As part of five TV's plans to refresh and relaunch its pioneering news programme, which include recruiting high-profile news presenter Natasha Kaplinsky for the show, the broadcaster decided to rebrand the set with a completely new look.
Set designer Chris Webster produced the concept of backlit acrylic panels that could be lit to achieve a varied range of looks to suit the mood of a bulletin, whether based on a particular theme or time of day.
Sky News, producer of the show for five, has a policy of incorporating energy efficient lighting into its sets where technology provides a viable solution, so approached A.C. Lighting to supply an LED system which would also provide five with maximum creative opportunities and a state of the art set.
A.C. visited the set and demoed several LED solutions to Chris Webster. The chosen system consists of Martin Stagebar 54 colour-mixing LED battens used to internally illuminate the acrylic lightbox panels, for full creative control over the set's background looks. In addition, Chris chose Chroma-Q Color Split LED fixtures to provide accent lighting to the front of some panels, particularly in the presenter mid shot areas. The units are configured in their side-by-side, split colour RGBA cells mode to give maximum flexibility to the set's creative looks.
As the studio does not have a dedicated lighting operator, it was critical that the LEDs were controlled by a fully automated show playback system which could be easily re-programmed as and when required by the programme's technical director. A.C. Lighting therefore specified a Jands Vista Application laptop PC control system with 512 channel DMX dongle. The Vista has been programmed with eight looks to suit different editorial content, which are stored in an ELC solid state showstore for easy replay.
A.C. also supplied Chroma-Q Magic Box 8-way DMX buffer boxes, various Tourflex Datasafe Ultra, Tourmate and Neutrik Powercon data and power cabling, and assisted with setup and installation of the system.
Don Hart, lighting specialist, commented: "The time frame for developing the design, selecting and procuring fixtures required a 'one stop shop'. A.C. Lighting through Lee House, were able to provide advice, attend several development tests and procure the chosen fixtures all within the time line. Lee was also able to assist the Sky Lighting team as we built the installation and programmed the looks. During development camera tests we realised the Vista system was very intuitive and ideal for this type of installation."
(Jim Evans)
