The studio marks a new direction in TV studio lighting as designed by lighting designer Bruce Ferri of New York City Lites. This was intentional according to Ferri, "We all know that we could have done things the old fashioned way but the mandate was to be cutting edge and to think outside the box. It is in an expando truck so we had very little room; also the side of the truck is all glass so you can have a view of the track.
"A concern was first having enough light on people to counteract the background as well as being able to change colour temperature as we went from day into night. Early on, I probed my mind for what source could change colour; I needed a colour-changing source. I was looking around and I saw Selador, I got a demo, and it looked interesting so I arranged to do a camera test in Bristol, CT where ESPN is located. The test made my mind up."
Ferri used a mix of LED units but chose the Selador X7 12-Square as his key light. "The nice thing about the Selador is that with the lens system I was able to really use it as a key light," explains Ferri. "Heat and power were big concerns in the truck. With the Selador we can mix any colour temperature, there is virtually no heat, also there is very little power consumption and I don't need dimmers, I can control them directly through DMX."
(Jim Evans)
