Two-way interviews

I don't often start a news thread, but how do people prefer two way interviews to be presented:

I've split it into 4 main (quite vague) categories for the purpose of this thread:

Split Screen - an on screen graphic shows the 2 images
Big Screen - on a video wall or projection screen, with a wide shot of the studio (i.e. BBC News / ITV News)
Plasma Screen - as above, but using a smaller standardised screen (i.e. Five News)
Virtual Screen - a fake screen is used for the interviewers (i.e. BBC News - 1990s)


My personal preference is for big screens to be used when they have them (it took ITV News three years to use theirs on a regular basis).

And the future:
I'd like to see a new era of virtual two way interviewers in which the newsreader appears to move from the newsroom to the location of the interviewee and talk to them face to face - even though they are miles away...

I don't think you can top the slickness of Sky's two-way interviews using the split screen graphics.

As for your idea of virtual type stuff - that sounds incredibly tacky. Maybe a big screen stretching to the floor, with a life-size shot of the interviewee as if they are stood there, would look good. Maybe.

For main news programmes like the National, I like the big projection screens, but for News channels, a split-screen is more practical. I also like the way Newsnight does it - with plasmas around the table as if the interviewee is there. To do that sort of thing using VR would look quite tacky IMO, though.

Sky does two and even three way interviews very well.

I also like the way they use the newswall during the Sky News Today slot.