RTÉ News introduced a new look to its television news output on Monday August 28 2006. All TV news programming at the station also switched to widescreen on the same day.

The new set - designed by Fiona Cunningham - is a composition in walnut, glass and aluminium. Created in a small studio of just 8 metres square, with all the restraints that necessitates, the result is strong, contemporary and confident. The feel is of a room, with real materials and textures, rather than a studio set, creating a mood of warmth, strength and authority.

It combines with state of the art LED (light emitting diode) lighting on canvas at the back of the set to create a 21st century news studio to bring the latest events from national and international sources to the viewer at home. The lighting spectrum - created by Rodney Iceton - also reflects the colour palette used by the graphics team in the new design.

Graphics designer Mick Nalty, with several years' experience working with RTÉ News, has created a warm palette of blue and amber for the content graphics and has used a new font created specifically for its visual clarity and legibility.

The close collaboration between set design, lighting and graphic designers is the result of many months of planning and construction. The news studio caters for the 'Six-One' and 'Nine O’Clock News' programmes plus five bulletins per day on RTÉ One, as well as the weekday news programme for children 'News2Day', the 'RTÉ News On Two', 'Leaders' Questions' and the weekly political review programme, 'The Week In Politics'.

With one set to serve this busy schedule, it means that it is the lighting design that creates variations for each programme. The new design is computer-controlled to light each separate production separately, reflecting both the time of day and each programme’s individual style.

The opening animation is both bold and abstract, with sound and vision directed by Mick Nalty and created by Ivan Fitzpatrick and Piranha Bar in Dublin.

Mick Nalty spoke to TTVRP about the new animations and graphics: "The opening title sequence is designed to be a launching point for the latest news from the RTÉ newsroom. The function of the piece is to introduce the news programme in a dynamic, contemporary style while supporting the 'RTÉ News' brand. To do this, we designed a three dimensional environment with imagery that suggests a globe, a sense of technology, and a machine with moving parts - all elements that are part of any busy news production team. However, rather than being too literal we were keen to create an abstract title that invites the viewer to find their own interpretation.

"The programme content graphics support the identity created by the titles with particular attention being given to a clear 'screen friendly' information font. The palette is warmer than the previous design and we try to use a relevant 'news image' rather than a 'graphic background' for any content graphic sequences that we produce."

Piranhabar's Simon Burke spoke to us about their involvement in the creation of the opening title sequences: "Working under the direction of Mick Nalty we began modelling some early tests demonstrating the direction the design would take in terms of the look and form. We wanted to keep an organic quality while still imparting a very sculptural feel. A lot of the shapes are based around long sweeping curves, deliberately lending themselves to the smoked glass effect that would be applied at the texturing and lighting phase. All of the details and inner sculpture are encased themselves in a large globe-shaped object, thus incorporating a more traditional news motif. We looked at some of the futurists' sculptures from the 1920s and thought that it would be nice if we perceived an overall structure, like a very convoluted globe, while we were concentrating on small parts of it. The use of an implied sculptural form gave the individual shots context and saved us from accusations of groundless abstract graphics for the sake of it! It was interesting finding sculptural ways of introducing interest at a micro level - like tiny spheres or filaments that fade in and out of regularity.

"Lighting and rendering of the sequence proved to be a challenge in itself given the assertion early on that all of the elements would be given a refractive, glass-like surface with the pieces reflecting the environment and each other - this creates a wonderful richness to the images but needless to say took a lot of processing horsepower to achieve! An average frame for each piece was clocking in at 2 hours to render, so at 25 frames for each second, let's just say there was a lot to render!

"We feel it was worth it though and that we delivered a piece that satisfied the vision of both Mick and ourselves of a fresh and interesting take on the RTE News identity."

Our thanks to RTÉ and Piranhabar for the background information.