I have it on good authority that the first "green wall" virtual newscast will be the late news tonite.

What is Canwest's obsession with virtual news sets (aside from "saving money")? It detracts from the quality of the presentation and 95% of the time it's obvious they're using a chroma-key. I thought the GN virtual set was a huge letdown, so obviously this is going to be ridiculous at a local level.

I'm pretty sure it's going to be the same situation as in 2002 when ckvu13 was about to become Citytv and we zoomed out to a shot of Mark Docherty barefoot in shorts reading the news... but this time it will be every night. Hopefully A starts winning the ratings battle since they're obviously more committed to effort...

What I understand is that tonights "attempt" (Late News) is going to be the "live" test run of the CG , the switching, and the new robotic cameras that will be operated out of Burnaby.  I'm gonna watch.

Hello all:

Actually, the first newscast to do the green wall is the 5:00 news tonight -- with new hosts Jennifer Crosby and Scott Fee. They will anchor until 6:30, and then I take over from that point until 7:00pm.

I will also anchor the late cast tonight in front of the green wall.

I'm staying on here at CHEK until mid-October, until such time as the company finds a new 6:30-7 & 11pm anchor. Then I move to Vancouver in November.

Thanks in advance for tuning in!
-Julie-

I'm going to record and view it first thing in the morning .... some days I start off with a laugh, others a horror story and others yet, a good cry. I wonder how tomorrow's going to start?

The set itself doesn't look horrible, better than I thought they'd give a local station, but it's obvious it's fake. And maybe CHEK could start their news ON TIME from now on, instead of 30 seconds of dead-air before a sloppy intro.

CHBC will no doubt be next.

The virtual set is too busy -  like a TV (trans-v) wearing too much makeup.  I'm concerned with the lip-synch issues, the video tearing, and the frame synch problem intermittantly.  What happens if the com goes down between here and the mainland?   Sterility will eventually turn off viewers I think.  Ersatz is not what people want to see.  I'm switching back to Hudson.

I agree with Masterofnothing. There were some very prominent issues with the first version. Hopefully these are just "first day" issues.

I'm still concerned about the reliability though, CHEK and A are in a near tie. CHEK can't afford to lose any viewers. And also I noticed that at 6:00, CHEK doesn't recap the news stories, instead it continues with its health/whatever segments. That might also turn viewers to A.

I'm not a fan of this virtual set business but there were other format changes that worked for me.  As for ratings no one can afford to lose viewers but from the ratings I see, CHEK still has all over A Channel for news.  A Channel does look like it might have some decent programming this fall. That's something CTV has over Canwest.  

Am I the only one that noticed the sync was out from all the studio shots, including the Ed Bain insert?

Given the fact that I thought the digital launch was going to blow up, I think just having a small sync issue during the live (studio) segments and one misplaced story was very minor.  Once all the hardware and software are finally installed, it should run much more smoothly.  It's definitely been a HUGE learning curve for everyone.  It's pretty amazing since CHEK had only a week and a bit to get it all together whereas other stations (Halifax, Montreal) had over a month to get through the transition.
Good on everyone!!  
Too bad we had to lose many very good and talented people in the process!  

Global TV Goes Virtual With Orad


Global Television is using virtual studio technology as it revamps its locals newscasts and prepare for its transition to full HD.

Global has integrated the Orad ProSet, an HD/SD virtual set system that imports models, along with geometry, textures, and animations, from multiple design platforms. The broadcaster then uses Orad's signature HDVG (high-definition video graphics) rendering platform to ensure that the set runs glitch-free and in real time.

"Orad allows us to deliver a consistent high-end news product in all of our markets, both large and small," said Gerry Belec, Global Television director of technology and design. "Using Orad ProSet, we can present news to our viewers in a familiar setting, from the anchor desk, using virtual plasma-screens, but with added graphics value including 3-D elements in a larger-than-life way when appropriate. The Orad tools are a bridge to exciting new techniques of conveying information to an audience."

Owned by Canwest Global Communications Corp., Global TV's broadcast supercenters are located in Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, and Calgary, with additional stations in Lethbridge, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Halifax and sister CH News stations in Victoria, Kelowna, Red Deer, and Hamilton.

Integrated with ENPS using MOS, Global TV's ProSet enables integration of multiple live video streams and clips as well and will facilitate the network's eventual upgrade to HD.

Global TV's smaller stations rely on a two-camera studio setup, while the larger stations are using three cameras; all of them associated with Telemetrics robotics and a Telemetrics H-Frame rig.

The virtual sets were designed by Full Mental Jacket of Los Angeles using off-the-shelf tools, 3D Studio MAX, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Photoshop, then exported as VRML into the ProSet HDVG rendering platform.

http://broadcastermagazine.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=88792&issue=08282008

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For those who are interested, Global BC has built a new virtual set in their building in Burnaby. It may be for weekend editions of Global National, or maybe the local news apocalypse will be striking quicker than expected. Anyone else have more information on this?

i'm watching Julie Nolin as i post this....talented newscaster,  a pleasure to watch.  yet her lips still aren't in sync with her voice, thanks to the recent 'improvements' at CHEK.  i don't want to hear about software issues, hardware issues or how much money will be saved by using this techonology instead of employing real people behind the scenes.  i just want my damned news  delivered without distractions.....like it has been for decades, before the powers-that-be started tinkering and gassing experienced staff in favour of robots and Nintendo technology.  CHEK-mate.   game over.

If you think that was bad you should have caught the first 10 minutes of the 5:00 broadcast .... YIKES!

Quoted from morning man

If you think that was bad you should have caught the first 10 minutes of the 5:00 broadcast .... YIKES!

It was amazingly amateur. Trouble slate up. The two anchors fumbled like beginners. It sucked big time.

I suppose in defense of the anchors Jennifer and Scott we all know they're anything but amateurs but what the heck was transpiring that distracted them so? ... deer caught in the headlights comes to mind. It was uncomfortable to watch.

Hmm, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this. And thanks to Julie for coming in to give us the update.

If I was at A Channel, I'd consider it a big compliment that CHEK is now pretty much emulating their format in the 5-7 pm news package.

Has A's Island news half-hour at 6.30 been making ratings in-roads?  The new arrangement at CHEK has Julie Nolin going head -to-head with an Island-specific news package 6.30-7.

If you analyze the two stations from a qualitative standpoint, if it's Vancouver Island news you want, A wins hands down, just on the basis of the reporting talent deployed.

And their second-line anchors tower head-and-shoulders above CHEK's 'A' team (if you'll pardon the expression).

They fixed the lip sync issues for the Friday cast, but still many hiccups. That lost in the headlights delay because they send the feed to Vancouver then Calgary then who knows where else before it comes back to Victoria is a killer. Hope they can iron that out.

Reading this thread, I wonder if some of you (masterofnothing?) work at A News. I watched the greenwall launch and yes it was embarrassing, hard to watch. But Chek/Global it seems is a company investing in its future so it can continue to serve the views of vancouver island. My question is, how long can A News continue to do what it's doing?  A's rating are a quarter of CHEK's at best and they are so over-staffed it's ridiculous. And what's with this morning show? NOBODY watched the last one, and this one seems to be an unfortunate reincarnation of the first one.  Why don't they put some weekend news on?  I watch both stations, but on the weekend I watch CHEK and out of habit watch more CHEK during the week. A's biggest asset?? Cheryl Bloxham.  A real natural.  If CHEK had her I'd never watch 'A' again. I hear CHEK is looking for a 6:30/11 anchor.  They should go after Ms. Bloxham.

Quoted from tvvet

A is so over-staffed it's ridiculous.

You seriously think that? It was true maybe 5 years ago, but I've heard when any of the technical staff go on vacation now, they have no one to fill in.  That to me seems to be ridiculously under-staffed.

I agree they need to bring the weekend cast back, but maybe the morning show was somehow cheaper to produce?

They've just hired some more technical staff for the morning show so that will also give them some relief bodies.  What I really meant is that compared to CHEK, whose ratings are 4 times that of A News, A News has several more reporters and cameras, especially north of Victoria. How much longer can they afford this?  Especially since they are apparently giving away ad time. (I've heard this more than once)

CTV has deep pockets. I don't think local sales matters to A Channel.

Any screengrabs available for those of us who can't get CHEK so we can see what this new virtual set looks like?

Go to cheknews.ca and watch the newscasts there...