In the spotlight

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A look at the old studio with smaller monitors and fluorescent lighting and the new one that uses LED colour changing lights and Barco projectors.

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A look at the old studio with smaller monitors and fluorescent lighting and the new one that uses LED colour changing lights and Barco projectors.

Digital Studio looks at how the installation of new lighting technology has enabled Al Arabiya to give its viewers an on-air look that is both dynamic and refreshing.

To coincide with its fifth anniversary celebrations, Dubai-based news channel, Al Arabiya treated its viewers to a brand new on-air look with different colour schemes for each of its programmes.

While audiences would only have observed a change in the look of the channel's programmes, very few would have associated it with a million dollar revamp that went on at Al Arabiya's studio in Dubai Media City earlier this year.

The project, which included demolishing everything from the old set to the ceiling and the flooring to deploying new and sophisticated lighting technology, video walls and other kit, has made Al Arabiya's studio one of the most sophisticated newsrooms in the Middle East today.

Dubai-based systems integrator, Oasis Enterprises undertook the lighting installation, which was the most important aspect of the project, within a record period of three weeks.

Al Arabiya's history began five years ago in 2002, when the MBC Group launched its news channel. A set designer came in from Beirut to design the channel's studio and five years back, it was indeed state-of-the-art.

Fluorescent lights were installed to add colour to the channel's programming. However, as the years passed and new technology became available, Al Arabiya's look paled in comparison to new entrants and it failed to be as eye-catching as its news. The solution lay in giving the studio a brand new look that was in keeping with the times and no occasion was more befitting than its fifth anniversary.

"The objective was to create something new and different because even our first look in 2002 was very sophisticated and radically different from anything that was available in the region," says Bachir Roukoz, lighting designer supervisor with MBC. "To match that design and outdo it was a challenge but the designer did come up with something very exciting.

This time, we also felt that lighting could play a significant role in creating different moods and making the same set look different for each programme. Therefore, we have used colour and lighting in a very different and sophisticated way on this set creating a lot more intimacy with our viewers."

Consequently, Oasis has added several interesting elements to the lighting installation at Al Arabiya, which includes lighting fixtures from ETC and De Sisti. One is the deployment of 19,000 LEDs at the studio. These colour changing LEDs and the other lights at the studio are, in turn, controlled by an 8000-channel lighting control called Eos from ETC.

"In the world of lighting controls today, the Eos is the Rolls Royce and this is its first installation in the Middle East," claims Basel Al Aref, general manager of Oasis Enterprises. "The Eos lies at the heart of this project. It controls the LED colour changes on the pillars, the columns, the ceilings, the floor and everywhere in the studio.

"More importantly, this is the first news centre in the region to implement colour changing LED and conventional lights in a news environment. Most other stations use a standard lighting system or colour changing solution but not LEDs. This project, therefore, acts as an important reference point for future Middle East news studios."

MBC's Roukoz, however, clarifies that what made the project nerve-racking was the fact that several contractors were working together to ensure that the new studio would be ready within three weeks while normal bulletins continued to be broadcast from the place at periodic intervals. "We had the construction people, the cable guys, TV crew, the carpet guys and the painters all working at the same time.

One day, you'd come in and see that the whole ceiling was gone. Another day, the carpet would be swept from under your feet; one day, there was just no flooring or you'd just see a lot of ladders and in between all this, our news bulletins were being aired every half hour. It was a huge task.

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