13-01-2022, 01:01 AM
Brekkie post_id=63047 time= user_id=976 Wrote:Obviously the upcoming BBC News studio refit is before her watch but it's ridiculous that for a decade it's been thought acceptable for their flagship news programmes to use a badly framed shot of three screens with thick borders between them. Looked awful in 2013, still looks awful now.
Sorry, BBC News' presentation is unacceptable because of a minor issue in the secondary presentation area of their set which couldn't have been prevented at the time the sets were installed as the technology to prevent the issue wasn't yet available?
There would have been very few options for a display of that size at the time. Barcos or other rear projection methods are out on space limitations alone, let alone the inferior image quality (plus we'd have had 10 years of people whining about minor alignment or colour balance issues). An LED wall, as per the backdrop in C or B's soft area, would not have worked as the definition required for text at that size was not available at a reasonable price at the time. Also, due to the diffusers, some panels would be blurry when viewed at the angle of the standard catwalk shot and people would be complaining about a 'washed out' look.
In 2018, they could have installed the same 100" screens that were installed around the desk. But, while this would have produced a more seamless display, it would also have created a significant gap between the screens and the lightboxes (which people would no doubt be complaining about now).
I'm all for a frank and open discussion about the aesthetics of various news sets, but I think it is fundamentally unreasonable to complain about an issue that was beyond the technical (/budgetary) limitations of the time. It's also not an issue that has bothered me, somebody who has spent far too long thinking about the design of BBC News sets, in the nine years the set has been on air.
