Elation KL Fresnel™ for Al Arabiya broadcast facility

Elation’s exclusive distributor in the Middle East, Venuetech Audiovisual & Lighting Systems, has supplied 100 Kl Fresnel 4 CW™ LED Fresnel lights to Al Arabiya’s new, state‐of‐ the‐art broadcast studio in Dubai.

The facility houses a number of active broadcast areas including the Command Center, the main broadcast area for the Al Arabiya news anchors, as well as a less formal discussion set, a standup area, other anchor areas, and a social media center. The new KL Fresnel series fixtures work alongside curved swaths of LED video ‐ much of it configurable and some used for augmented reality ‐ to emphasize the free flow design of the space while supporting the latest high tech cameras that capture sweeping views of the newsroom and production areas.

Lighting designer in Venuetech’s design & application department, Ziad Shames Eddine, specified the KL Fresnel 4 CW for the space with lighting design handled by Safwan Harcouss, head of the lighting department at the MBC group. “The Al Arabiya channel has undertaken several renovations over the past few years in order to get the best light quality and therefore the best image quality possible,” stated Harcouss, who lists a small product size, brightness and high CRI as three key factors in fixture specification.

“We needed a CRI of high quality to be able to get perfect skin tones for the camera. Knowing that the skin color of presenters is different from one to another, we wanted to avoid any difficulty in the tone of the image. We did tests on camera using different skin tones, and based on our tests we decided to use and order the KLFresnel.”

Harcouss says that due to the low height of the ceiling, a small lighting fixture was preferred.

“The lights are visible on camera and for that reason we did not want big, bulky lights in the ceiling,” he says. “Not only did we want lights that visually suit our studio, we needed something with power that has a long life expectancy as the studio is used 24 hours a day. We have been using our Elation lights for 1.5 years now and have not faced any issues or problems.”

Project Credits: General Contractor: Ebonite Group Scenic Design and Master Plan: Clickspring Design Lighting Design: Al Arabiya Network

Lighting Consultant: Eastern Lighting Design

Lighting Supplier: Venuetech A/V Integration: InterTech Vision ME LED Display Technology: Barco and DesignLED Systems Integrator: Diversified

Project Management: Al Arabiya Network

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