Bloomberg Television recently launched its European morning show Bloomberg: The Opening Trade from a brand new studio at its London HQ. The show aims to provide viewers with in-depth discussions about business, finance, and markets.
TVBEurope spoke to Lingh Preval, Bloomberg’s broadcast operations manager to find out more.
Why the decision to move The Opening Trade to a newly designed studio?
The Opening Trade is a new launch of our morning markets coverage with complementary enhancements to our flagship London studio space. The revamped studio features a sleek round desk, which facilitates easier cross-talk and more fluid conversations, thereby improving guest comfort. Additionally, the new camera shots and angles are specifically designed to accommodate the dynamic and rapid pace of discussions between our presenters.
How long did the project take to complete?
The project in total took approximately two months to complete.
Are you using a physical or virtual studio?
We are using a physical studio with automated moving high-resolution displays that enable us to provide a 360 degree view of stories we cover across business, finance, policy, and technology perspectives. We chose to enhance our flagship physical space so that the team focuses on the content and presentation ensuring compelling coverage. Our in-house production and design team collaborated with BK Designs to update the studio to meet our vision.
There are a lot of graphics in the show, how are they being created? And how are you able to turn them around so quickly?
The graphics used are not AR graphics although our application of real-time CG technology, design and operational skills enable us to achieve that effect to respond to evolving stories quickly, without the typical pre-render and build time associated with complex AR displays.
How big is the show’s production team, and are they all based in London?
Since we are a global media news organisation our production team is also global, with staff located in London and New York for the core production and on-air presentation and contribution. The show production team is actually spread across London and New York with our anchors based in the studio and contributions from our bureaus around the world.
What technology is being used in the studio?
The studio uses ultra-high resolution displays through a combination of motorised Christie 1.5mm LED-based screens, Christie LED floor, and short-throw UHD projectors to wrap the studio space in immersive graphics, leveraging integrated Disguise Media processor technology stack for control of the displays and surfaces.
How is the studio linked to your main operations centre?
The London Queen Victoria Street facilities have been a full IP-based facility since launch. It is an SMPTE 2022-6 based core facility which we are in the process of migrating to SMTPE 2110. Both our London and New York facilities are main operations centres which contain large-scale audio, and video studio facilities and channel origination and uplink/stream distribution capabilities supporting our global cable/satellite/OTT distributions. The sites have multiple HD links between them for supporting live low-latency production shows for all cameras to allow remote control operations.
What’s been the reaction of viewers so far?
Initial viewer reaction has been very positive so far and we look forward to continued increased viewer engagement.
What’s been the biggest challenge of putting this all together?
A typical challenge for a large-scale project like this has been coordinating the efforts of multiple teams across different locations. Ensuring seamless communication and synchronisation between teams in New York and London required meticulous planning and management to overcome the logistical hurdles and time zone differences. Our global perspective, collaborative culture, and focus on the viewer’s needs and experience centre our efforts to deliver the best product possible.
It’s always important for broadcasters to steal a march on their competitors – how does this new studio help Bloomberg do that?
The new studio enables Bloomberg to offer a unique and captivating broadcast environment that aligns with one of our core objectives of producing compelling television. Viewers are drawn to our unique aesthetic and distinctive content, which are exclusive to Bloomberg.
Any plans to use this technology on other Bloomberg programmes?
We leverage our core studio capabilities for multiple programmes so viewers will see slices of this studio throughout our global output and programming day in unique ways.
