No - correspondents are specifically assigned and there are generally one per subject area (Home Affairs, Business, Health etc) per region. Network Newsroom have a larger number of correspondents per subject area.
Yes, indeed, though I wasn't specifically referring to BBC regional newsrooms, or even broadcast newsrooms for that matter.
Hello I'm not from the region so I hope you won't mind me posting in here.
I've read online that Trevor from the double act 'Trevor and Simon' was used by the BBC to play a member of the public and give an opinion on something that was occurring locally. Can anyone confirm this actually happened or is it just another sick online hoax?
Well, I'm suitably impressed with the new ST Oxford set.
It really does make maximum use of the modest amount of space they've got. Sure, it still looks obviously much smaller than Southampton. Nor does it look "big" in any sense. But compared to before, it's surprising just how much more spacious it looks.
It's the reverse layout from before (i.e. main desk area on the right, and the standing-up-in-front-of-a-screen area on the left).
Given that the CGI faux-newsroom "wallpaper" is applied directly to the actual walls of the studio, it is impossible to achieve the trick of making the "monitors" flicker with lightboxes behind. All of which was also the case with the previous backdrop.
The previous backdrop had seemingly not even the remotest attempt to make the images on the two different sections meet logically at the 90 degree angle where the two studio walls meet, so "desks" etc looked abruptly cut off at awkward angles in the corner, spoiling any possibility that the backdrop might pass for being real.
The new backdrop image actually works logically at the corner, not least of all because it includes a "pillar" on the side wall (the right-hand edge of the "pillar" being in the actual corner of the studio).
It really does resemble a mini version of the Southampton set now. Thankfully. Apart from the lack of frosted swirls on the backdrop. Maybe Southampton ought to peel theirs off of their "windows", now that they are no seemingly longer part of the prescribed BBC News look.
Presenter Jerome Sale mentioned the revamp just before the 18:40 handover to Sally Taylor, accompanied by timelapse of the old set being stripped out and the new one being built. He said it was "the first significant investment... [at the Oxford studio] for many years". You don't say...
Mention was made of it being more than just a cosmetic change (i.e. new technology/kit/equipment in the studio). I think he used some phrase similar to "better picture quality" (or something along those lines), so maybe the studio/cameras is/are now HD-capable or something?
At least from now on when those odd occasions arise that a pan-regional bulletin is done from Oxford, viewers south of the Ridgeway won't wonder why the studio has magically time-warped back to the about 2009 (breakfast bar, et al) for no apparent reason!
Birmingham really lost out with this - as they have an actual newsroom backdrop they could have easily done a Mini-E type studio.
The issue is there's not a lot going on at Birmingham any more, their newsroom consists of 3 rows of desks and a lot of empty office space (DQF). Furthermore when they planned Birmingham's set there was no idea what the network at W1 would get, so they kept the house style of the day and hybridised it. It's certainly a mix of W1 and N6
Those screens look brilliant, so bright and clear! Hopefully they can hold that for a long time.
They are clear but there's clearly lighting issues not yet ironed out if you look at the live broadcast, the presenter looks very dark and the screens are overpoweringly bright. That'll be fixed in time though I'm sure!
These days it can be a struggle to get modern flat-screen displays to be dim enough... (I know you have to go into hidden menus on some plasmas to achieve it...)
