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BBC News Pres: 2022 - Present

(03-03-2023, 06:58 PM)I’m AaronLancs Wrote:  For the image with Stephanie Flanders I picture the monolith actually being slightly set more back a couple of feet from where this screen is to where the column behind it is..

[Image: studio9-8.jpg]
Image Sourced from BBC News at 1: 2013-2019

One thing to consider is that Studio E in its current configuration will be gone. From doing a little search for images from before the fitting out of New Broadcasting House into The World's Newsroom. Here from The Guardian's Website from December 2010 are two images to show the empty Studio E to give a sense of how it looked before the current set was installed. So it will be interesting to see if there are any pictures given throughout the refurb to show the transformation from one set to another.

[Image: BBC-Broadcasting-House-th-001.jpg?width=...35c7f67633]
[Image: BBC-Broadcasting-House-th-004.jpg?width=...a6a9a99091]
Images Sourced from Inside The Revamped Broadcasting House

It’s a shame that there is that viewing area on top of E as that would have given E some more height. I’m guessing it would cause problems with lighting.

Just a ident loving pres.fan from the East of England 
All spelling mistakes are my own #Dyslexic@Keyboard 

(03-03-2023, 07:03 PM)ViridianFan Wrote:  It’s a shame that there is that viewing area on top of E as that would have given E some more height. I’m guessing it would cause problems with lighting.
Only part of it is the viewing area though, a large part of what is above Studio E is the reception and entrance to the newsroom.
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(03-03-2023, 07:07 PM)DTV Wrote:  
(03-03-2023, 07:03 PM)ViridianFan Wrote:  It’s a shame that there is that viewing area on top of E as that would have given E some more height. I’m guessing it would cause problems with lighting.
Only part of it is the viewing area though, a large part of what is above Studio E is the reception and entrance to the newsroom.
Ive always entered NBH via that main entrance, it's not solely the newsroom entrance.
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(03-03-2023, 06:58 PM)AaronLancs Wrote:  For the image with Stephanie Flanders I picture the monolith actually being slightly set more back a couple of feet from where this screen is to where the column behind it is..

[Image: studio9-8.jpg]
Image Sourced from BBC News at 1: 2013-2019

One thing to consider is that Studio E in its current configuration will be gone. From doing a little search for images from before the fitting out of New Broadcasting House into The World's Newsroom. Here from The Guardian's Website from December 2010 are two images to show the empty Studio E to give a sense of how it looked before the current set was installed. So it will be interesting to see if there are any pictures given throughout the refurb to show the transformation from one set to another.

[Image: BBC-Broadcasting-House-th-001.jpg?width=...35c7f67633]
[Image: BBC-Broadcasting-House-th-004.jpg?width=...a6a9a99091]
Images Sourced from Inside The Revamped Broadcasting House
Good points, although I was speaking very roughly because there is a lot they could do in that space. Assuming a full set revamp, rather than the tweak they did in D, the desk might be rotated and the glass separation between the newsroom and Studio could be altered - especially if the newsroom now doesn’t necessarily need as much space. The working assumption here is also that changes to the newsroom are likely at the same time, if only to repair the hoop. However, it’s equally likely they will go further and upgrade the balcony area if that is to become home to UK-opts.

As shown in those images, nothing about Studio E’s current “wall” with the newsroom is structural.

Basically a monolith screen could go anywhere in the broad area between Sophie and Stephanie in that image. Most likely approximately where the existing plasma is but maybe not. It all depends how ambitious they are being and how much they want to reconfigure the set.

(03-03-2023, 05:34 PM)AaronLancs Wrote:  The thing that I am picturing with the refurb of Studio E is that they are going to do a variation of the right hand side of Studio B. Especially with that far right hand wall looking like more of an evolution in the current design ethic.
Here's a selection of the approximate size of the key set components from Studio B inside Studio E.

[Image: StudioENewComponents%202.png]
Ultimately, I think you can get two (and maybe a small third at a push) presentation areas in the studio. Of course, they don't have to necessarily go for the full-size versions - the catwalk screen, for instance, could be shrunk from 12 panels wide to 8 or 10 panels and thus allow a smaller radius. But I do think it really has to be a flat LED videowall (as per the touchscreen) or a catwalk screen - you almost certainly can't have both.

For reference, a rough version of the current layout.
[Image: StudioELayout.png]
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(03-03-2023, 08:15 PM)DTV Wrote:  
(03-03-2023, 05:34 PM)AaronLancs Wrote:  The thing that I am picturing with the refurb of Studio E is that they are going to do a variation of the right hand side of Studio B. Especially with that far right hand wall looking like more of an evolution in the current design ethic.
Here's a selection of the approximate size of the key set components from Studio B inside Studio E.

[Image: StudioENewComponents%202.png]
Ultimately, I think you can get two (and maybe a small third at a push) presentation areas in the studio. Of course, they don't have to necessarily go for the full-size versions - the catwalk screen, for instance, could be shrunk from 12 panels wide to 8 or 10 panels and thus allow a smaller radius. But I do think it really has to be a flat LED videowall (as per the touchscreen) or a catwalk screen - you almost certainly can't have both.

For reference, a rough version of the current layout.
[Image: StudioELayout.png]
All very interesting!

I’m assuming (and hoping!) that the BBC will keep a catwalk rather than a “touch screen area”. After all, the touch screen setup is almost a second catwalk anyway, and the utility of a touch screen is questionable. Presumably it was only really used in Studio B because they always knew that they wanted the flexibility to do programmes of varying types in that studio.

Studio E is continuing to be a “rolling news only” studio, so they really don’t need it.

Having said that, I was impressed during the early days of the pandemic by how they managed to make Studio E so versatile - personally, I thought Newsnight’s setup in there looked great as a “temporary setup”. So you never know how a bit of effort now, in terms of making the space adaptable, might pay off later!

(03-03-2023, 08:26 PM)interestednovice Wrote:  I’m assuming (and hoping!) that the BBC will keep a catwalk rather than a “touch screen area”. After all, the touch screen setup is almost a second catwalk anyway, and the utility of a touch screen is questionable. Presumably it was only really used in Studio B because they always knew that they wanted the flexibility to do programmes of varying types in that studio.
I'd certainly agree that touchscreens are something that, while news producers seem to love them, add very little, but I don't think that a 'flat' videowall would necessarily have to have touchscreen capabilities. As you say, it functions as basically another catwalk, but a more rectangular set-up, as per the regional sets, might make more sense in a smaller studio - particularly if they do use a rectangular rostrum for the desk, which could be quite limiting if they install those awful electricfriends cameras.
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I wouldn’t favour that myself, although I can see the appeal from a financial perspective if you can re-use similar elements to the regional sets where the BBC must already have negotiated good volume pricing.

Studio B and the new regional sets are arguably an evolution of a style that we first saw with the new Millbank set for Politics Live. It works quite well for Politics Live, but I don’t believe it would be as good for rolling news. Even that time Fiona Bruce had to do the national news from Millbank, it looked rather odd on screen (although I appreciate that was an emergency and they didn’t have much time to prepare).

If there is nothing “wrong” with the Furios, I would keep the cameras and most of the set largely unchanged. An upgraded catwalk, changes to the newsroom to make the two shots there (standing up at the formerly-weather screen and sitting/standing with the newsroom view as Outside Source and Victoria Derbyshire’s news summaries) a bit better and more interesting, plus a replacement of the hoop would be enough.

Upgrading the cameras, ripping out the plasmas or even a new desk isn’t necessary in my view.

(03-03-2023, 08:40 PM)interestednovice Wrote:  Upgrading the cameras, ripping out the plasmas or even a new desk isn’t necessary in my view.
The problem, though, with leaving elements of an already decade-old set in place is that it just creates the potential for further problems down the line. Some of the components in the set will already have stopped being manufactured - if it breaks, it could be hard to replace. The LED videowall that is in the back of the studio interview shot and the curved LED bit on the front of the rostrum are both at least one generation of LED videowall tech gone - spare parts might be hard to find and replacements probably won't fit exactly in the same space. If they break, that's going to restrict how the set can be used.

Though there is nothing really wrong with the Studio E set at the minute and it has aged very well, if they've got the opportunity to replace the whole set, it makes more sense to take it. 10 years is a good run for a set and it isn't worth the risk of relaunching from the set only for it to start breaking down in a few months.
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Point taken, but if money is currently tight perhaps delay your set revamp until it’s sorely needed? By which I mean: do nothing right now in the short term, and see how long the set lasts.

The only logic really being that NBH does have at least one “decent enough” spare studio, so if Studio E did wear out and need replacement once the channel had started to regularly use it, it wouldn’t matter that much if they had to decamp in the sense that they would at least have somewhere to go - depending on the time of day, Studio C, D or even A would work.
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