I should also add the week-long move to the newsroom is very nessasary, but not because of the new set. There's a few repairs needed to be made to the studio before the rebuild. Now you know.
Major rewiring of the main I suspect. Maybe even a few structural changes?
Darker you say...
...BBC World? That's currently darkish background when they don't switch all the lights on.
...The Big Brother studio
Will we recognise ir from another BBC region or could they be pinching ideas and borrowing ideas from ITV or Sky news? Sounds daft but it is just possible.
What, no red? This can't be. BBC News can't function without it.
Gooooooood This sounds very interesting lets hope this marks the end of regions sticking to the genric look!!!
There is not really any generic look anymore. Sure, they are held together by bearing a resemblance to the National, but some are quite individual.
Spotlight uses grey/blue to good effect with red taking the back seat. Look East has the very very low table with comfy squarey chairs, and also the lectern. London has the bar. Midlands Today has the long Breakfast couch. South Today is the news cafe. South East Today is very like the National, but it uses bright red and white walls.
The National news studio may have some effect on the choice of studio, but it's not really true to say that the generic look even exists anymore.