The broadcasters made a bold commitment to the fixture - requisitioning 140 of the 36 x 1W Luxeon ParLite LED heads, all fitted with 12° lens; these were supplied, complete with colour frames by Di & Di Lighting & Truck srl, a large rental company based in Rome. Set in Par 38-style cans the ParLite LEDs have been built into the vibrant new set conceived by scenographer Raffaella Galbiati, and mounted on racetrack-shaped truss around the studio perimeter.
TG5 sits alongside, TG4 and Studio Aperto at the historic Centro Palatino site and broadcasts four news programmes each day; the number of journalists on set at any one time defines the number of ParLites used, the percentage brightness they are run at - and whether with or without frost filter.
Giorgio Marra comments: "The owners and stakeholders in Mediaset had requested innovation. We had not only been looking for a solution to solve the visual problem of the studio but also the technical problems to do with dimming and maintenance, and the changing of the lights. The purpose was to save energy and money by using a new technology - and with the ParLite LEDs we have certainly made a huge improvement to the efficiency."
