ITNs Jenny King and Jon Roberts talk to TVBEurope about the work thats gone into readying ITVs election night programme, as well as some of the technology that will ensure viewers are kept up to date throughout the night
By Jenny Priestley
Published: July 3, 2024 Updated: July 4, 2024
ITN's Jenny King and Jon Roberts talk to TVBEurope about the work that's gone into readying ITV's election night programme, as well as some of the technology that will ensure viewers are kept up to date throughout the night
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On the night of July 4th, ITN will be producing ITV's Election 2024 Live: The Results, which will be on air from 9.55pm until 6am the following morning.
TVBEurope spoke to Jenny King, head of technical production at ITN and Jon Roberts, director of technology, production and innovation at ITN, to find out more about the technology that will keep the marathon show on air.
How long has ITN been planning for the election? For a very small number of people at ITN, the planning never really stops. There is a running thread of keeping the results and graphics system up to date for example, developing that where we can, while colleagues in the newsroom the Special Events team will always be exploring potential key guests or contributors, maintaining contacts lists etc. But those conversations started to broaden out through the end of last year and I think we all came back in the New Year with Election prep pretty near the top on our to do lists.
The General Election has always been a major event for ITN, and we had ramped up planning for it since the beginning of the year. We always knew there would be an election in 2024, but we were never sure when exactly it would be. We had regular planning meetings to discuss different scenarios and potential dates. We thought it would be held in autumn, so we were preparing our coverage for then. July was a surprise!
How ready were you when the election was called? When the election was called in June, we had to quickly adjust our plans and resources. We were as ready as we could be, given the short notice. ITN is used to working on major live productions where we often get no notice, so six weeks is a luxury for us providing all teams across the company pull together!
Jenny King (image courtesy Peter Searle/ITN) But while that six weeks is welcome prep for the overnight programmes, in other ways, the challenges start much more quickly and run alongside those build plans and rehearsal schedules. The campaign brings its own ramping up of demands across ITN, with special debate and interview programmes being commissioned, new digital strands quickly launched and daily news programmes being presented from location on a regular basis.
How many studios at Grays Inn Road will you use on the night? For ITV, we will use two studios at Gray's Inn Road and two associated galleries for the overnight coverage. One studio will host the main presenter and guests while the other will be used for some analysis and graphic explainers. The galleries will control the live feeds, graphics, and sound for each studio. We will also be operating a third gallery which will produce a world feed' for our International clients.
ITV News' virtual reality setup in their main studio really comes into its own on elections. We do not have the luxury of a dedicated space for the overnight results programme, either on the night or through the rehearsal period, but we are still able to give it a special look and layout designed to support the special storytelling requirements of that show. Studio 1 will produce the evening news programme on the night and then be reimagined as the election special look in plenty of time for rehearsals less than an hour later.
ITN is also producing the overnight coverage for Channel 4, though we will be producing that show from an external studio.
How big will the production team be? The production team will consist of approximately 200 people at Gray's Inn Road which includes both the editorial and technical teams. We will also be deploying large teams of people in the field who will be spread across the country at different counts.
How many people will be working in each gallery, what are their roles, and what technology will they be using? We operate a scalable crewing model for our news customers, with integrated live production technology supporting our ability to adapt crewing through the day depending on the requirements of each show. The same gallery used to produce the overnight results special can be operated by a single technical operator for small daily bulletins, but on election night will be fully crewed with: programme editor, gallery PA, director, 2 x technical directors (one of them controlling graphics playout across 10 Viz engines), lighting director (also responsible for vision engineering and Ultimatte chroma compositing in addition to lighting), sound supervisor, comms engineer.
Gallery 2 will be controlling one of our other studios and that will include a gallery PA, director, 1 x technical director, lighting director and sound supervisor. The third gallery, which is used for the world feed will house a TD and a producer.
Gallery technology includes:
2110 IP backbone
Cerebrum control
GV Kayenne vision mixers
GV multiviewers
Vizrt Director and Rendering
Vizrt virtual studio
Calrec Artemis sound mixer
Avid iNews and Command
Sony RCPs
Ultimatte
IDS timing
How do you intend to use LED walls etc to help you tell the story of election night? In addition to the virtual walls in the main studio, The ITV Newsroom Studio will play a role in the overnight programme, with multiple LED screens used to visualise data. This studio contains two truckable walls (1 16 9, 1 square) giving us a flexible setup for d
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ITNs Jenny King and Jon Roberts talk to TVBEurope about the work thats gone into readying ITVs election night programme, as well as some of the technology that will ensure viewers are kept up to date throughout the night
