ETC LEDs for France TV Olympic studio

31 July 2012

UK - France TV Sport, a division of France Television, has rented 48 ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ Zoom 25-50° luminaires from Dushow, fitting out a temporary TV studio on the north bank of the River Thames for the duration of the London Olympic Games.

Florian Allain, Dushow's technical director, explains, "We needed to use LED as we wanted to keep an eye on our power usage - we only have a limited amount available, and we wanted to get the most out of it. So with that in mind, we did a shoot out with a number of fixtures, concluding that ETC's Source Four LED, which was demonstrated to us by ETC distributor Avab Transtechnik France, was the most suitable for us.

"The presenters sit in front of a window with Tower Bridge in the background, which could have been our biggest challenge - we need enough lighting to avoid them being silhouetted, even with the bright light behind them. But the Source Four LEDs are really powerful, providing a light bright enough to keep the directors back in France happy."

Allain worked with France TV Sport's director of photography Jean Clavé; together, they praised the smooth colour transitioning capabilities of the Source Four LED - something which competitors are unable to achieve.

Allain adds, "We were also impressed by the colour mixing - the 7-colour system in the fixtures means we can always get exactly the colour and skin tones we need. We had already experienced this with the Selador Classic Lustr we have in our inventory."

For France TV, the directing and vision mixing is all performed from the channel's main studios in Paris. Source Four LEDs can also be controlled directly from the panel on the rear of the fixtures themselves. And up to nine fixtures can be linked together via the power in/through Powercon connectors to save on rigging time.

(Jim Evans)