BBC News Channel General Discussion

Only when you see a camera in shot is it "real" - the rest of the time it's done electronically in the vision mixer. (i.e. grabbed still of the studio screens with the two live sources DVE-ed in).

Personally, I think the whole concept of that style of presentation is flawed. Why fake screens and randomly have shots with cameras in them for no reason, when you could just do a decent split screen with some design that works with the on-screen graphics?

I think the idea of using the Weather plasma / Outside Source area for the top of the hour is pretty flawed (just as the whole CNN "put things in a video wall and point a camera at it" style is).

The whole point of presenting from a location is to be at the location.

So why, instead, would your first shot be of the News Centre, not your location, and why would you want to diminish the point of a beauty shot by not putting it full screen?

I think it's done via DVE because when a studio camera is routed to the screen there is a slight delay, so the lip synch is out.

Yes - whilst DVEs usually add some delay (though in some mixers non-DVEed sources can be equally delayed to ensure constant delay - which means audio can be delayed to match) - the screens in the News studios seem far more delayed.

You also have the softening effect and reflection issues that pointing cameras at screens creates (and the possibility of people walking in front etc.)

Doesn't stop it being a pretty stupid concept either...

Here's an image I posted a while back showing the shot they must key the presenters into.

http://weatherfieldgazette.co.uk/norris/bluescreenscreens.png

God how I hate that, and always at an angle that makes it damn near impossible to read

Rita Chakrabati on the late news tonight - first time I've seen her behind the desk.

See Presenters and Rota thread...debut a few weeks ago

The only programme that has ever managed to get the transition between video on a screen and the actual video to look seamless and good, is oddly Mrs Brown's Boys. The transitions are usually awful and there's normally a fair jump due to the angle of the screen, but Mrs Brown's Boys uses a seamless change at the beginning of each episode...

I don't think it's a real screen at the start, is it?

I always assumed it was as I didn't think they'd go to the effort of faking the transition for the sake of a few seconds, but I'd be happy to be proved wrong! More recently the transition has got noticeably poorer though, with there being a difference in colours between the video and the screen, ruining my initial point slightly.

The first shot isn't a recreation. There is actually a camera in the ceiling of Studio C. ( Studio E does have one too but behind the presenters)

Another view of the camera in a red studio setting https://twitter.com/chrisckmedia/status/474233637580595203