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WPVI Set Changes/Upgrades


Jess

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I figure any set changes or upgrades merit their own thread. And I'm certain 6 is going through one right now.

 

For most of the weekend, all newscasts have been done from the 4pm news desk, or the "Kids Table" as many so lovingly call it. They've gone out of their way to NOT show the main news area.

 

Since they have Walter co-anchor with Sarah Bloomquist on Sundays, his anchor shots reveal a bit of the news area. They have clearly added blue panels and a video screen. First, the closing shot of the PHL17 10pm:

 

WPVI-KidsTable.jpg

 

Now, Walter Perez's solo shot from tonight.

 

WPVI-KidsTable2.jpg

 

Compare it to this, from a 4pm newscast in August:

 

WPVI-KidsTable3.jpg

 

Yes, something is clearly up...

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YES! Thanks for getting that - I'm encoding now but that was a technical slipup at the end of the newscast that revealed the new backdrop.

 

It looks like - shockingly - WPVI will now be using a skyline backdrop! Gonna get Action News Mornings rolling....

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Here ya go...

 

DZzSvPf.jpg?1?8430

 

From the small glimpse we have, this backdrop is going to look awesome! And not surprised Action News would go into a lot of effort to have a wonderful backdrop. I think the best simple, yet sophisticated set that I have seen was by Action News back in the late 90s, early 2000s. If they're going to go flashy, it would be nice for them to do it really well too.
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And here we go. The new video wall debuted at noon today. 12-screen LED. They also redid their crystal city - it's noticably larger.

 

Recording and should have caps later on.

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Pictures of the videowall by itself on the noon newscast:

 

WPVI-Videowall1.jpg

 

WPVI-Videowall2.jpg

 

And an example of it not just displaying the skyline loop:

 

WPVI-Videowall3.jpg

 

Personally, I like it, but they need to use it. Not just use it to make the set pretty, but use it for graphical presentation. There are some hints that they're doing that, but I need to see more.

 

Why am I saying that? Because WCAU from 1996 to 2000 had TWO videowalls, and they replaced the OTS graphic. And could be used to toss to live shots. They used it as a tool, not just as something pretty. I'd like to see that.

 

WCAU-Videowall1.jpg

 

WCAU-Videowall2.jpg

 

WCAU-Videowall3.jpg

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I'm so happy they changed the news desk background.

I began a hated of the thing for the past few years, and it kept growing. I wished and hoped the producers would change it someday.

And I'm glad they did. And it not only looks really cool, it accentuates the crystal city, which always looks beautiful, but looks more beautiful now.

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Wow!!! did they talk about it/show it off, or just pretend like it wasn't there?

 

WFMZ has a video wall behind the anchors and they sometimes use it instead of the OTS graphic. Most of them time, though, it is just a background picture (that doesn't even move)

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It looks good but I'm still not a fan of this type of video wall the mullion between the screens is almost too big. I think it would look better if they went with Christie Microtiles or the Barco rear projector screens that the BBC used to use.

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That looks pretty nice. I can imagine they will probably have the radar up when there are snow storms or thunderstorms happening in the area. I could also see them just having the Center City Sky6 camera up on there at some point as well

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It looks good but I'm still not a fan of this type of video wall the mullion between the screens is almost too big. I think it would look better if they went with Christie Microtiles or the Barco rear projector screens that the BBC used to use.

THIS.

 

The aforementioned BBC set is still one of my all time favorites. Small, understated, but you could do so much with it:

 

newsatone_001.jpg

 

Here's the new look set, and a classic Jim Gardner moment near the end. IT'S MILES LONG.

 

[yt]jkNUQTChbE8[/yt]

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I'm just very picky when it comes to monitor walls that's why I thought if they used a Barco it would look a lot better especially considering the two shot shows the edges of the wall and other set features next to it. That is one of the things I feel WCVB did right when it came to their refresh of having the monitor wall fill up the entire two shot.

 

Now a little bit off topic.

THIS.

The aforementioned BBC set is still one of my all time favorites. Small, understated, but you could do so much with it:

 

newsatone_001.jpg

 

A few of the directors that I follow on twitter seemed very fond of the Barco because of its versatility. They still a similar set up of the Barcos in the back of most of their new studios used to show the London skyline it's probably 30 feet long but only one unit high. The current ones are no longer used for OTS or showing a correspondent, the only time I've seen the current backdrop change is when Nelson Mandela died and it showed a picture of a sunset over Africa.

 

BkKhsytIQAAgwLe.jpg

 

I was just thinking the other day about the BBCs news sets between them and NBCUniversal they must be the biggest customer of the 103" Panasonic plasma . The BBC in New Broadcasting House has three in three studios and many more around the country and NBC at 30 Rock alone has 9 in their WNBC Studio alone, 2 for Football Night in America, 4 in MSNBCs studio 3K, 1 in Studio 1A, a total of 15 split between WRC, WMAQ and KNBC.

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I'm just very picky when it comes to monitor walls that's why I thought if they used a Barco it would look a lot better especially considering the two shot shows the edges of the wall and other set features next to it. That is one of the things I feel WCVB did right when it came to their refresh of having the monitor wall fill up the entire two shot.

 

WPVI's robotics (camera) operator could have trucked the camera towards the left on that 5pm 2-shot, and you wouldn't have seen the left edge of the video wall. Not sure why they didn't (could perhaps be a lighting thing, but robotic cameras never return to exactly where you save a preset)
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Not sure why they didn't (could perhaps be a lighting thing, but robotic cameras never return to exactly where you save a preset)

 

I've have operated robotic cameras for over a decade and I can tell you that this statement is untrue.

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I've have operated robotic cameras for over a decade and I can tell you that this statement is untrue.

 

Well, maybe it was just the 10 year old robotic cameras that I used. I always had to do minor tweaking if they hadn't been recently targeted.

 

In my experience, they would indeed recall correctly the first time you called-up a preset, but moving them around the studio and back, it was never spot-on.

 

Since they have that hour-long 4pm show, I made the mistake of assuming they started to drift from their target in that hour before the 5pm show.

 

Statement withdrawn. Happy April Fools Day?

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If you have an uneven studio floor, that will set the peds off course. The older iron-clad Vinten peds could wear holes into the floor at highly used start-stop points. That would be enough to set things off-kilter, too. The systems today are much lighter and accurate, overall. Cambotics (now owned by Ross, I believe) were extremely accurate. They were designed for virtual sets. They had some shoddy innards, though.

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