Sky News Overnight

Well... Sky News seem to have gone CSO/Virtual overnight. They are keying their normal set behind their presenter pretty well - but the lighting is harsher, and their is a just-noticable CSO edge, and a tiny blue fringe, around the presenter.

Does this mean they are upgrading their gallery technology (I heard rumours of digital and/or server installation)? Or a new set being installed?

Suppose we will know in time...

(For those with long memories - News 24 went to a CSO/fake set one weekend a few years ago when major maintenance was required on the N24 aircon... Studio N6 (BBC One/Two studio) was then still using the Blue set, and this meant the N24 presenters could sit down there and present, with three N24 camera feeds CSOed/ChromaKeyed behind them. The resulting CSOed cameras worked into and were directed from the N24 studio... It looked quite realistic... This was in the days of the purple poles/frosted glass N24 set...)

Is it just me or does the weather presenter now always look smaller?
The map seems to have grown, it's weird.
I expect there will be a technology update, especially as they are now going to be concentrating mainly on news, they can focus all of their attentions on that and bringing the best possible technology to it instead of having to spend bits of money on lots of little programmes.

I believe they are upgrading to a fully digital system, i think its called 'Pinicle' or something like that

Well - Sky has stayed CSO/Virtual all day, and the Nine O'Clock News is being presented in conventional Newsroom style, not in the normal groovy, standup CSO style...

Could the area they normally use for the CSO presenting on the Nine have a temporary desk in it?!

I thought the background is always CSO in the temporary studio.

The rest of the studio is real and I've seen them use the different studio shots all day.

I'm confused!

I am right or have I just grabbed the wrong end of the barking tree? Hang on, that doesn't sound right...

(Edited by Isonstine at 9:49 pm on June 26, 2001)

What does CSO stand for?

CSO = Colour Separation Overlay

also known as ChromaKey, or Bluescreen/Greenscreen.

This is where the presenter is shot against a blue or green background, and the vision mixer (or chroma keyer if separate) replaces the blue/green background with a different picture source.

This is how weather is done in many places - including the BBC (with the exception of Breakfast and the Six)

Sky currently seem to be using CSO techniques to add moving studio backings behind their presenters. The wideshots show they have a real desk. I may be wrong and they may not be using virtual technology as I have not seen the background move with a foreground camera move.

My reason for pointing out the lack of a Sky News at Nine or Sky Nine O'Clock News is that they may not be able to do a separate CSO show (as the Sky Nine normally is) if they have rigged a large desk in the area they would normally use for such CSO.

At midnight, it said 'Sky News On the Hour with Michael Watkins' - surely they haven't been saying programme names in the introduction... maybe they just didn't have his recorded in the new format!

Again, as pointed out that might have something to do with the slightly different set up overnight on Sky News.

They use a different headline bed, so they probably have the 'wrong' announcements as well.