New

 Now that it's been on the air, I can finally talk about it.  We have a new set. 

The old set was perfectly good and adequate, but it was time for an updating, and the new set is more HD friendly.  The switch to HD is in the near future.

Let me explain what's in the first picture.  The artsy looking walls are much more colorful than the old.    There's an easel with a "Newswatch 16" logo on the left of the first photo.  There's a monitor there now.  It hadn't been installed when I took the photo late last month.

The middle of the set features nine HD monitors.  There was a shot of the control room up when I took the photo.  We can put anything in there, and most of the time, it will be used to illustrate big stories.

The new and improved anchor desk is wider than the old because new TV sets have a wider screen.  There's also a monitor in the front of the desk.  It will show different things from time to time.

The news set was a work in progress when I took the photos.  The construction related items are now gone.  The wires and cables are hidden from view.  It looks nice.

There have been rehearsals on the new set for the past couple weeks.  The anchors and tech people needed to become accustomed to the new surroundings.  I had my turn last Saturday, after our regular broadcast on WNEP2 ended.  It was a little strange, at first.  After a few minutes and getting used to the new camera angles, it was actually a lot of fun.

On one hand, it's just furniture.  On the other, we have more tools now that will help us tell stories. 

Change is good.