Newsroom South East split

Yep - the current Cambs studio is very nice. The projector behind the presenter is a lot nicer than some 'proper' regions (some have video-wall type windows - with nasty joins!) - and the view of Kings College is one of the nicest shots of any region I have seen (well in daylight anyway!)...

The Cambridge sub-opt is actually in a different studio to the one it launched in. The current studio is in the old Radio Cambridgeshire radio newsroom, which was vacated when the TV sub-opt started and a new TV/Radio newsroom created in a building next-door to Radio Cambridgeshire.

However the newsroom move did not happen in time to build the studio in time - so a temporary TV studio was built in the middle local radio studio cubicle... It was really tiny - and still used for radio during the day - so took a little time to set up for TV use!!

The new studio is much bigger, much nicer, and could probably be used for a full half-hour - though it would not be able to have a soft-area (but Look East doesn't currently I don't think...) and the rest of the Cambridge technical installation would need to be expanded to cope. (When I was there there were only two modern studio-ish cameras - and only one had an autocue. There was a third ancient camera which could only really be used for a wideshot. There was a fourth camera in the Cambridge Down-The-Line studio with the painted Cambridge skyline backdrop...)

Look East does have a 'soft' area but its rarely seen!

Its used for East of Westminster, and I've only ever seen it used on the main Look East once.

I think it may be in a seperate area to the main studio as you don't see a camera link between the two!

Aha - they have softened up 'The Annexe'. This is a small 'sub-studio' which is the otherside of an open arch from the main studio. It used to house the East at West (in the floating coffee table and chains era) and a Look East soft set. Matter of Fact live progs have come from there, as well as a lot of Children In Needs.

When I was in Norwich the Breakfast bulletins came from a camera in the annexe with a cardboard backdrop mimicing the main studio 'look'.

This bit of the studio really is tiny - I would expect that most items done in it are recorded - as moving the cameras on-air would be interesting. The link shot would need lots of virtual/keyed elements to 'fake' extra set flats.

I hope to pop up to Norwich over the next few weeks - I'll keep my eyes peeled...