New Meridian, BBC South & South East Thread

Absolutely, life just isn’t fair sometimes. Debbie is the first chaplain to old people in Alton, Hampshire. Ian is now head of itv westcountry. Wes is freelance. wonder what happened to Hannah?. Gemma Humphries is now creative editor for ODYLdesign, a online fashion firm

She's actually The First Chaplain to Older People in Alton. I'm not clear what that means either, but try not to sound so dismissive

Hannah is Creative Director for Freedom Media, a media training company. Indeed since lockdown, she’s been producing media training videos with some familiar faces from the South Midlands and Channel Islands:

Here's a bio from the Chaplaincy page here https://www.annachaplaincy.org.uk/the-team :



When Debbie worked for the BBC she was a semi-regular Songs of Praise presenter ISTR, but I hadn't realised she was a CofE lay minister.

ITV Meridian have not only uploaded the two Sunday evening weather forecasts for the South and the South East but also the GMB weathers for tomorrow morning. At 2.15pm afternoon, so a short shift for the presenter it would seem. We already know the GMB forecasts are recorded today (a day earlier) with the lack of change in wardrobe a major giveaway.

Usually GMB regional forecasts are always pre-rec on the previous evening. The presenters usually have a change in wardrobe for recording the next morning's forecast.

Not sure for how long they've been using it for but South Today used an *interesting* green screen set-up for the start of the programme tonight:



As you can see, it's a pretty basic recreation of part of their set, and was used for the headlines and the top story. For the most part, it was obscured though by some Coronavirus explainer graphics. When these first animated on, the angle that the virtual set appeared at rotated slightly to give the illusion that it was a proper virtual set, but as the presenter remained in the same position and at the same angle I don't think they would have fooled anyone!

I initially presumed that they'd had to shift the entire programme to a temporary CSO set for some reason, but after the top story they were back in the sofa section of their studio and the CSO set didn't appear again. They have a hard set with desk and screen too, which doesn't seem to appear in the 6:30 programme at the moment (but I think does still during other bulletins), so a bit strange that've gone for done a half-hearted mock up of that space.

Whilst it is nice in a way to see regions trying different things out, it does look decidedly low budget and not great on screen (especially the flipping of the backdrop at the 'corner' of the space - surely they have access to some longer Lightwell backdrops than that!). Whilst they clearly have less freedom than their BBC counterparts, I think things like the above demonstrate the difference between the consistent high quality of presentation and graphics (excluding the dodgy studios!) in the ITV regions versus the more... variable quality found across the BBC regions.

They've used it a couple of times before for Covid explainer graphics.

I believe they have used this before but not since 2012/13. I am wondering if Sally was doing this from the weather screen, I am guessing they dont have to use camera men in the studio at the moment hence why the desk is not used on the main bulletin as the camera does not need to be repositioned to the sofa half way through. This is only a guess though.

I don't get why they've ditched the desk for the soft area with bulky laptop and gubbins on full display. Does anyone here know the the reasoning, I'm assuming covid/cleaning/distancing but I don't get why that would rule out the desk for the 6:30.

Very odd isn’t it. They go back to the desk for breakfast, 13:30 and 22:30 so god only knows why they don’t just use it for 18:30

It's because Sally is more likely to guests during the evening bulletin so it's harder to maintain social distancing at the desk. Also, most of the cameras are currently in locked off positions. Therefore, moving from the desk to the sofa currently isn't achievable mid-show as it would mean moving lots of cameras (hence increasing staff input and creating possible risk for the sake of it). I think Southampton have some aspects of remote control so they can still do certain zooms etc remotely from the gallery but nothing too sophisticated (such as moving cameras across the floor and repositioning in different locations). So it's a case of either have the whole show from the desk or from the sofa. Guessing the sofa was seen to be the more suitable of the two but when things become more 'normal', they'll be able to transition between the two again as before.