Many Brits begin their day with Morning Live, a topical live morning program on the BBC that has resonated with audiences since first airing in 2020. A consistent slot-winner, the program, which airs on BBC One, moved to a new studio in the heart of Manchester earlier this year. ELP, a trading division of White Light, was asked to supply the lighting for the show at the new Versa ABC Studio and turned to Elation Professional’s KL Fresnel 8 FC PO™ LED fixture as a key component of the rig.

ELP has worked on a multitude of live broadcasts and has a reputation of fulfilling the lighting requirements of a diverse range of customers. ELP Sales Director Darren Fletcher comments: “We were approached by Versa to supply the lighting for Morning Live, which would be filmed live within their 11th floor ABC Studio. Our job was to work closely with the lighting designers, Dave Evans and later Andy Stagles, to not only maintain the fresh and breezy look that was established in the first series but to also enhance this within its new space.”   

Ambient light

One of the biggest challenges was dealing with an abundance of morning light that streams in through vast windows that line the background of the set. The lighting setup would need to not only counter this additional light but also be able to adapt to the ever-changing weather conditions.  Following a site visit, the lighting designers specified Elation’s KL Fresnel 8 FC PO™, a full-color and dynamic white LED Fresnel light that Darren and his team installed on a long-term hire basis within the studio.

“Because we’re combating the sunlight with the glass wall, we needed a fairly bright fixture,” Darren stated, adding that they often need all of the fixture’s 18,000 lumens of brightness. He says the fixtures, used for all the key lighting, back lighting, fill and general coverage, are utilized mostly for their color temperature white in varying degrees, mostly daylight. 

Broadcast optimized

Optimized for the specific requirements of broadcast, the KL Fresnel 8 FC PO houses a full-color-spectrum RGBMA LED engine offering precise color temperature control, full-spectrum color rendering, and even wash coverage. The fixtures, optimized for the tunable white light requirements of live television, can adjust for light that shifts away from pure white towards green or magenta through a green-magenta shift adjustment and a virtual gel library. Capable of matching the white balance for camera, users can easily shift the color temperature without the use of plus/minus green gels and filters. At the Versa ABC Studio, barndoors on each fixture accurately direct the light and keep unnecessary light spill to a minimum. 

Pole operable

The pole operable units debuted on Morning Live in February and work together with LED soft light panels and full-color LED Par lights in the studio setup. The unit’s pole operation allows for easy pan, tilt and zoom maneuverability while avoiding having to access the fixtures by climbing on a ladder. “The pole operation was important for this job and was one of the key selling points of the unit,” Darren confirms. The KL Fresnel 8 FC PO also offers manual access via included encoders, providing instant control of intensity, color temperature, green shift and other important settings. 

The BBC Morning Live show runs five days a week throughout the year with a short summer break. “They have proven to be very useful and have been quite successful for us,” Darren concludes, noting that they also employed them on the BBC Proms concerts this past summer.