BBC News Studios

I'm not sure how AJE use it, but given that studio C's not huge (in the Sky News sense of huge) and the limitations of circular-based camera tracks, I'm not sure how well the screens would look. Like the ones in studio B, they're not as impressive in High Definition, and so a greater focus on (or smaller distance between the camera and) the screens might not work so well. Plus of course they have their 100+" screens that they seem to use as a newswall.

Having looked back at some of the renders posted on here last year before NBH opened, it's interesting how close they stuck to some elements and how others came out completely differently.

For example, that weird in studio B was (thank God) replaced with a more conventional looking one, yet the desks in C and E look very similar to those in the renders.

More interestingly, I hadn't remembered that the plasma screens weren't part of the original design for E (and I assume, C).



While there was much talk on here about the smartglass and not-so-smart projectors being replaced by conventional screens quite late in the process, I don't remember much talk about the 'plasmas in front of a red lightbox' style newswall being quite different to the render. The version they ended up feels a lot more 'BBC' - mainly because of the vast amount of red from the lightboxes - but I think the rendered version looks a lot more elegant and modern. It's interesting, actually, how little red there is in the set itself in the above render than in the actual implementation.

It also makes me wonder when the virtual set for studio A was created, as I've often wondered why they designed the 'newswall' with large smart-glass-like screens instead of the plasmas, given the attention to detail on the smaller screens behind guests was so accurate. I wonder too, therefore, how late in the day the switch to plasmas was made for E & C?

Also, I wonder why Furio wasn't included in the render. The sets in studios C and E feel built around the furio system, and the design of the floors (in space and layout) surely wouldn't lend itself to conventional cameras? Given that these were internally distributed renders, and the cameras have often been described as 'part of the set', why them out here?

And what would they have done if they'd found Furio wasn't going to work out? It might sound unlikely, but given the designers were clearly confident the smart glass would work before finding the contrast wasn't satisfactory in practice, it wouldn't be impossible for a camera system never (to the best of my knowledge) used in production 17-hours a day to not meet the practical demands. Even if they relaid the floor from where the trenches for the various tracks had been dug, wouldn't they have had to remove the walkways too? There just doesn't seem like much space for conventional (robotic) cameras to maintain the same kind of shots and angles as Furio in that design.

Something I miss from the original renders was this in Studio B

I think if they had made those screens on the left moveable it could easily make the set up in B more interesting, the 'podium' table could be used for World Business Report and if they had carried the Hub on that could be where it came from.

Looking back at the original 6 renders it is suprising the fact that C is very similar to the original yet nearly all the renders of B have something different.


See in Studio B there are 2 different versions of the 'Soft' Area Lighting

vs,


and the baking tray and desk look different in.

vs.

In the scale of the BH project, 3-5 more HD cameras would be nothing. However, the issues with having a live backdrop are not going to be budget related.

London, at night, from the roof of BH will look boring. Mostly black, with lots of yellow lights. London during the day will look grey, rainy and generally horrible. By using a GCI background, you get to choose which bits of reality you use and you can make them look nice. Further more, you can choose a location which actually looks nice, rather than a roof top of a not particularly tall building with no views of any of the well known buildings.



Remember the backdrop in C is a fairly low res LED wall with a diffuser on it - it's not possible to have a clear sharp image on it without replacing it.

Dateline London was in the newsroom set, wasn't it? I thought it just looked a bit dingy because they hadn't lit the newsroom.

Connectivity is the major issue - Salford has the most lines (though most are reserved for sport), but if NBH had been evacuated, MCR2 (the area formerly known as SCAR) would have trouble routing things in and out of London.



The background on Reporting Scotland is sometimes live - if the weather's good enough, they align the two roof cameras so they sort-of join up, and put them on adjacent screens. It does require someone to keep an eye on the camera racking through the programme though, and probably wouldn't be suitable for more than a half hour programme.

Looking at it again it could well be, with a grey cyc pulled across - it certainly looks like the rostrum is very close to the back wall so it could well be that cramped space in the newsroom.

Utter nonsense.

Salford have exactly the same connectivity as a studio in NBH has. Connectivity wise, Salford is an offshoot of the NBH router, with its own local stuff too.

Sport don't have 'most' lines reserved for sport. Sport have 2 presentation circuits, which are nothing more than a source on a router. Please don't write things as fact which you clearly don't actually know to be the case.

And you really think there is no redundancy in the system, which can take up the slack if MCR2 goes off line?! Jeez.

I'm pretty sure that's the actual studio. Dateline London at this point always came from the studio set, it was shortly afterwards when they started filming it in the newsroom (curiously they did a similar thing around the same time with Despatch Box). So they ended up on the Dateline set as it was ready to go for Sunday's programme, and the newsroom desk was generally only used for Westminster Live during this period.

I noticed that the Apprentice candidate Alex Mills tweeted the following photo the other day from 'the BBC Breakfast studio:'

https://twitter.com/AlexanderMills_/status/350876103612710913/photo/1


However, unless they've stuck branding on the main desk it isn't the studio, and it would appear to be something used on tours or something, as it looks to be smaller and like a miniature version of the real thing. Can anyone shed some light on this?

I think that's the one that's in the reception area of the building Breakfast/5 Live/NWT etc are based in, presumably for tours as you say or waiting guests...

It looks like quite a good mockup of the real thing, but everything has been shrunk down a bit - surprised they had an extra sofa done for it though.

This is correct.