Versatility, Performance & Cost Saving

By Rod Aaron Gammons, Managing Director, Rotolight

Technology is revolutionising the broadcast space – and it's not just the evolution of the camera, the increase in resolution or the introduction of IP within the broadcast workflow. Lighting is playing an ever-increasingly important role in studios, filmmaking and outside broadcast. This is partly due to the wider acceptance of LED lighting but also because of the massive innovation that is occurring with these lights.

Rotolight, an award-winning LED manufacturer, is at the forefront of the innovation charge. It has developed a range of lights ideal for studio and location use. These include the Neo 2 on-camera light, the AEOS location light, and the ANOVA PRO 2, which is the newest in the range.

The ANOVA PRO 2 is both a continuous light and strobe, featuring High Speed Sync (HSS). It is also one of the brightest lights ever launched in its class – an impressive 70% brighter than its predecessor – delivering 10,700 lux at three feet.

Putting that into context is Andrew Lebentz, Head of Production for Celebro Media, London's first fully 4K television studio regularly used by global broadcasters such as the BBC, MTV, and the Discovery Channel.

"The brightness of the ANOVA PRO 2 means we can get away with using fewer lights. They generate the same degree of brightness and luminosity in the studio – with just a handful. In the past, we would need an entire rack of lights to achieve the same effect. Of course, this would've meant more heat, more discomfort and more cost."

Another benefit of the light is that it provides the best power to consumption ratio in the industry, as it is one of the most energy efficient LED panels ever designed. While delivering a powerful light output, it does so with a mere 72W consumption. This leads to significant cost savings on operating expenses for studios. It also means that the light is ideal for use in the outside broadcast environment as it offers unrivalled battery performance for ENG operators or run and gun shooters who have to carry fewer batteries around with them for a day of shooting.

Celebro Media will be using more than 200 ANOVA PRO 2s across its new studios in Moscow, LA and Washington, as well as its existing London studios.

"This is going to be our main lighting system across these locations, and we'll be using them out and about with our new OB service called Celebro Live," explains Wesley Dodd, CEO of Celebro Media. "The fact that the ANOVA PRO 2 offers 70% more power is great. All our studios are daylight studios, which means we need studio lights that can respond to different types of daylight, which can be vastly different between LA in the morning or Moscow in the afternoon, which can take on a blue tinge. We can also match both the brightness and the colour temperature properly, and that is just so invaluable."

Anova PRO 2 delivers outstanding colour reproduction (CRI>96, TLCI 91) eliminating the need for expensive post production, whilst featuring electronically adjustable colour temperature in both flash and continuous modes (6300-3150K).

One of the newer features on the light is the inclusion of an RJ45 DMX connection which brings even greater savings to users as it eliminates the need for cabling.

"The RJ45 connection allows us to install the ANOVA PRO 2s in our studio, at a fraction of a cost with the same professional results. It is a more versatile form of connection that plugs straight into the back of the light.

"With a traditional DMX connection, you have to daisy-chain the lights and they become more susceptible to faults in the chain. The RJ45 connector is such a brilliant way of avoiding that problem. For a studio like ours that is already running a lot of our other systems on the same cabling, it represents a huge cost saving and a time saving. An RJ45 cable can go into any port in the world so it gives us so much more versatility in what we do," says Dodd.

The ANOVA PRO 2 also includes a customizable suite of Rotolight's award-winning CineSFX™ (Fire, Lightning, TV, Gunshot, Paparazzi, etc.) which eliminate the need for expensive, time consuming legacy 'flicker-box' workflows. The newly integrated wireless Elinchrom Skyport receiver enables wireless control of CineSFX, colour temperature and brightness from up to 656ft (200m).

The broadcast industry will continue to evolve, driven by the need for more advanced technology, efficiencies and performance. With LED innovations like the ANOVA PRO 2 lighting the way, the future of broadcast does indeed look bright.

Image: Rotolight ANOVA PRO 2 in the studio.

www.rotolight.com

(JP/LM)