VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – One of the longest-running programs in broadcast history, CBN’s The 700 Club, had been using an analog lighting system for much of its run — the last 30 of 45 on-air years. The show, which is accessible to 1.5 billion people around the world and airs weekdays, was due for a technical overhaul from lighting fixtures to control. Their new future-proofed system includes a hybrid lighting rig of ETC Selador LED luminaires and conventional fixtures controlled by an ETCNet3 network with an Eos system at the front. It was recently installed with the help of ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.) and 4Wall Entertainment and without interrupting the live schedule.
CBN’s Supervisor of Lighting Randy Read says the upgrade was driven by CEO and 700 Club executive Gordon Robertson: “Gordon is well informed about the production world. He wanted to not only change out the system but change the way we think about how we light. So, the mandate to use energy-saving LEDs came from him. We attacked our technology with a whole new mindset.”
Most of what CBN shoots in Studio 7 is magazine-style format: show hosts and guests seated behind desks or on an open set with a skyline backdrop. Read and his crew determined they would light the talent, backdrops, and cyc with LEDs. “We got every manufacture of LEDs into our studio so we could see whose fixtures would work best for what we wanted to do.
“Since we were already lighting at a very low foot candle (20), we could replace our 2Ks, 5Ks, and 10Ks. Even though we were using these lights, we were dimming them so far down that the color temperature was all over the place. With ETC’s Selador Pearl and Lustr LED luminaires, we could get the foot candles we needed and adjust the color to each person’s skin tone using the light – instead of having to do it with the camera.” Using ETC Eos control, groups are constructed for each area on the set, with color palettes built appropriate to the person being lit. With a couple of keystrokes, the lighting can be quickly adjusted to current needs.
CBN’s new hybrid rig combines the strengths of LED-based luminaires with conventional fixtures. “All of the keys, fill, and backs are now LEDs,” explains Read. “All of the sets are lit with 1Ks, and we don’t have to dim them, which means the color temp is the same everywhere. The Selador LEDs are calibrated to match that color.”
