[Stuart]

Caught the 1pm news from B for the first time and what a cold, sterile, unwelcoming set that is.  The blocks of white and grey just mean the set has no warmth to it at all, especially in the main desk area.

Has always been my impression of the new B. It’s a stunning studio, but the BBC had the best live newsroom background of anyone currently on TV with studio E. I’d take a real newsroom backdrop over lightboxes or the monolith any day.

I've never actually been a fan of the 'live newsroom' background in the first place. It's no more necessary to me than seeing a live image of an abattoir while I eat a steak.

NBH-B doesn't have lightboxes, they are LED screens. Whether or not the images of the newsroom behind the desk are live is largely irrelevant, as there seems to be just about as much 'activity' these days as in the empty fake gallery behind the desk on ITV News. However, I like that on ITV News they have relevant vidoes showing on the 'screens' sometimes, so I guess it must be reactive in some fashion.