Phoenix InfoNews headquarters

30 March 2010

Phoenix InfoNews headquarters

Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture
Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture

Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture
Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture

Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture
Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture

Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture
Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture

Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture
Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture

Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture
Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera, showing feature lighting and custom-made furniture

The channel broadcasts all over China
The channel broadcasts all over China

The channel broadcasts all over China
The channel broadcasts all over China

The channel broadcasts all over China
The channel broadcasts all over China

The channel broadcasts all over China
The channel broadcasts all over China

The channel broadcasts all over China
The channel broadcasts all over China

The channel broadcasts all over China
The channel broadcasts all over China

The presenters are treated like celebrities
The presenters are treated like celebrities

The presenters are treated like celebrities
The presenters are treated like celebrities

The presenters are treated like celebrities
The presenters are treated like celebrities

The presenters are treated like celebrities
The presenters are treated like celebrities

The presenters are treated like celebrities
The presenters are treated like celebrities

The presenters are treated like celebrities
The presenters are treated like celebrities

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety
Effect lighting from colour-controlled LEDs is used to the enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and pick out the edges of the stages and steps for safety

Its news presenters are famous enough to be treated like celebrities in China, but the whole news floor of this chinese television channel was designed to star as part of the studio set when the tv news programmes are broadcast

Details
Project: Phoenix InfoNews headquarters
Design: Head Architecture and Design
Size: 9,335 sq m
Completion time: Two years

Phoenix InfoNews is a Chinese phenomenon. One of five channels owned by independent company PSTV, it broadcasts across mainland China, Hong Kong and Tiawan, it carries advertisements, and its presenters, including Chen Luyu who is known as the ‘Oriental Oprah’ for her talk show A Date With Luya, are household names and treated like celebrities. Now it has its own glamorous studios fitting to its superstar image.

It previously shared headquarters with Star TV in Hung Hom in the Kowloon City district, but it was decided that the station needed its own new studios in central Hong Kong if it was to compete seriously with large international news organisations in Asia, Europe and the USA.

The brief, according to AnnaMak of Head Architecture and Design, was to create a broadcast centre ‘to rival any competitor worldwide’.

The building in Tai Po, in Hong Kong’s New Territories, previously served as a warehouse for mobile phone company Motorola, and its transformation has been remarkable. There are two wings with a central circulation core housing the reception and entrance. The studio is in the larger wing, taking up two of the three floors – the ground floor and new mezzanine level.

Most of the studio has been designed to be visible on camera and creates a spectacular display of feature lighting and custom-made furniture. Almost everything, from the lighting to the journalists’ horseshoe-shaped desks, follows a circular theme which actually serves an important purpose as well as looking great. ‘We needed to avoid too many close, horizontal lines, which interact badly with the way cameras record images,’ says Mak.

The studio, in which filming can be done from any angle and any height, includes a main news area of four news desks, video/ audio mixing areas, presenter suites, graphic design office and data centre.

‘Normally TV studios are small and cramped, and often face only one direction. To expose the entire facility to cameras from all angles is an unusual challenge but with a great pay-off,’ says Mak. ‘By assuming that any part of the space could be caught on camera from any angle, we get a great range of shooting options. Essentially, we have created one enormous space. We even have a flying “track cam”, which moves across the space at high level to produce establishing shots at the beginning of the news programmes.’

The client stipulated that 150-200 journalists’ positions be incorporated around the main news sets so that the buzz of a busy newsroom could be caught on camera. The news desks themselves have transparent tops, which cover monitors and concealed, colour-changeable lighting. Integrated stage boxes provide local connections for audio, data and video feeds. The studio also acts as a showcase to potential investors and VIP visitors, so the architects designed a special VIP route – a gangway with a glazed wall, which takes visitors through the heart of the news studio without disturbing broadcasts. Lighting is a major feature of the scheme, says Mak: ‘As the planning progressed it was clear that lighting could best be used to highlight and clarify the interesting shapes being generated by the volume and planning of the studio area.’

A backdrop of illuminated screens and monitors meant that lighting had to be carefully considered, otherwise it could have looked confused. The designers divided the lighting into three categories based on function: ‘house lighting’, a mixture of compact fluorescent and metal halide downlights, which is used during cleaning and other maintenance duties; ‘task lighting’, for control rooms and editing suites which comes from louvered fluorescent tubes and illuminates only the table-top areas, and ‘effect lighting’, which is used to enhance the look of the studio during broadcasts and also to pick out the edges of the stages and stairs for safety.

The effect lighting was created using colour-controlled LEDs that allow any colour to be programmed for mood changes throughout all ‘on-camera’ areas – even the ‘backdrop’ areas to the news desks were included. ‘LED has the unique advantages of providing colour change, light-level change, low temperature, low maintenance and low power. No other lamp type could achieve this,’ says Mak.

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