VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live Gets a Tom Kenny Lighting Redesign with Gear from WorldStage

VH1's morning entertainment show Big Morning Buzz Live returned for a third season October 17 with a revamped look and new lighting design by Tom Kenny facilitated by WorldStage (the new brand for Scharff Weisberg and Video Applications).

The show hails from the 20th floor lobby of VH1's headquarters in Times Square, where host Carrie Keagan and pop culture correspondent Jason Dundas connect with the most buzzed-about celebrities and a roster of top artists to candidly discuss everything from mainstream news to the latest discoveries in film, music, fashion, food, TV, and the web.

"The new studio is a really inventive way of using corporate office space," says Kenny. "I worked with the producers, Lee Rolontz and Keisha Williams, on Storytellers and other awards shows for the network. They wanted a very clean, colorful morning show -- a fresh look that wouldn't be overlit but would match the young, vibey nature of the program and its content."

Turning the lobby into a live broadcast studio posed challenges for Kenny's lighting design. "The ceiling is very low so we had to think of the weight and size of fixtures to get the best out of the space," says Kenny. "WorldStage helped immensely with their knowledge of low-flying ceilings and fixtures. Power was also an issue, but with the aid of the technical guys at the VH1 headquarters, we managed to squeeze some juice from unusual places."

WorldStage's New York-based lighting division supplied Kino Flo's Image 85s as Kenny's key lights along with hidden ARRI 350s and ARRI 650 Fresnels. There is also a combination of Kino Flo 4 and 2 bank daylight fill units as well as a few Kino Flo table mounts for under table "shoe" specials. The company also met Kenny's low-power needs with a number of LED fixtures including the newly released Prism Projection LED Fresnels, which combines low-energy use with quality output and flexibility. In addition, Philips Color Kinetics Colorburst Compact daylight LED Pars, Color Kinetics' RGB ColorBlast LEDs and Color Kinetics' I-White ColorBlast LEDs were used for set and talent lighting. Additionally, the Main set is internally lit with Color Kinetics MX Powercore cove 12" units.

"We worked closely with the studio LDs Dan Kinsley and John Salzman on the show, to keep the spirit and look going early every morning," Kenny says.

Tom Lens and John Yeck at 513 Scenic designed the new studio set for Big Morning Buzz Live.