WPVI - Sept. 13, 2009 - First 6pm From New Studios

WPVI's new building, years in the making and planning, finally debuted on September 12, 2009. This is from the following day, and is the first 6pm newscast from the new facilities. As you can see, they didn't choose to do a dramatic overhaul of the general look and graphics; in some aspects the only thing that seems to have changed is that the news team has a lot more room to work with. The most major changes have been made behind the scenes, with high-powered new equipment and software to work with.
The one thing you'll notice is the graphics look slightly different - and that's because 6 installed a VizRT system. Everything renders in and out in real time now; hence the graphical elements animate like crazy. Unfortunately, instead of commissioning a new graphics package or reworking parts of the current 2006-era look to fit VizRT's strengths, they chose to recreate the old stuff in-house from scratch. The result is not up to par and some of the graphics just don't look as good as they did in the old facilities. Hopefully, as 6's graphics staff learns the equipment, the on-air look will improve immensely.
The set, though, more than makes up for the shortcomings of the graphics. It's very similar to the old set and indeed incorporates a number of elements and concepts from that old set, but is much bigger. There is more room to move, the anchors are spaced much farther apart, and there is an impressive sense of scale. One way you can tell is with the glass skyline, a fixture carried over from the old set. In the old facilities, it was packed into a corner with elements overlapping each other. In the new studio, it's spaced farther apart and expanded (hello, Comcast Center!). The backdrop is still Action News Blue but with more definition and objects in the background. It's little elements like these that elevate the new set over the old.
One last gripe, they apparently moved the location for The Weather Outside, closer to the new studio where it's just non-descript trees as the background. No more patio and no more honkers. :( I hope it's not permanent, just temporary as they knock the old building down.
Keep in mind, this was a soft launch - they always make major changes on a Saturday - and I expect the real hoopla to occur with the first weekday newscasts on Monday. There's still some work to be done but it's a promising start. Not a perfect start, but a promising one.

[@koriedrose]

Interesting about the set.. Sister station WTVD which had a similar set changed it set background this week from a BDG design to a similar blue background with the abc logo and abc11 EWN in gothic font across the bottom.

[@qunewsguy]

In the right hands VizRT can look incredible. Not the U.S. networks' strong points, but take a look at BBC News, Channel 4, and ITV News in the U.K. for great examples of how powerful VizRT actually is in trained hands.

[@UnrelatedArchives]

Heh, overall, I like it. I'm not gonna rip too much on 6's GFX reworking, they've worked the VizRT fairly well, so far, as I can tell. Whatever... stations and their in-house creations... the set is basically the same, in terms of layout. Don't get why they still use Action Blue for the BG to this day.

[@TVNewsMan4TVNewsMan4]

yay.... Rob Jennings just says CHARLOTTE! No "NC" :)