BBC Northern Ireland

The project involved the News studio and Studio B which were refurbished and a new digital infrastructure installed to enable widescreen programming for the station's News and Current Affairs output.

The system was designed to provide state of art features and utilise the very latest in equipment, but remain easy to use on a day to day basis.

It was essential that any of the control systems could be utilised to control any of the studios dimmers or for studios to be combined and controlled from one central control room. The whole installation is therefore controlled via Ethernet, although DMX distribution has also been installed.  A range of Ethernet nodes include a custom studio floor panel for each studio with flat screen monitor, remote control and macro panels. This gives full control of the system for rigging and focussing.

The control room also features a PC-driven screen and LCD projector running CAD software, that gives a graphic indication of each lighting state and aids selection and editing during plotting.

As part of the project a complete new lighting installation was required in Studio 1, previously a music studio, it has been transformed into a modern TV drive in studio facility with internally wired lighting grid, digital dimmers and new control systems for both studio and house lighting.

Fountain TV Studios

Fountain are one of the UK's largest independent television studio facilities and provide services to the main broadcast networks, as well as international clients and independent producers. 

Fountain has two large studios with a dividing wall that can be opened up to provide one huge space.

The new lighting system was designed to not only enable the dimmers and the whole studio complex to be controlled via Ethernet, but also provide status-reporting information from the dimmers in the control rooms.

One of the main requirements at Fountain was to be able to connect a moving light to any outlet in the building and switch this to hard power rather than dimmed power. A dimmer installation was designed to provide this features.

Fountain were determined to ensure that their new installation offered the very latest in technology and would enable them to provide high quality lighting for many years to come. To this end the installation included a complete DMX and Ethernet distribution system throughout the studio complex. DMX splitters are permanently installed in the control rooms with portable units available for use on the rig. Ethernet nodes are also installed in the control rooms with portable nodes available on the rig. The entire system can be configured over the Ethernet, including system status indication and system wide software upgrades.

This was particularly important as Fountain has the unique facility of a motorised, sound proof door between the two studios which can be opened to provide one enormous space. However, this requires the control system and dimmers to either be used as two stand alone systems, with potentially a different show in each studio, or to be used as one system with all dimmers and DMX/Ethernet outlets controlled from one console. Utilising the Netserver software this can be achieved in seconds.