The Newsroom

BBC News Studios

Discussion of BBC News Studios across the globe (March 2012)

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HJ
Harry James
DanielK posted:
chris posted:
DanielK posted:
If every news studio was in use before the reshuffle, how come N9(?) is now empty and only used for elections?


N6 was reserved for the national news only and News 24 came from N8. In 2008 it was decided in order to cut costs, News 24 could move into N6 and share the studio with the national bulletins, allowing World to move from the smaller N9 to a refurbished N8.

Hope that makes sense. Sounds a little confusing!

It does lead to the question of why news need four studios when they move to Broadcasting House though, unless the virtual studio will only be used sparingly.


And then TC7 was Breakfast and other news productions?


Yeah, so at the moment...
N6 - BBC News Channel, News at One, and News at 10
N8 - BBC World News at World News programs,(GMT, The Hub, Impact)
TC7 - News at Six, Newsnight, The Andrew Marr Show, previously Breakfast before its move to Salford
N9 - Relief studio, election studio
DK
DanielK
chris posted:
DanielK posted:
chris posted:
DanielK posted:
If every news studio was in use before the reshuffle, how come N9(?) is now empty and only used for elections?


N6 was reserved for the national news only and News 24 came from N8. In 2008 it was decided in order to cut costs, News 24 could move into N6 and share the studio with the national bulletins, allowing World to move from the smaller N9 to a refurbished N8.

Hope that makes sense. Sounds a little confusing!

It does lead to the question of why news need four studios when they move to Broadcasting House though, unless the virtual studio will only be used sparingly.


And then TC7 was Breakfast and other news productions?


Indeed. TC7 was very busy at that time. Breakfast, Working Lunch, Newsround and Newsnight coming from there every weekday. Now of course only Newsnight remains. Many of the other news productions (such as Newswatch, Hardtalk and such) would come from N6 though.


So does the rostra in N6 move sideways? I'm asking that because Dateline London was in either N6 or TC7 as the rostra and desk was on the right.
MW
Mike W
DanielK posted:
chris posted:
DanielK posted:
chris posted:
DanielK posted:
If every news studio was in use before the reshuffle, how come N9(?) is now empty and only used for elections?


N6 was reserved for the national news only and News 24 came from N8. In 2008 it was decided in order to cut costs, News 24 could move into N6 and share the studio with the national bulletins, allowing World to move from the smaller N9 to a refurbished N8.

Hope that makes sense. Sounds a little confusing!

It does lead to the question of why news need four studios when they move to Broadcasting House though, unless the virtual studio will only be used sparingly.


And then TC7 was Breakfast and other news productions?


Indeed. TC7 was very busy at that time. Breakfast, Working Lunch, Newsround and Newsnight coming from there every weekday. Now of course only Newsnight remains. Many of the other news productions (such as Newswatch, Hardtalk and such) would come from N6 though.


So does the rostra in N6 move sideways? I'm asking that because Dateline London was in either N6 or TC7 as the rostra and desk was on the right.


The one at BBC Birmingham certainly used to be on wheels so it could move in any direction (namely to get it out the way for Late Kick Off) - as it was a smaller version of the N6 one I assume it can!
DO
dosxuk
DanielK posted:
So does the rostra in N6 move sideways? I'm asking that because Dateline London was in either N6 or TC7 as the rostra and desk was on the right.


It used to be movable when the studio was just used for Breakfast and Nationals, but since the News Channel has moved in, it's not been seen to move. If the desk was on the right of the studio, it was almost certainly TC7 in use.
DK
DanielK
I thought it was TC7 but the desk was the 2008(?) style, whilst the TC7 desk has been modified to look like the new style desk. Unless they have various desks they can pull in?
HJ
Harry James
TC7
Currently used by:
Andrew Marr Show:
*

News at 6
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BBC Newsnight
*

Previously by:
Breakfast:
*

Dateline London
*

Hardtalk(?)
*

Newsround
*

Working lunch
*
CH
chris
Dateline London has only been in TC7 a handful of times. Since 2008 it has been from N6 and prior to that it was in N8.
WA
watchingtv
Newsround also in Salford now
IT
itsrobert Founding member
chris posted:
Dateline London has only been in TC7 a handful of times. Since 2008 it has been from N6 and prior to that it was in N8.


And prior to that it was at Millbank!! It used to share the same set as used by Westminster Live, only they pulled a gauze curtain round to diffuse the newsroom background.

Other productions which have come from TC7... Breakfast with Frost and On The Record.

As someone mentioned, Hard Talk always used to come from N6, as there used to be lots of downtime in between national news bulletins. They used to dim the lights right down and cover the desk with black cloth/foam or something.

A little known fact... BBC Four News also came from N6 on one occasion. From its launch in 2002 it was always from one of the sets in N9 (the others being the main BBC World one, and the other a small setup for Sport Today) but for some reason one night it came from N6. I can't remember what the cause was now as it was so long ago. I did make some caps at the time:

*

*

Some other oddities while I'm at it:

The special BBC World "screen" for the Iraq War in 2003:

*

BBC World's European Election programme from 2004, using the set normally occupied by "The World" in N9:

*

*

*
HJ
Harry James
Was their ever any other 'N' studios?
N1? N2? N3? N4? N5? N7? N10?

What are they used for?!

EDIT: what's one got a overshot of N9, Ive seen so many different desks and barco walls!
VM
VMPhil
Thanks for posting those itsrobert, interesting shots.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
N1 and N2 are now TC10 and TC11.

N3 adjoined the old news room and is no more.

N4 - Some suggestion that this name wasn't used as such, but TC2 (which was used for Newsnight) was referred to as N4 on some of the equipment in SCAR. Other suggestion - it was/is the unofficial name for the Club Bar.

N5 - Defunct studio, used to do "interactive" stuff

N7 - aka TC7

N10 - 60 Seconds, daytime summaries and pre-recorded CSO packages.

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