Pernette says: "Jacques was in charge of the lighting of a documentary for the Arte TV channel. He showed a lot of interest in the LED fixtures which we were demonstrating; he could see the fixtures' potential, and saw that they had a much better output than their regular RGB counterparts."
As a man who professes himself artistically committed to improving the lighting in TV studios, Audrain is among those who believed in LED from its early days in entertainment technology; his faith in the technology was confirmed with the launch of ETC Selador, and its seven colour mixing system.
"From an artistic point of view," says Audrain, "the richness of the mix of seven colours frees us from gels, guaranteeing we can work at colour temperatures anywhere between 2700 and 6000°K. Those lighting solutions have allowed us to have some interesting colours for shows such as La Musicale or L'album de la semaine (The Album of the Week) (on the Canal+ channel).
"We are also able to reduce our energy requirements when filming on location - making everything quicker, easier and cheaper. On the nature documentary show Thalassa, we light a night time outside broadcast site with a small team and only two 5 kW generators; conventional sources would have required some 30kW of power."
Jacques Audrain's lighting design for Le monde d'après (The World of After), a monthly economics show, combines video mapping for visual illustrations and a subtle combination of colour temperatures for atmosphere. The set is entirely lit by ETC LED sources, including Source Four LED Lustr+ fixtures.
"I turned to the Source Four LED to avoid the harshness of tungsten," says Audrain. "At the risk of losing friends in the industry, I think a tungsten profile of 2kW with an HD camera squashes everything, whereas the sensors of the HD cameras love the Source Four LED. The lighting also benefits from easier installation and setup, thanks to the use of the RDM protocol and DMX HF controls."
The 26 Source Four LED Lustr+ and 24 ETC Selador Desire Lustr+ fixtures installed on Le monde d'après were supplied by Lumex and installed by Avab.
(Jim Evans)
