Thanks to their wealth of experience in broadcast set design in the Asia region, Clickspring Design was approached to create two state of the art broadcast studios within the Beijing facilities of CCTV (China Central Television), the largest news channel in mainland China. As CCTV broadcasts live news reports every hour throughout the day and current affairs programs in the evening, studio spaces that could accommodate a number of shooting configurations and reporting set-ups were required.
From the outset, the team at Clickspring Design knew the studios would be packed with AV technology. “We rarely take a prescriptive approach when it comes to AV integration, but this project quickly revealed itself to warrant more LED arrays than we have installed in most studios,” says Christopher Ferguson, director of business development, Clickspring Design.
After balancing the client’s programming requirements with the spatial constraints of the studio, the team maintained the spaces’ flexibility by creating a number of tracking and pivoting AV elements supported by several large, fixed AV arrays along the perimeter of each of the two studios.
A shared aesthetic
Totalling 650 square metres of space, the environments share a unified aesthetic, incorporating sweeping forms, a sleek and minimal material palette featuring high gloss white and silver finishes, and myriad flexible LED technology elements.
To capitalise on the impressive height of the larger space, Clickspring introduced a new structural mezzanine level that allows for a range of stand-up broadcast positions while emphasising the vertical presence of the studio.
The larger of the two studios, Studio 7, measures 400 square metres and is double height to allow for the introduction of a mezzanine level which is accessible by a sweeping grand staircase. The mezzanine is suspended primarily from the base-building structure above, which was reinforced to accommodate the load.
Space divided into zones
The space is divided into two zones below the mezzanine, each with a dedicated anchor position. A combination of arched LED arrays and full-height, zoned light boxes flank the perimeter of the space and another large arched LED array sits at the mezzanine level which is usually mapped with a control room graphic to create the illusion of additional depth.
Below the mezzanine level, three tracking 4:9 portrait LED displays are used for remote interviews and stand-up shots. These floor-to-ceiling elements can be used individually or aligned seamlessly to create a 12:9 display. The units also pivot on their central axis, adding an extra layer of flexibility.
“The biggest challenge in detailing this system was keeping the thickness of the mezzanine level as minimal as possible while still providing adequate tracking, power, and data cable management infrastructure for the displays,” says Ferguson.
Clickspring Design worked with Leyard and DesignLED for AV procurement and integration, fabrication partner Mystic Scenic Studios and lighting design was carried out by The Lighting Design Group. The display products the team incorporated was the TWS 1.8mm from Leyard and the 1.2mm AmFlex Pro flexible LED tile from DesignLED.
“We’ve had excellent results using Leyard and DesignLED products in the past,” says Ferguson. “The products chosen for this project were selected due to their serviceability, weight, pixel pitch, overall cost, and lead time.”
Virtual and augmented possibilities
The same aesthetics and organisational techniques were applied in the second studio – the 150 square metre Studio 11. However, half of the space of the smaller studio is dedicated to a large chroma-key area for virtual and AR segments.
The other half of the space features hard scenery, an LED wall and several smaller tracking displays that move below a small canopy. Scenery was fabricated in the US and shipped to Beijing to be installed on site with some components and labour sourced locally to the project. Clickspring Design’s fabrication team spent eight weeks on site installing the final scenery before dress rehearsals and non-scenic work within the studio was carried out.
In Studio 11 a slatted RGBA light box transom with brushed aluminium fins rests on top of all three sides of the hard scenery. All light boxes in the studios are zoned, meaning they can be programmed for a variety of colour gradients. “This is especially useful for daybreak and sunset programming that might wish to emulate a sunrise condition within the lighting design and create different looks between morning, daytime and prime-time programming,” says Ferguson.
The studio also features a small desk with a front-facing, irregularly shaped AV display. “The tolerances were so tight that our fabrication partners had to machine mill the desk body out of aluminium, which was then coated with a high gloss, automotive finish,” he adds.
Forward-thinking design
From an aesthetic standpoint, Clickspring Design wanted to adopt a forward-thinking approach throughout. The set design incorporated elements such as reconfigurable LED on tracks, rotatable panels, a mezzanine level and desks with LED fronts in their curve.
“Playing with sinuous and simple curves without allowing the forms to become overwrought was a fun challenge,” says Ferguson. “We intentionally kept a restrained material palette consisting of mostly white forms to allow the geometries and lighting design to feature prominently. The combination of the myriad cutting-edge technology elements and our scenic approach yielded a decidedly futuristic end-result.”
Although graphics were completed by the client’s in-house team and were not a part of Clickspring’s scope, the majority of the graphics that were subsequently developed were derived from Clickspring’s concept design package which included placeholder graphics.
Behind-the-scenes magic
Clickspring Design needed to work around the constraints of the building’s infrastructure, making use of every square inch of the studio and overcoming any unexpected conflicts that arose as the project progressed.
“This is something we experience on all projects but which becomes critical when spatial tolerances are slight while the design is complex,” says Ferguson. “Some issues were minor, like discovering a small run of catwalk that intersected with the ceiling scenery. But some were major, like structurally reinforcing the building to accommodate the weight of the suspended mezzanine. This stalled the project briefly but ultimately represented a productive investment in the studio’s longevity.”
Clickspring resolved such issues by relying on its project team to communicate and coordinate effectively. The client was also dedicated to realising the original vision and was supportive throughout the design and construction phases.
Although the scale of the project and its many examples of AV integration are impressive, Ferguson has been equally blown away by the elements that can’t be seen: “There are some real heroics happening behind the scenes that make this complex design function elegantly. Clickspring is lucky to have licensed architects as well as experienced broadcast designers on staff that worked exhaustively with our fabricators and technology vendors to pack a lot of elements into our scenery without the end-result looking awkward or oversized. Issues of access, ventilation, sequencing, and alignment were constantly being evaluated to preserve our original design intent.”
Hybrid studios
Augmented reality’s impact on today’s studio designs is already increasing and as AR becomes more prominently featured in programming, studios are growing in size, with dedicated open zones for full-frame AR graphics. Moving forward, the CCTV team plans to use AR applications in Studio 7, and VR and AR applications in Studio 11.
“We’re seeing more 360 studios organised by continuous perimeter scenery, just like CCTV Studio 7,” says Ferguson. “Among my peers there is this tendency to assume the future of scenic design is entirely virtual, but I forecast the continued rise of hybrid studios that incorporate AR graphics within the context of traditional hard scenery and physical AV elements.
“We’re just starting to see broadcasters breaking out of the graphic gimmicks that defined AR’s early network adopters. For example, during a news segment about military operations a large AR attack helicopter might appear to drop into the studio. Often, I find myself thinking, ‘Okay, that’s objectively awesome technology, but what is the helicopter doing there? What information is it really communicating?’”
The interrelated future of AR and scenic design relies on the technology to communicate something novel and of value that would have otherwise been difficult to understand without the graphics package. “Election coverage and sports analysis are great examples of this approach. Being able to see the trajectory of a football thrown from a quarterback’s perspective is something that would have been impossible without a cutaway segment just years ago,” says Ferguson.
“The same is true when visualising complex ideas such as election results in realtime. With AR, the talent can stay with the viewer throughout the virtual demonstration, which is not only more interesting visually, but also much more immersive to the viewer. So naturally we’d expect to see studio set design accommodate these approaches over time.”
Ferguson is witnessing AR applications becoming more sophisticated as realtime data processing capabilities improve and networks begin to discover new ways to use the graphics. “This evolution will have the biggest impact on broadcast design over the next decade, and we are only in the infancy of the AR era.”