"The idea was to bring Sky's entire Saturday football programming under one roof - literally," said Iain Davidson, lighting director at Sky, who oversaw the lighting installation on the project. "Sky Sports always like to push the boundaries and give you a challenge."
Based on the idea of combining the spaces, designer Toby Kalitowski created a large organic roof piece for the space that straddled both studios. This would serve as the main presentation area for Sky Sports programmes Saturday Night Football and Match Choice
Iain worked closely with White Light's Jonathan Haynes on the installation which posed two unique challenges. Firstly, the large roof piece designed to bring the spaces together had blocked half of the existing lighting hanging positions in the studio. Secondly, the production design called for 5 large front-projection screens, meaning managing light levels and spill would be a top priority.
With these two pieces essential to the new design, Iain would need to find fixtures that not only fit in the space, but had tight control of beam spread and brightness. It was agreed that the header, which was made to look like a stadium roof, would be accompanied by practical units that could be rigged and de-rigged every week.
"We wanted these fixtures to look light stadium lights," Iain explained. "The problem," he continued, "was finding a fixture that could satisfy all of these conditions: being rigged every week, appearing the right size on camera, having the right beam spread for camera, and could be focused away from projection surfaces." He set two other requirements for the fixtures - a cool tungsten colour temperature suitable for TV and DMX control of the fixtures."
After seeing some of the units at PLASA Focus Leeds, and testing them on camera, Pulsar Chromascape AR111 fixtures were chosen to fit the bill. The high brightness LED units come in stainless steel housing and consume just 17W per fixture. A total of 144 Pulsar fixtures were used to cover the studio space.
Once he had solved the overhead lighting for the studio, Iain focused his attention on adding colour to the space. To get light and colour underneath the header, the units would have to be placed on the floor, and in view of the audience and cameras. For the floor units, "light quality and colour range were the first consideration - but they also had to look good on camera," Davidson added.
The setup would also have to allow for a studio audience, making safety a key concern, so he chose Colour Point LED uplighters for the task. These latest products from Core Lighting are battery operated and wirelessly controlled with a sleek look, and are incredibly quick to set up, which is important considering they are being moved from studio to studio depending on which show they are being used on. "The Colour Points are very neat and were perfect for this project," he said. "We purchased 6 for the studio and the best part is not having to worry about cables." These units have been so successful that another 6 units have just been delivered.
The installation, which had strict deadlines, went off without a hitch. "Jonathan from White Light was able to help procure all the units to meet the deadline and, of course, negotiate the right price," said Iain. The lighting rig was installed in the summer of 2013 and was ready in time for the new football season. The new set is in use across several Sky Sports programmes including FL72, Sport
