The 'Victoria Derbyshire' Programme

Yes it was a locked off shot with the text overlaid onto of the light-bar - Studio B doesn't have an LED screen in front of their desk like E does, this seems to be part of Studio B's recurring obsession of using some form of augmented reality technology. Newsnight went through a period of replacing the floor of the studio with CGI pipes or something, and clearly this has now made it's way to Victoria Derbyshire.

As for the plastic bit underneath, that's always been there.

Seems like its always been there. This pic shows it there from when World moved into NBH back in Jan 2013
http://i1.wp.com/www.tv-live.org.uk/media/bbcworld/2013/global/studio6.jpg
(Pic: tvlive)

I assume you mean the plastic screen in the above image, not the LED display but the BARCOs, and that has always been there. The bottom 80% or so are frosted and are backlight and it acts as a lightbox. The top metal rail seems to be only there as a design feature.

Watching back bits of today's episode to see what you meant reminded me of how gimicky the show is. During the headlines sequence they used one of those horrible 'on TV' filters when showing a clip from BBC Breakfast.

Since you say it's locked do you mean as soon as the camera moves upwards and zooms in the graphic disappears or stays on screen but off the bar? If it's that then it doesn't seem like augmented reality rather them just overlaying the graphic on screen.

It'll stay on the screen but no longer be placed on the bar, if you look closely you can see it isn't perfectly aligned. It definitely isn't the kind of high tech AR they used on Match of the Day. More it'll have been placed on screen basically like an irregular aston. As Critique mentioned Newsnight went through similar machinations a few years ago but, while the flexibility in lighting was appreciated, look a wee bit poor.

http://www.tvforum.co.uk/thenewsroom/bbc-newsnight-30869/page-48

That's what I was thinking of when you said locked on. Just wanted to check if I was correct. That example you gave was impressive -'was that AR?

Yes - if it is a lock-off then it is likely to be a straightforward key designed to match the shot.

However I believe BBC News bought a jib sensor head, similar to that use by BBC Sport for their AR camera position detection (and which I suspect is also now used on Mastermind who appear to be using AR graphics for scores and contestant info - always on the jib).

Whether BBC News can afford the extra VizRT licenses to render the AR graphics is another matter...

When did the VDS font start being used at the start of the weather forecast?

I imagine the licenses are cheaper than purchasing an Viz Engine.

Plus they're probably using the Viz Virtual Studio license that's used for studio A. I imagine when A's studio is not in use B can take their specified cameras if they wanted full AR. I assume they could route the signals from B into those Viz engines that are normally handle A.

I actually meant the clear plastic in front of the presentation area LED panel, which HenryBNF has already replied about.

But thanks for the info. I didn't realise those screens were frosted and could actually be backlit.

It's usually the other way round. The hardware (i.e. the engine) is <relatively> cheap, the software licence (and associated dongle that enables the licence) is the bit that costs. (Hardware is thousands, licences are tens of thousands I think)

Not sure how possible it would be to what you suggest in the NBH environment.

I realize NBH all the equipment is independent but I was assuming (and surprised if there wasn't) a patch panel where they could route signals to different equipment / galleries. In this case it would be the input to one or more Viz Engines to do the AR.