Watching Herald Now, I can’t help but wonder if the defunct TVNZ7 and RNZ could of created something similar especially with Morning Report.
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I’ve noticed audience numbers seem to be growing over the last few days. This morning recording 800+ viewers near the end of the show. Hopefully this is a good sign for the shows future.
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Definitely agree with GB News vibes. Not as much of a car crash as that, but having the autofocus constantly change on-air seems like a basic thing to get right in rehearsal - not on-air. The graphics don’t line up with the ticker so names were being obscured in some of the pre-taped reports.
One thing I’d say is that Stuff’s initial bulletin seemed more technically competent. RNZ also had a competent video bullein go out daily for awhile with Checkpoint that seemed more professional. Maybe a sign of a tight budget or mad rush behind the scenes?
In general though, it’s good to have a hard news alternative to TVNZ, but so far it’s not as pacey as I’d like, and the news updates being pre-recorded doesn’t help. They’re all lucky that the Liverpool incident on Tuesday didn’t turn into something that would’ve required rolling coverage.
It’s great to finally have a live newsroom on-air - haven’t had one of those for years. Though I feel bad for those directly behind Bridge - no privacy whatsoever!
Once this is all set up properly and functioning fully, I wonder if there’s an opportunity here for the Herald to try and get a morning slot on Three? Not as if they’re showing anything remarkable in that timeslot anymore. And AFAIK there’s no exclusivity clause in Stuff’s ThreeNews contract…
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Also, this is perhaps a minor thing, but the lighting for guests is odd. Looks like something for an evening current affairs programme with one side of their face in shadow. Quite different to how you’d usually light a studio environment.
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I was wondering this too…
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Stuff moved into an existing TV studio/control room that was fully fitted for broadcast, whereas the Herald has a few PTZ cameras, a simple lighting rig and I believe they’re using VMIX in the control room.
I believe this is a “test-of-concept” phase and if successful I suspect further investment in studio infrastructure will come.
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First 10 minutes of today’s show: no mic sound from Ryan for the first part, text is overlapping and unreadable on the banner on the main tease item before weather, and Mitch McCann is unable to hear audio from the studio for the first question, he’s also wearing wired EarPods for some reason.
Also, reckon they need to work harder on the ZB news inserts. Looks naff with the mic arm covering half of Niva’s face, and she doesn’t come off naturally reading off the monitor. RNZ managed to cajole their bulletin presenters into the studio and to look down the barrel of the camera, and all happening live, for Checkpoint. Surely it can’t be that hard to move the mic arm and set-up a basic autocue?
(Aside - personal preference but it’s actually a world of difference the quality of audio you get from AirPods versus even a cheap set of wired earbuds, I don’t actually mind the use of wired for that trade-off.)
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I agree - I wish guests were told not to use AirPods as the audio quality is awful.
Regarding the ZB news inserts, I suspect there will be a battle as the ZB bosses won’t want the Herald product interfering with Niva’s ZB priorities (hence the half-arsed effort they’ve come up). But I’m sure they could set up an autocue that mirrors her prompter screen.