The studio, on the south bank of London's River Thames, would have windows on three sides, and be facing the iconic St Paul's Cathedral. In winter time, when it first comes on air at 6am, it will be dark, with it gradually getting brighter until there would potentially be full sunlight streaming through the windows by the end of the programme at 9:25am.
Lighting director Matt Carter looked to technology to solve the lighting problems that presented. Employing Stage Electrics, he first had £130,000 worth of dimmable 2.5m high glass windows installed, which, when attached to an ETC Paradigm control system, automatically varies the ambient light levels. Stage Electrics' project manager Chris Patton explains, "We installed an ETC Paradigm dimming system with daylight harvesting sensors on the outside of the building, which monitor the sunlight falling on each section of glass. The system then dynamically adjusts the tint to balance the amount of ambient light in the studio.
"For manual operation, we installed touch screen panels in the studio and the control room and finally linked the whole system into the ETC lighting network to allow the SmartGlass to be controlled from the Congo jr lighting desk."
Carter had the entire existing lighting rig ripped out and new kit brought in. "Jeremy Roberts, ETC's associate regional manager for UK & Ireland, brought a Selador Vivid-R LED fixture and a traditional 1.2k HMI lamp and we did a shoot-out," he notes. "To our surprise, the Selador was brighter. We didn't believe it, so we turned everything off and had another go - and, true enough, the Selador was definitely out performing the HMI.
"We ended up installing around 70 Selador fixtures, comprising about 95% of our rig. We only use the tungsten for when we want something for live music acts, which take place on a small stage at one end of the studio.
After Daybreak goes off air at 09:25, the studio is handed over to sister TV channel ITV4, from where they do live cricket commentary and reporting on the Indian cricket league.
(Jim Evans)
Caption: The Daybreak TV studio in London, with its new Selador Classic fixtures (photo: Harmer PR)
