Pre-Launch BBC News: Studio B Refit

[Ballyboy]

I would like to see the national news come from studio B. Studio E is ok . But with new graphics to coincide it would nice

[House]

Sorry if I’ve missed it amongst all the Wales talk, but do we have a rough timeline for the fit out and launch of the ‘new’ Studio B?

[bbctvtechop]

Sorry if I’ve missed it amongst all the Wales talk, but do we have a rough timeline for the fit out and launch of the ‘new’ Studio B?

Fit out has already started. Launch in the spring.

[House]

Fit out has already started. Launch in the spring.

Excellent, thank you!

[Ballyboy]

What programmes will come from the new studio B

[DTV]

What programmes will come from the new studio B

As far as we know, just the national news bulletins.

[Ballyboy]

What programmes will come from the new studio B

As far as we know, just the national news bulletins.

Very very nice. Cheers mate. They used studio E since they arrived so it’s nice for a change

[harshy]

World News should come from there with their fancy shows they will make best use not the national news dump them In Studio C.

[Steve in Pudsey]

Sorry if I’ve missed it amongst all the Wales talk, but do we have a rough timeline for the fit out and launch of the ‘new’ Studio B?

Fit out has already started. Launch in the spring.

That sounds like an incredibly long time to strike one set and build a new one when you think about how they would change sets overnight in the hey day of main block TV Centre studios.

Granted a standing set is going to be installed more permanently, with new camera control systems to configure, and the basement of NBH is a different proposition to TVC with its ring road, but the thick end of six months sounds a lot.

Is the work required more complex than just a new set?

[nlondeix]

Well, relaunches also took their time sometimes on TVC.

N8 was, at least, a few weeks off for News 24 on 2003.
Nationals came for months on TC7 before returning to N6 on 2008.
The same can be said for World News, which changed to N8 2 or 3 months? after the 2008 rebrand

[Markymark]

Sorry if I’ve missed it amongst all the Wales talk, but do we have a rough timeline for the fit out and launch of the ‘new’ Studio B?

Fit out has already started. Launch in the spring.

That sounds like an incredibly long time to strike one set and build a new one when you think about how they would change sets overnight in the hey day of main block TV Centre studios.

Granted a standing set is going to be installed more permanently, with new camera control systems to configure, and the basement of NBH is a different proposition to TVC with its ring road, but the thick end of six months sounds a lot.

Is the work required more complex than just a new set?

Yes, without breaking any NDAs quite a bit of 'technology' is being procured (and procurement of technology isn't speedy at present)

[CantGetIn]

World News should come from there with their fancy shows they will make best use not the national news dump them In Studio C.

Nobody in the UK can watch world news. I think perhaps the license payers should at least get something decent.

[Moz]

Fit out has already started. Launch in the spring.

That sounds like an incredibly long time to strike one set and build a new one when you think about how they would change sets overnight in the hey day of main block TV Centre studios.

Granted a standing set is going to be installed more permanently, with new camera control systems to configure, and the basement of NBH is a different proposition to TVC with its ring road, but the thick end of six months sounds a lot.

Is the work required more complex than just a new set?

Yes, without breaking any NDAs quite a bit of 'technology' is being procured (and procurement of technology isn't speedy at present)

For technology are we to read screens? Or ceiling mounted cameras such as in Cardiff? Or both?

Of course the totally new studio will also take a while for presenters to rehearse in as it'll likely lead to a different way of presenting the news.

[harshy]

World News should come from there with their fancy shows they will make best use not the national news dump them In Studio C.

Nobody in the UK can watch world news. I think perhaps the license payers should at least get something decent.

You have, you got the new logo

[DTV]

That sounds like an incredibly long time to strike one set and build a new one when you think about how they would change sets overnight in the hey day of main block TV Centre studios.

Granted a standing set is going to be installed more permanently, with new camera control systems to configure, and the basement of NBH is a different proposition to TVC with its ring road, but the thick end of six months sounds a lot.

Is the work required more complex than just a new set?

Don't forget that some of the NBH sets were beginning to be installed nearly a year before their on screen debuts. If there are new screens and new camers that requires a few months of calibration, gallery reconfiguration, template setting etc. Plus they will extensively pilot the new set and possibly changes things from the original plans if they don't work as well as hoped (such as when they replaced the smart glass projection screens with plasmas/LCD screens in Studios C and E before launch).

As nlondeix mentions, in 2008, N6 was out of action for 2 1/2 months and N8 was off air for 3 months, and both of those refurbs involved little changes to the studio. The increasing complexity of news sets means that the days when sets could be struck and set over a weekend are long gone.