The brief for the new suite was to create a multipurpose studio complex suitable for C5 News, which uses Virtual Reality to generate the on air environment, ready to broadcast from mid-November.
With limited space, designing a system flexible enough to cover all eventualities was the design team's biggest challenge, as Antony Vine, project manager for installation company White Light, explains, "The studio has very limited head room and absolutely no space for a dimmer room. To overcome this problem we've used eS21 Dimmer Bars, with the Dimmers and Relays inbuilt. The modularity of the eS21 bar design is of particular importance as this enables us to balance the Phases nicely with some bars being fed from a UPS."
When it came to programming and playback the ITN lighting team chose to go with a Palette VL Console - a selection that was made following a comprehensive evaluation by ITN engineers of a number of consoles from a variety of manufacturers.
Paul Flook, head of broadcast engineering for ITN explains, "The team unanimously found the Palette VL to be more intuitive to use and, in terms of functionality, more in keeping with the actions they carry out on a regular basis. The Palette also enables the lighting team to hook into the system up in the News Room and Grays Inn Road if needed."
(Jim Evans)
