I have always had a strong interest in virtual TV sets, but one virtual set in particular that has always intrigued me was that at the BBC used to broadcast the national news bulletins during most of the nineties.
Is there anyone here who can explain where exactly the reality ended and the virtual reality began. What exactly was computer generated? I know the huge glass sculpture was virtual, obviously, but I can't quite pinpoint whether or not other things were real or not. For example, when the studio used a darker scheme for late broadcasts, were those three orange globes seen behind the presenter actually painted on the panels, or were they computer generated?
I share your admiration of the BBC News studio from that period. I know that the desk existed as well as the panels behind the presenters, but they were extended virtually, IIRC. You rightly stated that the glass coat of arms was VR and I seem to remember someone saying the studio lights that you see during the opening shots were fake as well. Not 100% sure on that one though. What I can tell you is that a member here named 'noggin' will be able to tell you a lot more - he's an expert with all these technical questions! I'm sure he'll stop by soon.
I share your admiration of the BBC News studio from that period. I know that the desk existed as well as the panels behind the presenters, but they were extended virtually, IIRC. You rightly stated that the glass coat of arms was VR and I seem to remember someone saying the studio lights that you see during the opening shots were fake as well. Not 100% sure on that one though. What I can tell you is that a member here named 'noggin' will be able to tell you a lot more - he's an expert with all these technical questions! I'm sure he'll stop by soon.
I'm almost certain the lights were fake, mainly because they look fake. Plus on occasion the fake lights would fade up, then there would be a delay before the real lights lit Michael Buerk or whoever.
That said, what a fantastic set, and i still think stands up today. It was brilliant. Imagine the poor news junkies if they visited that set to see it was just a table with a big electronic box next door
That said, what a fantastic set, and i still think stands up today. It was brilliant. Imagine the poor news junkies if they visited that set to see it was just a table with a big electronic box next door
Reading that article it seems that more of the set was "real" than I actually thought. The only bit of "VR" was the title sequence.
There was a very good piece about this on the old BBC One show 'How do they do that?" where they looked at the design of logo, the set and had Michael Buerk move his head and it disapeared. I'd like to see this, but doubt anyone has it now!
Good God, their on screen technology may have been great back then, but their DTP sucked!
All the editions on that site have been scanned from paper recently. It's not their old DTP that's at fault, it's their current OCR! That's why there are some '1's instead of 'i's etc
Interesting to read the explanation of how the graphic worked behind the presenter's shoulder. I remember once in a while if the presenter moved too much, they'd disappear out of the mask area.
Whenever Breakfast News had Bernard Ingham on to review the papers, you could be guaranteed to see this.
It wasn't REALLY virtual reality as it is now defined - as the virtual elements were entirely pre-rendered (stored as video on laser disk, or still store) and didn't track with the camera.
However it was a brilliant illusion - and very neatly implemented, using Charisma DVE, Sony CRV Laser Discs and Quantel still stores, tied in to "Upstream" keyers - so that the vision mixer desk wasn't tied up doing the compositing - the camera sources appeared "pre-keyed".
The most "virtual" elements were the various wide shots - some were more virtual than others, with clever keying and masking used to integrate "insets" into the live camera shot based on chroma-keying against blue.
