clears up that election coverage thing - just me being stupid...)

Q: How big is the window, and what about the rest of the set?

A: 'seems to be the whole back wall, clear (or very lightly smoked glass) - but then the set might not be finished, and they could use computer overlays perhaps. tho there doesn't seem to be a blue/green screen there for that yt'

Q: Is the studio raised above the newsroom?

A: 'about 2 foot above the newsroom'

Q: What was that stuff about it being very dark?

A: 'partly cos it wasnt lit, and we weren't looking at it for long, but the floor and the desk are 2 shades of black/dark blue. but there could be more stencilling etc to be done'

Q: Have they been extending the newsroom?

A: 'don't think so, but they're going from tape to hard drive in a month or so'
(quite how the last bit is relevant to my question, I don't know!)

Q: How big is the videowall, and is it made up of smaller screens etc?

A: '10mx3m prob, lots of little screens'
(so I guess that sounds pretty much like the CNBC wall)

Q: That 'banana-shaped' desk.......

A: 'convex to the camera, like a big arc, narrowing to the ends. quite thin. I think 3 chairs behind it, spaced a bit apart'

Q: Did you see the new logo?

A: 'no, sorry'

So now we have a bit more info. I'll be meeting up with him some time next week, so I may be able to get more then. Also, I sent him the pics (thanks Chesh!) of the old studio, so he'll compare them with what he saw and get back to me!

Sound all very interesting! It's weird that the desk is where it is. Sky said it was going to be in the soft area.
If they are staying in the old area of studio 2 then that's why the newsroom hasn't been changed. You see, we'd been told they were moving to the soft area - which would leave a lot of space behind them. So they would have to fill that with a new area.
This desk gets more interesting by the day!

It does sound pretty good - I think the colours could work well and be interesting and different and the desk is intriguing!

Yes, this desk really is intriguing! I'm going to make him draw me a picture of it when I meet with him (along with a rough sketch of the studio/newsroom layout) Then I'll scan it and post it here!