BBC Breakfast

[Moz]

I would love for them to take the plunge and go for the street-level studio that was intended back in 2012, and work around the obstacles that held them back a decade ago. A good set should surely be designed to work for the space provided? Given a lot of the BBC’s decisions over recent years I don’t have much hope, although if they got it right it could really be a great slave and much more befitting of the no.1 breakfast show that’s on air for 25~ hours a week.

You can’t really fix the sunrise times though

What’s outside though? If it’s other buildings, surely they could be lit until the sun pops up.  Then it would be different to the Daybreak issues when they just had total darkness outside.

[Brekkie]

Just because Daybreak didn't get it right doesn't mean having outdoor views needs to be a none-starter for every other breakfast shows. Sunrises are a daily fact of life and dozens of breakfast programmes around the world manage to have real views. Indeed we had it here on The Big Breakfast for a decade - they just managed it by tweaking things whenever there was an issue.

[AaronTV]

A decade on you’d hope they could manage the darkness issue if they wanted a real view, I’m sure you could utilise a couple of screens behind the presenters in the particularly dark months. (A bit like those panels they brought into the Daybreak studio eventually, just a bit nicer looking).

Breakfast does deserve a vastly improved studio space, but do they have the room in their current building to accommodate anything bigger? They surely ended up in the shoebox for a reason, I doubt it was their first choice.

Had they not have made the decision to move to Salford, Breakfast could have been moving into a newly renovated Studio B…

I also assume the main presenting gig will be going to John Kay in all likelihood, I don’t imagine the applicant pool will be particularly large. ‘Would you like to relocate your family up to Salford for a part time job, or do an awful commute 3 days a week, for half of what your predecessor was paid…?’ It’s a bit of a tough sell.

Victoria Derbyshire would be my choice, I find the insistence on a male/female combo a little dull, but I highly doubt ultra-safe Breakfast would go for it.

[Stuart]

What’s outside though? If it’s other buildings, surely they could be lit until the sun pops up.  Then it would be different to the Daybreak issues when they just had total darkness outside.

If I want to see outside, I look out of the windows in my own home. Why would I want to look out of someone else's window simply because they don't want to create a proper set for a TV studio?

The thought of watching people wandering around the MediaCity Piazza, whether in daylight or with the background buildings floodlit, is about as enticing to me as a bowl of cold porridge.

[Moz]

What’s outside though? If it’s other buildings, surely they could be lit until the sun pops up.  Then it would be different to the Daybreak issues when they just had total darkness outside.

If I want to see outside, I look out of the windows in my own home. Why would I want to look out of someone else's window simply because they don't want to create a proper set for a TV studio?

The thought of watching people wandering around the MediaCity Piazza, whether in daylight or with the background buildings floodlit, is about as enticing to me as a bowl of cold porridge.

And I just don’t understand why people want a reproduction of what’s outside rather than a real view. It’s like preferring Studio C’s fake newsroom backdrop to Studio E’s real one. Baffling.

[natashajacobs]

If I want to see outside, I look out of the windows in my own home. Why would I want to look out of someone else's window simply because they don't want to create a proper set for a TV studio?

The thought of watching people wandering around the MediaCity Piazza, whether in daylight or with the background buildings floodlit, is about as enticing to me as a bowl of cold porridge.

And I just don’t understand why people want a reproduction of what’s outside rather than a real view. It’s like preferring Studio C’s fake newsroom backdrop to Studio E’s real one. Baffling.

Depends if they can pull it off though. The studio C is a reflection of their poor graphics and video wall technology rather than the concept of a fake newsroom. I think both a live and fake view can work equally well but it depends on what view the BBC are working with. A view over the Corrie development isn’t going to happen for example

[Newsroom]

If they can afford 'Morning Live' a 25min weekly programme its own marvellous studio, then I'm sure the countries most watched Breakfast programme is deserved of its own equally marvellous space.

[XIII]

Surely BBC Breakfast don't need a real view, This Morning for example has a fake view which works brilliantly and you can have control of the timings and make changes.

[DTV]

I’ve always liked the studio the way it is, the Salford backdrop is brilliant and the orange.

Whenever Dan Walker, Ben Thompson or John Watson stood up, it was obvious that they were within inches of the lighting rig.

A broadcasting facility that is on air for different programmes, for so many hours a week, really needs to come from something better than converted office space.

Though it's not just the fact that it's converted office space. All such spaces present issues (lower lighting grids, pillars, etc), but the Breakfast/NWT space is uniquely bad. The ceiling is a good foot/half-metre lower than in 'studios' like N8 and N9. And the awkward shape of the room, particularly the acute angled main corner, significantly limits how it can be used.

The inadequacy of the space is particularly highlighted by the contrast with the BBC Sport news studio. Breakfast should really take over the space. They don't even have to use the newsroom or plaza backdrops, but the space is much more befitting of one of the core BBC News programmes than the current set-up.

[natashajacobs]

Whenever Dan Walker, Ben Thompson or John Watson stood up, it was obvious that they were within inches of the lighting rig.

A broadcasting facility that is on air for different programmes, for so many hours a week, really needs to come from something better than converted office space.

Though it's not just the fact that it's converted office space. All such spaces present issues (lower lighting grids, pillars, etc), but the Breakfast/NWT space is uniquely bad. The ceiling is a good foot/half-metre lower than in 'studios' like N8 and N9. And the awkward shape of the room, particularly the acute angled main corner, significantly limits how it can be used.

The inadequacy of the space is particularly highlighted by the contrast with the BBC Sport news studio. Breakfast should really take over the space. They don't even have to use the newsroom or plaza backdrops, but the space is much more befitting of one of the core BBC News programmes than the current set-up.

Oh please not the ‘use the Sports news studio’ point again. Heard it so many times before on here and considering we are a good few years away from the merger of the news channels to free up capacity it’s not going to happen. In all likelihood it’s just going to be a set of new video walls in the current studio plus a new sofa and table to match.

[Brekkie]

Moving on from the studio debate given how the show hasn't moved their end of week presenters up to the beginning of the week in recent years when they've left it kind of feels now that Dan and Louise have both gone, and as good as Jon Kay and Sally may be, that the A-team is now tucked away at the end of the week.

[AM160]

a real view outside, by the windows (bear in mind this was the original plan when it was just NWT in the mix) won't happen. Its a public right of way around there that can't be closed off so therefor not secure. nothing at all to do with lighting or anything else

Greenscreen/VR studio won't happen. the delays involved with the graphics processing are too much for a programme of such complexity.

The sports studio space actually isn't as big as is believed. The 2012 olympics coverage from down there looked great but it was very simple compared to a "full" breakfast TX.

I also enjoy this idea that mon-weds is the A team... Saturday between 8-9 I think, traditionally gets the highest viewing figures of the whole week. Naga has her radio commitments at the beginning of the week and who knows what Charlie is up to!! I doubt they'll be moved.

Interesting times though..!

[Moz]

a real view outside, by the windows (bear in mind this was the original plan when it was just NWT in the mix) won't happen. Its a public right of way around there that can't be closed off so therefor not secure. nothing at all to do with lighting or anything.

Isn’t the plaza at NBH and then under the building through to Langham St a public right of way too? Doesn’t stop it appearing behind the One Show.

[Stuart]

Isn’t the plaza at NBH and then under the building through to Langham St a public right of way too? Doesn’t stop it appearing behind the One Show.

Doesn't it have barriers around the windows during live broadcasts from Studio V?  From what I have noticed whenever watching the One Show of late, they seem to have moved to obscuring the view to a large extent.  You can just about make out the old part of BH in the background.

Either real or 'fake' views don't really do anything for me. They don't really add anything. I like the wide (day/night) views of the London skyline in Studio C, and also the Thames view on GMB, but they are really just part of the design rather than an attempt to relay reality.

Other than that, I'm not a fan of unnecessary 'real' views.  If I buy a pack of sausages from Sainsbury's, I wouldn't expected to be confronted with a depiction of an abbatoir.  

I want to watch the finished broadcast product, produced in a slick and professional manner. I don't need to know how they created it, and I doubt Joe Public does either.

[Moz]

Isn’t the plaza at NBH and then under the building through to Langham St a public right of way too? Doesn’t stop it appearing behind the One Show.

Doesn't it have barriers around the windows during live broadcasts from Studio V?  From what I have noticed whenever watching the One Show of late, they seem to have moved to obscuring the view to a large extent.  You can just about make out the old part of BH in the background.

Either real or 'fake' views don't really do anything for me. They don't really add anything. I like the wide (day/night) views of the London skyline in Studio C, and also the Thames view on GMB, but they are really just part of the design rather than an attempt to relay reality.

Other than that, I'm not a fan of unnecessary 'real' views.  If I buy a pack of sausages from Sainsbury's, I wouldn't expected to be confronted with a depiction of an abbatoir.  

I want to watch the finished broadcast product, produced in a slick and professional manner. I don't need to know how they created it, and I doubt Joe Public does either.

So what do you want in the background. There has to be something! It’s always either been a real view of a newsroom, a fake view of a newsroom, a real view of outside or a fake view of outside - or just a plain coloured backdrop if you go back far enough.