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WXII illuminates news set with Brightline LED

WXII, the NBC affiliate owned by Hearst Television serving North Carolina’s Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point market, used almost forty Brightline L1.2 and L1.4 LED Series One studio light fixtures to light its new set, which debuted in early August 2020.

The new scenic environment, designed by Devlin Design Group, was the first complete overhaul of the WXII news studio in almost twenty years. While there are modern desks and monitors, the set also includes stacked natural stone accents, wood-look flooring, and a backdrop highlighting the region’s Sauratown Mountains. Diane “DiFi” Fiolek, creative director for DDG, says it was a “logical choice” for the set to be visually inspired by nature.

Dan McKenrick, who served as lighting designer for the project, says beyond the warmer tone of the set, understanding shot blocking and the impact of social distancing on talent locations were crucial to providing the visual result. He had to light for two separate blocking scenarios, one designed around Covid-19 restrictions and another for “normal” newscasts in the future. The WXII anchor desk can accommodate four people, but the station’s current newscasts separate the on-camera talent due to social distancing.

For WXII’s daylight balanced (5600 K) set, McKenrick used Brightline L1.4 lights and L1.2 lights to create the base lighting. The L1.2s were used mostly as side fills, while the L1.4s were positioned at the front. He also added Lupo DayLED fresnels to create lighting for eight specific talent positions around the set, which created a balance of soft and hard sources.

One challenge for the WXII set was avoiding reflection on a wide array of nine LED monitors positioned vertically behind the anchor desk. McKenrick says the monitors feature a slightly diffused front glass and are mounted with a slight forward tilt to help control reflections. Plus, he positioned the lights on the grid at a specific angle to light the talent without reflecting on the monitor. “Getting that angle is always part of the adventure of working on the logistics of the lighting layout”, he says.

(Photo: Peter A. Birdsong)

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