BLOG

WCHS-TV in Charleston, WV Gets a new News Set!

Monday 30, 2012
WCHS Set Installation: Lighting Phase

It was a busy weekend at WCHS as the set installation finished up and the lighting phase began. Our Lighting Director, Walter Olden, worked all weekend to ensure that both the set and the talent look amazing!

Here are some behind the scenes photos from the weekend and today!

Testing the NEC monitors in the Weather Center.

Brightline Fixtures being hung on the grid.

Mark Nadeau, Director of TV Production for Sinclair Broadcast Group, sitting in as talent during the lighting phase.

Walter's viewpoint from above!

Walter Olden, Lighting Director, hanging lights.

Weekend anchors Dave Benton and Kallie Cart with Walter Olden.

Meteorologist Jim Barach and Walter Olden.

Weekend anchor/reporter Kallie Cart at the video wall.

Sports Director Mark Martin in the multi-purpose area..

(A big thank you to Roger Kissinger, Production Supervisor for WCHS-TV for providing the photos.)

The lighting phase will wrap up by tomorrow morning and WCHS will start rehearsals from their new HD news set! We will report back with final pictures of the set once they go on air so stay tuned!

Also, be sure to check us out on Facebook & Twitter!

Friday, July 27, 2012
WCHS News Set Installation, Day Five

It is day five of the set install at WCHS. Let’s check in and see what is going on inside the studio!

The new set is really coming together now as our scene crew is hard at work putting on the finishing touches! Looks like there is still some technical work going on as well. The station is so excited to be going HD and they love all the new opportunities the set brings them in presenting the news. The large 2x4 video wall in the Multi-purpose Area and the 1x4 row of monitors in the Weather Center both with state of the art NEC monitors, will provide them with endless video opportunities for presenting news, weather, sports and other special news coverage as well as station branding logos and graphics.  The rear projector screen in the Main Background area will also allow for a variety of looks behind the anchors.

"Devlin Design Group has surpassed our expectations in designing our HD set. It is more than a set, it is a "visual experience." When video is pumped into the monitors the set comes alive. I'm sure with all of the design elements given to us by DDG the producers and directors will be allowed to flex their combined creative muscles in ways that will set our newscasts superior to that offered by our competitors. Not only will our set be the envied by everyone in our market, but by every broadcaster in the state."  Roger Kissinger, WCHS-TV Production Supervisor.

Meanwhile, the lighting phase of the installation is underway. Our Lighting Director, Walter Olden is on-site with Mark Nadeau, (Director of TV Production for Sinclair Broadcast Group), Hannes Kling(DDG's Director Of Production) and Kartik Dakshinamoorthy (DDG's Designer extraordinaire), working on the shot blocking and lighting of the new set. Proper lighting of the set and talent is a very important component in broadcast set design. Another key component is the type of light you use! What is a great new set without the proper lighting and light fixtures?

WCHS is one of the first stations to be installing the new LED fixture, BL.16, from Brightline. Brightline continues to be in the forefront of developing lighting technology that is energy efficient. These new BL16’s offer several benefits compared to the  older incandescent  fixtures that they replace. Because the Brightline fixtures use only 32 watts of power and give 50,000 hours of lamp life (compared to 1,000 watts and 2,000 hours), they  offer tremendous savings in terms of energy savings and replacement bulbs. In addition, because the LEDs will likely never need to be changed, there’s less risk of a shot being compromised when a light is bumped during relamping. You can read more about the new BL.16 light fixture here: http://brightlines.com/index.php/studio-lighting/led/

And no blog post would be complete without some pictures!

Working on the LED color changing lights.

Walter Olden, Lighting Director, light metering.

Roger Kissinger, WCHS-TV Production Supervisor, assisting with white balancing.

Checking out the monitor on the Anchor Desk.

Weather Center area showing can lights and NEC monitors. Lots of wires!

Lots of work going on in the Weather Center Area.

Our designer, Kartik, helping with the shot blocking session!

Brightline's new BL.16 LED Light Fixture.

The lighting of the set will continue through the weekend and into early next week. We will have some more pictures of the set once the lighting is completed. Stay tuned and have a great weekend!
(Photos by DDG and WCHS)

Thursday, July 26, 2012
WCHS News Set Installation: Day Four

The set installation is proceeding along at a great pace today. The NEC monitors are in and being calibrated, the set elements, such as the Main Anchor desk, are being unwrapped and put into place, and the rear projection screen has been installed.

The WCHS staff have been stopping at the glass doors that lead into the studio and peering in to check out the new set as it gets installed. They are all very excited about the new set and can’t wait to start putting it to use!

Lots of pictures to share today courtesy of our Director of Production, Hannes Kling and a few pics from WCHS.

Let’s go behind the scenes and check out what is going on….

The calm before the storm this morning. Color changing LED lights being tested.

DDG's Scenic Design Director, Kartik, hard at work.

Out with the old.....

In with the new....New NEC's being delivered.

Rear Projection Screen Installed.

Behind the rear projection screen. Sherman of MV Staging, working on the projector.

Kartik checkiing in on Sherman behind the RPS.

Mark Nadeau, Director of TV Production for Sinclair Broadcast Group, checking in on the progress.

Prepping the Main Anchor Desk.

NEC Monitor Wall with color changing lights.

Sherman calibrating the NEC's in the monitor wall.

WCHS staff checking out the new set! Everyone is very excited!

Brightline Lighting Fixtures waiting in the wings to be installed!

That's all for today. Be sure to check back tomorrow for new photos and updates on the last day of the installation! Tomorrow the Lighting Phase of the project will begin. We will start the day with the all important shot blocking session! 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012
WCHS News Set Installation: Day Three

WCHS set installation continues…

The crew is hard at work as day three of the WCHS install gets underway. As you can see by the photo below, the diffused graphics panels have been installed in the main center background in front of the frame for the rear projection screen. Today the team will also install the 46” Ultra-thin NEC monitors  for the large 4x2 video wall and the 4x1 spread on the Weather Center wall. As these components get installed, the set will visually come together. Then the other set pieces, such as the main anchor desk, the weather center presentation desk and the kiosk, can be uncovered and placed into position!

For the WCHS set design, we incorporated earthy finishes, such as stone and wood and mixed them with modern metallics and sleek, cool acrylics. You will get a sense of traditional architecture with a punch of high tech thrown in!

Here are some photos from this morning:

Diffused Graphics Panels.

WCHS-TV is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. This is our second install for Sinclair this year with several more to come by the end of the 2012!

Hannes Kling, our new Director of Production and Kartik Dakshinamoorthy, our talented and hard-working Scenic Design Director, are en route to the station so we will have more to report from inside the studio tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Be sure to stay in touch with us on Facebook & Twitter too!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012
WCHS News Set Installation: Day Two

Day two of the install is underway. Let’s take a sneak peek inside the studio and see what is going on….the walls are up and the set finishes are being added. The ledgestone finish adds a lot of depth and definitely compliments the adjacent wood and metal finishes. I for one, can’t wait to see more!

The Weather Center is coming together nicely!

More updates to follow tomorrow. And later this week we will have information about the new lights that are being installed for WCHS! So stay tuned!
Photos courtesy of WCHS-TV

Monday July 23, 2012
WCHS News Set Installation: Day One

Another DDG set installation is underway! The truck arrived at WCHS this morning and the unloading of all the set pieces went smoothly. Our team is already putting up the set walls and the new set is quickly taking shape!

We were able to get a few pictures from behind the scenes to show you the scenic crew hard at work!

Stay tuned for more news and pictures as the set install continues this week!