LOS ANGELES—A new generation of lighting designers and project integrators is bringing premium lighting tools behind the big budget looks of television productions to small video broadcast stages.
At Jaz Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production studio lighting and design company, we often have corporate clients who repurpose existing office space into studios with confined stage area and low ceilings. One of our go-to fixtures for lighting in tight zones is the Diva-Lite 41 LED fixture, one of many LEDs from Kino Flo Lighting Systems. Designed by Kino Flo to produce a long narrow soft light source, the Diva-Lite 41’s shallow form factor and full range of color correct white light works perfectly for these situations.
Most of our clients have multiple studios globally and rely on mission critical hardware that can be obtained same-day if need be. Being able to source Kino Flo products locally in any country or from Kino Flo directly allows us to ensure our customers are fully supported.
THE RIGHT FIT
A recent installation at 110 Football studio in Los Angeles reflects an ongoing challenge to lighting small spaces from behind the camera as well as within the set design. The company broadcasts online, specializing in interviews and news covering the Los Angeles Football Club. Properly backlighting subjects and separating them from the walls is always one of the most challenging aspects of lighting small studios.
In the case of 110 Football, we designed two sets in a 12x25-foot space. One set is a two-person news desk, the other is an interview area. Lights were rigged in key and fill positions from the ceiling, 9 feet above the stage floor. We used eight Kino Flo Diva-Lite LED 41 center mount systems (which were great for tucking up as high as possible into the grid) and four Kino Flo FreeStyle 4-foot LED tubes, called T44 Systems.
Working around cameras and other equipment is also a problem. We had to light in the same space as a robotic camera arm; the only way to avoid shadows on our subjects and to achieve the proper key and fill levels without creating “flat” images was to create a one-to-one lighting ratio.
There are five Panasonic AW-UE150 PTZs covering the two sets, and a soon-to-be installed Panasonic AK-UB300GJ that will live on the robotic arm. All of the lights are controlled via the Luminair 3 iOS application on an iPad Pro 12.9 inch. Having the wireless flexibility allows the engineers to not be tied down to one location. The engineer’s room is in a separate building from the studio.
MATCHING COLOR
Kino Flo’s reputation as the king of color balanced white light for all levels of motion picture, television and video production is well documented. I find that the company’s Diva-Lite’s color management firmware and proprietary LED luminaires ensure that when choosing a correlated color from 2700 Kelvin to 6500 Kelvin, our white light harmonizes with the sensors of the HD video cameras.
While the Diva-Lite LEDs were hung for key and fill, the FreeStyle T44 LED tubes were operated as bare lamps placed around the set as accent lights near the interview couches. The tubes were tuned to a rich yellow color to blend with the LAFC’s gold and black team colors.
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My client said that he had an “idea of what they wanted the studio to look like but had never imagined it would look as amazing as it does.” To have the liberty to focus on your passion and craft and have your client love the outcome brings great satisfaction and joy to me and the Jaz Entertainment team.
Jaz Entertainment provides turnkey audio & video installation services for facilities of all shapes and sizes. Contact Jaz Entertainment at www.JazEntertainment.net.
For more information, visit www.kinoflo.com or call 818-767-6528.
