In Broadcast - February 2013 - 66

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 16 - FEBRUARY 2013

N E W S

InSTUDIO

Lights! Camera! New Technology!
The latest technology is changing the face of production lighting as escalating energy costs increasingly
impact on studio running costs, but that isn't the whole story…

By Andy Stout
Contributing Editor

T

66

here is often a temptation to
think that only chip-based
broadcast equipment has
changed significantly over the
past few decades – with cameras
and post equipment as notable
examples, but that would ignore the
groundswell of technical progress
in other areas. Production lighting
has been one of the most fecund
areas for change, with the longheld hegemony of tungsten lighting
seeing the increased threat of new
technologies, most specifically LED.
Threatened, that is, but not
overwhelmed. “There has been
a realisation that LED is not the
total solution that many predicted,”
admits Peter Daffarn at Photon
Beard, “...the expectation by some
that they would replace all other
forms of lighting, is proving to
be incorrect.”

Litepanels
Inca fresnel
tungsten
balanced light

For a time however, it was
tempting to think that LEDs could
indeed solve many of the problems.
They offered a compact shape within
a small form factor, coupled with
responsiveness, robustness and
longevity – in the region of 25,000
hours, – was a quantum leap from
1,000 hours for tungsten. To this add
the advantages of instant start-up,
low energy consumption, and the
ability to ‘shape’ the light by using
large amounts of coloured LEDs.
A Litepanels spokesperson likens
the reticence to moving to LED, to
when the industry moved from tape
to file-based systems.
“LED lighting now offers the
same light performance as the
tungsten bulbs that designers love,
without any of the drawbacks,” he
says. “For example, Litepanels’
growing family of Fresnel fixtures
come in daylight balanced (Sola
Series) and tungsten balanced
(Inca Series), and although more
studios are switching to daylight
illumination, our Inca Fresnels can
be used interchangeably with legacy
tungsten fixtures.
“The power requirements of the
LEDs themselves are significantly
lower than tungsten, using only
10% of the electricity needed for
traditional fixtures. This offers a
related cost-saving, given that
studios using cool-running LEDs
need little or no air-conditioning to
keep cast and crew comfortable.”
He points to LEDs environmental

Photon Beard recently supplied lights for three Indian news studios

credentials as they do not contain
the hazardous materials found in
fluorescent bulbs.
However, even this list of
impressive advantages has to be
weighed against LED technology’s
bugbear: the inability to directly
produce white light. Yes, white
light may be produced indirectly –
for example luminance conversion
imposing a yellow phosphor layer
over blue LEDs. Yet they still struggle
against the old-fashioned yet reliable
method of light from heat.
Ryan Aivalis, Marketing Director
at ikan Corporation, treats this with
a grain of salt when recommending
options for customers as well as
on his own shoots: “Unless you’re
willing to shell out the extra money
on high CRI lighting, be it for
purchase or rental, with LED lighting,
it’s inevitably necessary to check
colour balance in camera, as well
as ensure consistency for colour
correction in post.
“While most independent shooters
have learned to adapt to this
reality, by and large, large-set film
professionals are wary to turn to any

form of LED panels when there is
little standard for LED manufacturing
and an inconsistency between
brands, bulbs, and data presented
regarding a variety of fixtures,” he
continues. “Despite this, ENG, event,
wedding, and small studio shooters
have found great results and rely
upon their LED lights. With the right
tools in the right hands, these lights
open up unprecedented flexibility.”
Indeed, Frezzi President, Jim
Crawford, points to the company’s
HyLight, which uses LED technology,
as one of its recent success stories.
“We introduced the HyLight in
2012 as a new and innovative
compact and travel friendly allweather studio quality LED light
for news, field production and
studios,” he explains. “Powered by
AC mains or standard broadcast
A/B or V-Mount camera batteries,
each HyLight delivers a clean and
uniform light of high quality from a
single point solid state light LED
source. The output is fully dimmable
without colour shift and features
CONTINUED ON PAGE 67

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