I’ll ask with regard to those desks used for news productions in the smallest local markets to cable news channels: Who builds them? Where do they come from? What happens to old news desks?
I would imagine that news desks are built by the same people who build any other type of desk: carpenters.
I would assume that smaller TV stations have a guy around who can build a desk. The bigger ones probably hire fancy decorators and contractors.
It’s really not that hard to build a desk. At the pipsqueak little cable-access studio where I once worked, our news desk was just a bunch of 2x4’s with some plywood and fancy looking vaneer on the parts that the cameras could see. Looked great on TV.
Carpenters frame houses. Cabinetmakers build desks.
The desks and the woodworking seen on news programs mimics alot of the desks and woodworking found in modern office buildings. Much of it is custom cabinetry and custom design, using the abundant veneers now available.
Veneers are popular with woodworkers/cabinet makers, because of the exotic looks and shapes that can be achieved.
Jesus framed houses? You learn something every day.
If Jesus was living in the modern era, and he called himself a carpenter, then yes, he’d be framing houses or other wood-framed structures. He sure as hell wouldn’t be making desks, unless he was moonlighting as a cabinetmaker or was a woodworking hobbyist. 
In a lot of news rooms, the desks are part of the set and are built in by the carpenters. They’re really little more than props so the parts that aren’t visible to the camera are often unfinished.
There are companies out there devoted largely to building sets. Some of them also do displays (trade shows, lobby kiosks, etc.). acsenray is right, in that they’re usually just a pretty front - usually MDF or plywood with a laminated face.
I’d imagine the parts that are presented to the camera are finished by someone other then a carpenter, but perhaps the “carpenters” that hang around a production studio have a broader skill set then what “carpenter” usually brings to mind.
In any case, I was responding to the statement:
I still maintain that “carpenter” is not a very good word to describe people who build desks.
“Just a pretty front” is kind of not fair. You can’t exactly make big giant oval curlyr maple news program desk/furniture with anything else!
Laminate doesn’t equal cheap.
A little hammering and paint – most of these things aren’t precisely molded and sanded and stained. Okay, forget I said “carpenters.” It’s not really relevant to my point. They’re built by whoever built the sets, and those people need not be a master anything, whether carpenter or cabinetmaker.
[quote=Metacom]
I still maintain that “carpenter” is not a very good word to describe people who build desks.
“Carpenter” is the proper term for someone who builds sets, including TV news desks. Got a problem with that, go tell the union.
Besides - have you ever seen one in person? A lot of them look like they were clobbered together by an apprentice framer. Looks fine on TV, though.
Take two…speed…action!
“Carpenter” is the proper term for someone who builds sets, including TV news desks. Got a problem with that, go tell the union.
Besides - have you ever seen one in person? A lot of them look like they were clobbered together by an apprentice framer. Looks fine on TV, though.
I won’t dispute this.
But, as I’ve already pointed out (in the very message you partially quoted!) I was responding to a comment that implied that “carpenters” were the people who build all desks. Once more, this time with even more disambiguation:
In general[sup]1[/sup] people who work as “carpenters”[sup]2[/sup] do not usually[sup]3[/sup] build desks[sup]4[/sup].
[ol]
[li]this means exceptions are possible[/li][li]using the meaning of the word in the dialect of English I’m used to speaking–maybe it means something different in Australia[/li][li]it’s possible a construction foreman would make one construct a desk with 2x4’s at gunpoint, or they’re in a specialized field that involves desk building[/li][li]in the course of their work as a “carpenter”–they may moonlight as a cabinetmaker in their spare time, or be a hobbiest woodworker[/li][/ol]
Better?
They don’t have to be carefully made, and small details just won’t show on TV anyway. If you ever get into a studio, you may be shocked and disappointed at how cheesy the sets can be. The desk that looks so cool on the small screen is most likely some plywood and 2x4’s with some flat-colored posterboard slapped on it. There will be scaffolding and hanging wires duct-taped onto them, at best, on anything that’s 2 inches outside the camera view.
I’ll be darned I looked up “carpenter” in the OED and I definitely used the wrong word.
Learn something new every day here.
Two comments from my personal experience:
I once worked as a volunteer camera operator at a tiny little community-cable channel. They mostly did about 2 hours a week of programming, just little stuff for the three or four thousand folks receiving the local cable TV feed. This was in a small town about 150 miles from Seattle. One of the channel’s prized possesions was a news desk that someone had got donated by one of the big Seattle stations when they did a remodel of their news set. So, I guess similar things may happen to a lot of old set furnature.
I now work at one of the Seattle stations. The comments about how cheesy sets look like in real life are quite true, but that is changing. With oldstyle standard-definition TV, good lighting can make ugly things look pretty nice to the home viewer. However, high-def makes it a little harder to fool the camera with lighting alone. So, most newer sets are made a lot better than they would have been constructed a few years ago, even for shows that aren’t broadcast in HD. Everyone in TV knows that eventually, everything will be HD, and they might as well act as if the change were already complete.
I just realized that my comments above would seem to imply that I operate cameras at a Seattle TV station. I don’t. I am the mail clerk at the PBS station, and I do some publishing work here. Nothing really related to production.
Never use the term carpenter around a carpenter.
My brother is a furniture design major and when my aunt said “you’re gonna be a carpenter, just like Jesus”, he got all indignant at the implication of being called a mere carpenter. Now I call him a carpenter just to get under his skin. 
Incidentally, my garbage collector father likes to be called a “sanitary engineer”. My hooker sister insists that she’s an “escort”.