Seacrest Studios broadcast a message of hope
American Idol, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Live with Kelly and Ryan, Wheel of Fortune: it seems that Ryan Seacrest has been everywhere during his more than three-decade career. But Seacrest’s best work may be displayed in locations removed from the studios of Hollywood and New York City. In 2010, the Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF) began constructing state-of-the-art Seacrest Studios within children’s hospitals, providing fun, hands-on broadcasting and entertainment activities to patients. The studio broadcasts on each hospital’s closed-circuit TV network directly to patients’ rooms and provides targeted program choices designed to maximize patient impact. Fourteen children’s hospitals currently house a Seacrest Studio, with the most recent addition at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital, which opened in October 2024.
“RSF studios are the type of production space where effective hardware should be as minimally invasive as possible,” explained Michael Zihmer, national sales manager at Brightline Lighting. “With many of the participants physically limited by wheelchairs and IVs, clutter is not an option. Studio lights that are recessed within a ceiling, yet perform without compromise, are ideal. All low-hanging lights, cables, and light stands that could be an injury risk are eliminated, [and] lighting control is easily accessible and straightforward to operate.
With some of the older studios, variations such as the size and shape of DJ desks posed challenges for lighting, sound, operation, and the ability to interchange how the space is used. As a result, RSF worked to standardize the studios and their dimensions. Having similarly constructed locations means faster, more cost-effective implementation where projects are streamlined, allowing the focus to remain on the content and its creators.
Brightline Lighting partnered with the RSF broadcast engineering team to design a standard lighting package for deployment across all Seacrest Studios. The studios utilize core broadcast-quality equipment components including Brightline SeriesONE and Flex-T lighting fixtures, JVC cameras, and JVC (vMix-based) video switchers, SAS audio consoles, and Genelec speakers. Brightline targets 40 footcandles vertically for peoples’ faces, with the lighting design adjusting to the designated studio space and its sets, whether in an open, daylight-flooded atrium or a space-challenged, low-ceiling basement studio conversion. Adjustable levels and tunable-white color enable light balance during nighttime productions and daylight atmosphere changes, ensuring optimal camera imaging.
The design of the space transforms a hospital-based, office-type environment into a modern production facility. The blue “Seacrest ring,” a trademark element of the studios, includes recessed Flex-T fixtures. “There is additive light, down lights, and ambient light in the DJ desk areas that provide a good base light for press interviews with the real stars of the show, the children, meeting and interviewing the celebrities that generously visit,” said Zihmer. “The virtual backgrounds can transport a patient to Tahiti or Disney World, and the sets flex to accommodate pianos, bands, athletic demonstrations, and more.”
An Infusion of Hope
The illumination of Seacrest Studios provides a cohesive look and video product, both with the highest industry standard of +97 CRI as well as variable white color to adjust for daylight and/or other ambient sources of light that may mix within the studio space. This approach provides maximum flexibility while maintaining the open, daylight-filled spaces designed to infuse the hospital experience with hope.
Most Seacrest Studios are located at or near hospital lobbies with an abundance of daylight and windows. The newly constructed three-story-tall studio in the lobby of the Arthur M. Blank Hospital in Atlanta is surrounded by a glass atrium and is visible from multiple floors.
While impressive, the Atlanta studio presented several unique hurdles, including a 50-ft-high tile ceiling. Since mounting from that height would require many more luminaires to effectively deliver 40 fc, Brightline pivoted to mounting the fixtures to the window mullions within the atrium, hiding the lights from view while driving a long-throw solution. This approach kept the camera shots and external view clear and provided efficiently lit video.
“In existing facilities, physical limitations can inform the lighting solution,” explained Zihmer. “Is there a 2-ft by 2-ft grid already in place? Is there drywall? Are sprinklers, speakers, and/or above-ceiling ductwork already populating the ideal lighting spots? These are the conditions we regularly work around. But when we work with RSF, we are working with a partner that understands the critical importance of lighting for the integrated, total product result, and prioritizes it, accordingly, protecting its position for coveted ceiling real estate.”
RSF employs DMX controls in all its new state-of-the-art studios. Glass touch-screen control panels are easily customized and simple to operate to control individual fixtures, create and control different scenes, add color, and store the results. In Atlanta, the studio includes a DMX-512 isolated splitter and STICK-DE3 controller that provides up to 500 scenes, 10 zones, and 1,024 DMX channels.
It all adds up to create a facility that not only brings smiles to ill children but also draws communities together. “Ryan Seacrest says it best when he talks about bringing joy to children and creating an environment where they can forget their medical challenges,” said Kathy Katz, co-founder of Brightline Lighting. “In addition, and vastly important as well, the studios provide internships for local college students to develop the next generation of studio professionals by providing access to broadcast-quality production opportunities. The union of students and children is particularly effective and marries two of Seacrest’s life-long passions, entertainment and service to community.”
“Undoubtedly there exists a connection between light and well-being, with many studies underscoring the relevance of the quality and color of light with engagement in art and healing,” added Zihmer. “Industrious work can provide a meditative type of focus that provides intangible health benefits as well. The strongest medicine addresses all aspects of a person’s healing, body, mind, and soul. RSF seeks to serve healing through its studios, and Brightline and its partners are grateful to participate.”
THE DESIGNER | Leslie Moynihan is a lighting designer at Brightline Lighting