Well this is all most unexpected, but also most welcome.
I didn't think anybody expected this change in light of the fairly hefty investment that was made in the current presentation scheme, including an LED-illuminated cyclorama and new LED lighting grids. And it really has to be said: the latter cannot be underestimated in the transformation effected. Newsreader lighting ever since has been thoroughly consistent and beautifully subtle. Finally an international standard in RTÉ; though notably, only once human influence has been taken out of the equation
The coffee scheme has its obvious faults, but the detailing was generally quite good. Practically, the set held up as well to the last broadcast as the first day it was installed, and was always consistent (aside from those desk mics constantly walking out from under the glass in typical substance-over-style RTÉ fashion). The cyclorama for what it was worth always looked vibrant, with the light well distributed and the colours potent. The adaptability for The Week in Politics was effortless, and that's a difficult task to make a set multi-task whilst compromising neither ensemble.
However the picture windows never quite worked, the celtic-like swirls in the cyclorama an oddity, and the completely blank canvas-like backdrop remarkably boring. Similarly the desk design was very predictable (if the walnut finish smart) and the generally cramped environment, well, cramped. The titles are without question the cringe-inducing element that will unfairly taint this package for all eternity - we must remember to cut the rest some slack!
And overall, it has to be noted that the set did look quite polished, certainly relative to say Scandinavian television, where sets are equally small, but MDF-like units make things look cheap and amateurish. The current scheme blended into a coherent whole very well.
I suspect the plasterboard wall mentioned earlier is an indication of (finally!) an expansion into adjacent offices. Such walling is typically used in retail and office construction to shield sensitive areas from more robust works, so hopefully we may see an enlarged Studio 3. Other than that, I'd like to see smart primary colours, saturated illuminated backdrops where featured, and potentially a screen backdrop, but not used in an crass copy-cat way. The astons should be crisp crisp crisp in the context of the rubbish we've been dealt for the past six years, and ideally slightly animated, with say, a glowing line. I'd still prefer newsreaders to remain seated other than News on Two.
The only reason I can think of RTÉ being spurred into action like this so early on, aside from the increasingly sickly chocolatey appearance, is the ever-increasing competition from TV3, whose profile in news and current affairs has grown substantially over the past year.
Regarding the temporary setup, it's interesting that automated cameras are being used. This is however not uncommon, with about half the cameras on Prime Time already automated, The temp cyclorama looks woeful, but excusable enough. I suspect the saturation of the lower parts stems from intense rear lighting and a degree of deliberate over-exposure on camera.
