Newsy creates news for distribution via cable and IPTV platforms, as well as most popular streaming services. A property of the E.W. Scripps company, the 24-hour live news channel has earned awards for its investigative reporting and news documentaries. Newsy reporters and producers work from newsrooms in Chicago, New York, Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C.
We were out at the Chicago location earlier this year to install a daylight control solution for a stand-up reporting position, right there in the newsroom in front of an upper-story floor-to-ceiling window. The goal of the project was straightforward: to control daylight simply and effectively at any point during the day.
We had worked ahead of time with Newsy’s lighting consultants, LDG, to identify the ideal amount and color of light for the stand-up position, as well as control preferences. As a result, we were able to go in on a Saturday and get out the same day, having put in a motorized three-layer solution with a 2-stop scrim and 1- and 3-stop gels.
A huge improvement over the venetian blind previously covering the window, this new daylight control solution gives Newsy the ability to reduce natural light anywhere from 1 stop to 6 stops. Now an area of the newsroom that had clearly been designed as an office space can be used more effectively to report breaking news. With much greater control over lighting and light quality, Newsy can present news from a more professional-looking and less visually distracting environment.
The install at Newsy certainly isn’t one of our biggest or most complex. Quite the opposite, really. But it does show that even a smaller daylight control solution can make a big difference in terms of production value.