[South]

The Breakfast bulletins were back in the temporary studio this morning...

As mentioned a few pages back the breakfast and lunchtime bulletins will continue to use the temporary set for the next few weeks, which is probably because of the gallery being used for Breakfast and the new 1 rehearsals.

[Mike]

Out of interest, how tall is Roger Johnson?

The Tower looks more like a shed next to him...

[all new phil]

I think it looks great. I really like this design in general but they use it well and I think the set looks bigger than it did previously.

[interestednovice]

They’ve done well with what they have, and to most people the shorter tower won’t be noticeable.

As ever with this studio though, the issue remains the ceiling height and lighting grid, and there is no way to resolve that without possibly cannibalising the floor above. NBH studios take up two “floors” to achieve full height (Studio E is two stories high) so that’s really the only way. Maybe in many more years lighting can be made more compact, so perhaps at the next refresh they may be able to mitigate it further. But they’ve done pretty well and I think it looks a lot better than the previous set which always “felt” awkward to me as a viewer. Despite the relatively small space and low height, this set doesn’t actually look awkward on screen. That’s a success in my view.

Interesting that there is a green-screen area set up outside the “edges” of the set in the same studio. Presumably if the LEDs suddenly failed, they could present from that area with a virtual set (which is useful) or even pre-record segments there, such as the weather forecast.

The moiré issue must be at least part of the reason why Look Levy has now started having the weather forecast on the screen “down the line” from a separate weather studio; with the presenter not actually in the studio the shot can be tweaked to make the effect less noticeable as they can use a bit of a better angle. The bonus is it facilitates Levy banter too, of course!

[AaronLancs]

As mentioned a few pages back the breakfast and lunchtime bulletins will continue to use the temporary set for the next few weeks, which is probably because of the gallery being used for Breakfast and the new 1 rehearsals.

Wait. There's only one main gallery to run Studios 1 & 3?

[Spencer]

I think it looks great. I really like this design in general but they use it well and I think the set looks bigger than it did previously.

I agree. I think the new design is a huge improvement in terms of flexibility and what’s achievable creatively, on any of the previous regional sets.

And even aesthetically, I think the new sets certainly have a more premium look than almost all of the predecessors. It’s a particular improvement for the regions with the little shoebox studios, making them look much bigger than they have previously.

[interestednovice]

Indeed, by having the LEDs around the very edge of the set, and then often an image with quite some depth to it used, you can create the impression of space on-screen even if there isn’t much in real life. The high resolution of the screens is good enough for this to work, but in the past Barco setups couldn’t really do this as the quality wasn’t there.

The sets do look premium and that is great.

Personally, I do prefer “desk news”, but it’s a small thing and actually the use of the sofa probably makes the sets more flexible: guests can be brought in and simply sit on the sofa, no need for extra spare set furniture, and a relaxed approach (probably a bit more suited to regions than national news) can be adopted.

[damian]

I quite like the skyline backdrop for nwt compared to many other regions. Much sharper quality too.

[Mike]

I quite like the skyline backdrop for nwt compared to many other regions. Much sharper quality too.

I don't think the other images are softer/sharper focused - I think the NWT studio's LED screens are more in focus with the talent and thus appears sharper on the close up shots in particular - that coupled with the fact it's actually outputting in native HD gives an illusion of it being a sharper image (and if I'm honest isn't necessarily a good thing unless you're showing something on the screens - it can be a bit busy and distracting as others have pointed out).

BTS photographs of each studio show the quality to be about the same - in fact I think they're all taken on the same camera.

[interestednovice]

I agree with you but, as someone who lives in a region not currently outputting in HD, I can’t wait for the necessary gallery upgrades to complete. Everything just looks smeared and poor quality in SD.