Florida ABC re-lights studio with Brightline fixtures in scenic upgrade

ABC 7 Southwest Florida, Montclair Communications’ WZVN operated by Waterman Broadcasting, recently went live with a new look including the latest in scenic and broadcast lighting design. Along with a set from FX Design Group, the Ft. Myers-Naples station also upgraded its lighting fixtures to LED units from Brightline.

“Brightline has taken WZVN into the DMX world and also the LED world,” said Bob Hannon, senior production engineer for Waterman Broadcasting.

“They look fantastic. The lighting is very consistent; we’re not dealing with color temperature variations across the set. It’s a really nice setup.”

The updated lighting grid is daylight balanced at 5600K with a mix of Brightline L1.2 and L1.4 LED SeriesONE studio fixtures, BL.16 long-throw beam compact fixtures, and Lupo DayLED fresnels.

Set Design

WZVN

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“What we tried to do was eliminate all risers, all furniture that give you obstacles. The main anchor desk is moveable,” Hannon noted in a release. “This set is made for you to move around and interact with anything.”

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“That’s a little more challenging when you’re trying to prepare a lighting plot,” said Dan McKenrick of TVLD, Inc., who served as lighting designer for the project.

“They wanted the flexibility to move the news desk and bring in stand-up positions and other setups. Uniformly lighting a whole space can look too flat. What’s nice about Brightline fixtures is they have the brightness and flexibility to carve out lighting as needed to give the room some depth.”

WZVN is co-located with Waterman’s WBBH, the market’s NBC affiliate, with each retaining a separate control room and studio.