Television Studio Lighting

W. C. Eddy

The three basic laws of television, i. e., mobility, flexibility, and instantaneity, are best represented in the requirements for a satisfactory lighting system for the video medium. — While the fundamentals of lighting techniques for the stage and for motion pictures remain unchanged, the presently accepted system of remote-control overhead lighting in television relegates to one operator both the control and complete operation of the entire system. By flying the equipment from a unique gridiron, it is possible to keep the studio floor clear for camera operation and stage settings, while from an overhead observation and control position the lighting control engineer can, at a flick of the finger, create and recreate at will the lighting effects required at a given moment. — Television studio lighting has in the past few years moved from the brute-force flat-illumination problem imposed by low-sensitivity cameras to the more specific requirements of the extremely high-sensitivity image-orthicon and orthicon chains. The need for high-intensity mercury-vapor lamps and over-all lighting levels of better than 1500 foot-candles incident has given way to a superflexible system capable of creating the artistic effects now required in studio work. The Tele-Lite of Television Associates, Inc., now installed in three postwar television studios, is typical of this new departure in remote-controlled illumination designed and tested in television broadcast studios.

Print ISSN
Published
1947-10
Content type
Original Research
DOI
10.5594/J11797