SEATAC, WASH.— Advanced Broadcast Solutions upgraded the lighting grid for TV Tacoma, a government access channel serving the City of Tacoma and Pierce County, Wash. ABS removed all incandescent lights and replaced them with almost 70 Brightline daylight balanced (5,600K) fluorescent and LED lighting instruments.
According to Mark Siegel, president of ABS, the redesigned grid has twice the lights but has reduced energy consumption (including HVAC usage) by more than 75 percent. The four-day project was completed in February and also included a new ETC Element lighting console, which allows operators to dim all instruments and save lighting designs for easy recall.
Under the direction of supervisor John Miller, TV Tacoma has six full-time producers and a full schedule of original series and special programming, which is available locally on Click! and Comcast cable systems. Programming is also streamed live on www.cityoftacoma.org and archived through Granicus for on-demand viewing. The City of Tacoma also operates a regional bulletin board channel and a regional master control center that serves six channels from its facility.
The primary goals of the project were to improve the overall studio lighting to coincide with the arrival of new sets, as well as reduce heat and energy consumption generated by the existing incandescent (quartz) lights. The 25x40 studio space once housed three sets, but now has enough lighting to support six sets, including a new green screen wall for chromakey productions.
Joe Cervone, a sales manager for Brightline who assisted with the project, said the company’s fluorescent SeriesONE fixtures were used to light large areas of the sets.
Jeff Lueders, cable communications and franchise services manager, City of Tacoma, said the new lighting was part of their overall improvement plan. “The new lighting scheme also helps prepare our facility for the transition to HD production, which should be completed within the next nine months,” he said.
