China’s second largest television network, Hu Nan TV, has recently completed an upgrade of its TV facility in Chang Sha City, Hu Nan Province, which includes three all-LED studio installations using Litepanels LED fixtures.
Hu Nan TV VP and chief engineer Huang Wei selected the Litepanels fixtures after a thorough search. “The Litepanels fixtures have exhibited a consistent quality of design and light output that has proven itself time after time in many studio applications around the world,” he said.
Huang noted the fixtures are responsible for a visible improvement in the appearance of the on-set talent’s skin color rendition.
Aside from improved image quality, the switch to Litepanels brings Hu Nan TV real-life savings. To outfit all three studios, the broadcaster installed 68 Litepanels Sola 6 LED Fresnel fixtures, 79 Litepanels 1x1 panels and six Litepanels Hilio high-output panels. Where Hu Nan TV previously drew 60kW of power to light the studios, the Litepanels fixtures now draw just 12kW, an 80 percent reduction in power draw.
Additional energy savings come from greatly reduced air conditioning needs due to Litepanels’ low heat emission and integrated dimmers.
The Litepanels-lit Hu Nan TV studios include a 1300sq-ft classic newsroom set for newscasts and two green screen stages. The primary green screen stage is 1600sq ft and dedicated to virtual reality productions, while a smaller 1300sq-ft green screen stage is primarily used for post-production matting, overflow production and backup for the news studio.
For the Litepanels conversion, Huang’s engineering staff chose to convert all three studios from their previous tungsten color balance to daylight color balance. Even though Litepanels has tungsten-balanced LED options, they noted that daylight color balance provides a superior color rendering of the talent’s skin as well as the clothing and set design of the live news studio. In the case of the two virtual green screen studios, Hu Nan TV has found that daylight color balance provides a greater ability for matting elements during live recording.