Sky News | General Discussion

Only the third day in and no Kay Burley

She mentioned it at the end of her show yesterday - she will be hosting live from New York tomorrow.

PREACH !!! Say it a louder for those in the back.
There couldnt be a truer statement. Especially since its a commercial channel. Its not the BBC where your funding is almost guaranteed. You gotta make people watch. Frankly this new direction is far too bland. I cant imagine Comcast letting the channel flounder too long before they get a bit hands on.

Are these blue lights behind the screen new/exclusive to the news hour or have they been in use for a while? I have to say that even this is a massive improvement and makes things look markedly less bland! Especially as it seems that the white on the screen background has a blue tinge too... Now just get rid of those horrid beige walls in the background and the glass box could actually work!

Not sure how to upload the image from iPhone, can anyone post one for me? Just scroll back on the YouTube live feed over the past hour! I’ve screenshot it but can’t seem to upload my image here

Good observation , these blue lights were used for the first time. Since January these lights have been red and before they were white. I think blue looks best.

Don't worry, mediamonkeyuk! I've got you!




I thought the lights under the big screen were bluer at the top of the news hour, but I might be wrong

That's quite nicely done actually. I quite like the positioning of the presenter perpendicular to the big screen (which seems to be the position they use for the NewsHour) and the blue lighting is quite nice and makes the backdrop look more interesting.

It just makes the channel look more important and has a better news channel feel than a backdrop of a corridor with beige walls does.

The issue I guess is that the blue lighting does clash a bit with the 'red/orange' Newshour branding elsewhere but it's just a minor point.

Maybe a silly question (and too similar to the Studio E debate) but are the white lightboxes in the glass box (in the foreground of the images) able to change colour like those behind seem to be able to?

It really does seem much better, a few more little touches like that would make all the difference... Maybe the Comcast influence is starting to show up earlier than expected? I also note that it looks even better with the yellow breaking news lower thirds in place. At one point, it seemed that they had also dimmed the main roof lights behind the screen to put more emphasis on the blue! Hope it returns this afternoon and wasn't a one off!!

The sofa set-up was used again today..

I did think Kay was going to be taken out by the camera behind her!

It seems they've also added some LED strips on the stairs behind.

Well as I suspected, they going to shake up the views from the glass cube. Sadly the changes are so subtle only us presentation forumers will notice. I've only just noticed, as I dont watch Sky as much anymore. They changed the lights in the pillars across the way when using this new sofa view. They seem to be purple. And the new blue lights either side of the big screen are nice additions but simple not enough to add interest to this Tesco shed look.

The new colour-changing and LED lighting schemes means they could have done some amazing things with the backgrounds to match the graphics that can be used for specific shows and segments and then immediately turned off. Now it feels they are cobbling things together an its going to look messy. Clearly the view from the box wasnt deeply considered on the part of the viewer.


For the view facing the big screen, they could have really optimized the side walls (hallways). They could have added those nifty low res LED walls that could be changed to whatever is need or in the very least added colour changing LED walls a graphic overlayed for a bit of texture. I know the BBC uses colour changing tech in a few of studios, but of course they are only plain panels. WAGA 5 Atlanta has panels with a pattern printed (its not very subtle, but its a FOX stations so there you go) but the lighting behind can change to any colour. So my idea would have been to put these in the hallway sections with a very subtle Sky appropriate pattern and change the colours to gradients to match the new programme graphics.
In the white coloums on either side of the big screen, i would inserted video bars or ribbons. Similar to the breaking news ribbon along the outside of the box. Run the video ribbon vertically to add some additional subtle movement and further branding opportunities.
Example LCD Walls -overprinted graphic with colour changing capability including gradients.

See the background change colours here. (remember im only talking about the walls and the tech not the rest of the set or patterns or graphics, before some get their knickers in a twist)

Is it just me or does that sofa look like it belongs on a patio somewhere next to a pool?