[ViridianFan]

Why in the name of Santa's bulging sack does this endcap need two BBC News logos?
ibb.co 

And just what the ho-ho-holy balls is going on with that BBC News logo?
ibb.co 

And why in the world would-- oh f**k it, who cares, it's Christmas.

Bottoms up! 🥂

It looks like they are wishing themselves a happy Christmas. The should have bothered with the top BBC news and made the happy Christmas bigger.

[DTV]

Why in the name of Santa's bulging sack does this endcap need two BBC News logos?
ibb.co 

Flashbacks to when BBC World titles and stings couldn't work out whether they were BBC World from BBC News or BBC News from BBC World.

[Deejay]

Why in the name of Santa's bulging sack does this endcap need two BBC News logos?
ibb.co 

And just what the ho-ho-holy balls is going on with that BBC News logo?
ibb.co 

And why in the world would-- oh f**k it, who cares, it's Christmas.

Bottoms up! 🥂

Perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered 😕

[DTV]

By the sounds of this Tweet, the move of the weekend bulletins to Studio B is permanent:

If this is the case, I believe this means that the final programmes from the original set in Studio E were the weekend evening news on the 10th December and Verified Live on the 13th. If this is correct, it means Matthew Amroliwala presented both the first (along with Jane Hill) and last News channel programmes from the set, although Sophie Raworth was, of course, the first presenter overall.

[interestednovice]

So the virtual studio has been scrapped? I’d assume they’d want to keep it for elections or such. If it’s not used it could be storage?

I don’t think that Studio A has actually been scrapped as we haven’t heard anything about that.

My best guess is, although I am only guessing, that the confusion results from how the UK feed of the NC is now handled. The UK feed for the NC has no dedicated playout (unlike the global feeds which Red Bee produces). UK “playout” is really just a router and switching system at NBH, which puts the different galleries on air at the appropriate time.

Studio J, the balcony studio used for UK opts, has no dedicated gallery - since it was originally designed as more of an “insert” studio (remember it was originally envisaged as purely a weather balcony). Studio J therefore can only get on-air by running through the gallery of another studio. If a studio’s gallery is “in use” in this way, then it cannot simultaneously broadcast a programme - so it effectively blocks the actual studio from being used.

I believe this is what is happening, and references to A being “renamed” J were really just that Gallery A was being used to produce the UK opt from J, which in turn puts A “out of action” as a studio because it then has no gallery.

During the time Studio B was mothballed, of course, that gallery was available so they could run Studio J from there if they wanted to. Now that B has been brought back into use but only for certain programmes at certain times of day, it could still used as a free gallery at other times.

Assuming no gallery upgrades are going on, but the set in E is being refurbished (which it seems may now be happening?) then Gallery E could also be used to put J on air.

So I think it’s less that Studio A can’t be used and more that, since lately it had been the most convenient gallery, it wasn’t being used. The actual studio is still there and operational as far as I know.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered 😕

Well I liked it, thanks for your effort!

[James]

Perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered 😕

A nice design overall, it's good that new Christmas end caps are produced each year rather than re-using the same ones.

Did enjoy that different camera angle to close the bulletin on Christmas Eve too - breaks the mould a bit!

Hope you had a great Christmas.

[DTV]

If this is correct, it means Matthew Amroliwala presented both the first (along with Jane Hill) and last News channel programmes from the set.

Just remembered that this was true of the previous News channel set in N6 and Simon McCoy too (though that was properly the first and last programme from the set (though, sure, was it technically a new set in April 2008?)). This bookending can't be true of many news sets, certainly not ones used by more than one programme and/or for rolling news.

[ViridianFan]

I don’t think that Studio A has actually been scrapped as we haven’t heard anything about that.

My best guess is, although I am only guessing, that the confusion results from how the UK feed of the NC is now handled. The UK feed for the NC has no dedicated playout (unlike the global feeds which Red Bee produces). UK “playout” is really just a router and switching system at NBH, which puts the different galleries on air at the appropriate time.

Studio J, the balcony studio used for UK opts, has no dedicated gallery - since it was originally designed as more of an “insert” studio (remember it was originally envisaged as purely a weather balcony). Studio J therefore can only get on-air by running through the gallery of another studio. If a studio’s gallery is “in use” in this way, then it cannot simultaneously broadcast a programme - so it effectively blocks the actual studio from being used.

I believe this is what is happening, and references to A being “renamed” J were really just that Gallery A was being used to produce the UK opt from J, which in turn puts A “out of action” as a studio because it then has no gallery.

During the time Studio B was mothballed, of course, that gallery was available so they could run Studio J from there if they wanted to. Now that B has been brought back into use but only for certain programmes at certain times of day, it could still used as a free gallery at other times.

Assuming no gallery upgrades are going on, but the set in E is being refurbished (which it seems may now be happening?) then Gallery E could also be used to put J on air.

So I think it’s less that Studio A can’t be used and more that, since lately it had been the most convenient gallery, it wasn’t being used. The actual studio is still there and operational as far as I know.

Does NBH have more studios than galleries or is it because they’ve added J? Does each studio have its own studio? I know you could see the gallery for E in the background, and I assumed the one next to it was for bbc world. Sorry all the questions.

[DTV]

Does NBH have more studios than galleries or is it because they’ve added J? Does each studio have its own studio? I know you could see the gallery for E in the background, and I assumed the one next to it was for bbc world. Sorry all the questions.

There are three galleries along the back wall of the newsroom, belonging to A, C and E, though A's has long also controlled output from J (since the Outside Source days) due to it not really being a true studio. Although there were originally plans for galleries to be able to control multiple studios, this was dropped for cost reasons.

The old BBC News channel never had full playout facilities, with that instead handled as part of the channel's regular studio gallery (at NBH, this was E). Since the merger, playout for the UK feed has transferred to Studio A's gallery (this was initially touted as a temporary measure, with playout eventually supposed to transfer to RedBee, as per the channel's other feeds).

[interestednovice]

Does NBH have more studios than galleries or is it because they’ve added J? Does each studio have its own studio? I know you could see the gallery for E in the background, and I assumed the one next to it was for bbc world. Sorry all the questions.

As DTV correctly says, each studio has a “matching” gallery - they can’t mix and match across galleries and studios.

As you say, they do now have a problem because they’ve added Studio J, it being created as a “studio” rather than just a contribution area but with no extra gallery means they are now effectively a gallery short. Luckily, due to the fact the original use of Studio J was designed to be flexible, any gallery can call up Studio J’d output easily so any gallery can be used - which adds a degree of flexibility.

More of a problem, in a way, is the UK NC playout pretty much requiring a gallery to “run through”.