I thought Mel McLaughlin actually did a very good job. She sounded natural, confident and tried to add her own humour/remarks as well. She was shown on camera in the studio (with the nighttime Hisense Arena backdrop just before midnight) 
Not as polished and ad-lib sounding as Hamish, but that doesnât matter.
The studio (at least for the late night hosting session) is in a corporate box in RLA:
And here she is setting up for her sports presenting for 7 News just outside RLA if anyone cares:
Appears that the morning and late is done infront of the plasma in that box there as you have shown.
Itâs a good use, but the framing is incredibly tight and it comes across a bit claustrophobic on screen. Would have been nice for a slightly wider shot with some tennis panels down the side to open it up a bit.
At long last, tennis in crystal clear HD. 2010 was the last time 7 showed the Australian Open in HD
Warning: Obligatory Prime7 SD winge
Itâs nice for the major metros, here in Prime7-land last night the Australian Open was on the 2 SD channels while the HD 7bogan had other rubbish on it. 
Unfortunately and surprisingly the 1st 7Tennis stream last night didnât have 7âs coverage of the Federer match but AO graphics and different commentary.
For many years Sevenâs coverage was hosted in a temporary studio in the compound at the north side of Melbourne Park, close to tram tracks and railway tracks, with Rod Laver Arena in the background. Is it still the case or has ESPN taken over the space?
Yeah I havenât seen any of that OB studio with the glass backing facing Rod Laver yet for this years telecast.
Budget cuts maybe?
There are 3 studios set up there. ESPN is one of them. I think beIN Sports may be the other. The third, no idea but pretty sure it wasnât 7.
The OB studio for Seven Sport was there last year, out the front of Margaret Court Arena at the garden/food stalls (above 3AW radioâs OB van), I could see Johanna Griggs behind the glass.
They also had the Rod Laver Arena studio for afternoon/prime-time.
Does anyone who knows Melbourne Park have an idea where Seven Sportâs control room / international media centre is? I presume not in the same location as the studio(s)?
Possibly another room inside BCM.
Pretty sure itâs all on location. Itâs out the back of one of the stadiums.
Yeah, I thought so, as the photo I posted yesterday was from Melbourne Park 
It wouldnât be inside BCM as @melbournefan mentioned. I would think all sport broadcasts have their OB truck/control room on location.
Safe to say itâs in Melbourne somewhere so thatâs a relief for all.
Itâs understandable (albeit annoying) that an affiliate doesnât have the Tennis in HD.
But in QLD, we have 7 O&O, just like the metro areas.
They even ran ads advertising the Australian Open in HD.
Yet much the same here, the Australian Open is on the two SD channels 
Itâs fucking ridiculous
Something must have happened wiyh Mel McLaughlin earlier tonight, because she didnât take over from Hamish McLachlan until nearly 10pm.
A match started on 7Two thereafter and the host said âand your commentators are Hamish and Sam Smithâ.
But Jason Bennett then awkwardly had to correct the host (I presume based off that Hamish went home).
Heâs still on the world feed. Doing the Gavrilova match now. Not sure why Seven dumped him. Probably to make way for Hamish.
Hamish doesnât (or at least didnât) call matches, only hosts since around 2008.
Itâs appalling that Seven showed misleading ads; theyâd know those would slip through if not careful so shouldâve made more of an effort to stop that, but putting aside possible occasional errors (I donât know how many times that promo was shown on 7Qld), why oh why didnât Seven at least put the 2nd match on 7bogan (which they know is HD in the regions) instead of 7TWO?
How hard would that have been to do?
Itâs just an awful disregard for viewers outside the state capitals. 
At the very least, surely they couldâve put a â7HD is currently not available in Regional Queenslandâ disclaimer on the promos?! 
But of course they donât want to admit anything negative, plus they just donât care.
Perhaps some formal complaints are required before they start to?
