ON AIR! ZUMTOBEL LIGHTING SOLUTION FOR BBC WALES BROADCASTING CENTRE

For the new building that houses the BBC Wales headquarters in Cardiff, Zumtobel has developed a comprehensive lighting solution, which is both functional and decorative and creates optimal lighting conditions for the staff who work there. The BBC employs more than 1,000 people at the impressive digital broadcasting centre, mostly in the radio and TV studios.

Central Square, the new BBC Wales broadcasting centre in Cardiff, is a centrally located new building close to the main train station. Anyone entering the building immediately finds themselves in an imposing entrance hall that looks out onto five floors of hustle and bustle.

The visitor gets the impression, to be ‘get up close and personal’. Therefore, Central Square conveys openness and transparency. Which is also due to the fact, that the building is designed to let light in, not to seal it off.

Special lighting challenges and authentic colour rendering

In line with this, the building’s layout is also largely open. Around 30 per cent of the workplaces are fixed desk workplaces. Employees also have access to open-plan, flexible-use office space, meeting rooms and lounge zones. Particular emphasis was placed on acoustic solutions that enable both concentrated work in the open-plan areas and undisturbed recording in the broadcasting studios. However, the broadcasting area also posed special challenges for the lighting and authentic colour rendering. To develop the right lighting solution, Zumtobel therefore worked closely with the BBC and their design team. To meet the building’s various lighting requirements, Zumtobel combined SLOTLIGHT infinity, PANOS evolution, ARCOS, ONDARIA, SUPERSYSTEM, VIVO, CLEAN and PURESIGN luminaires.

Continuous light line integrates seamlessly into the room architecture

For the broadcasting centre’s reception area, Zumtobel used well-loved classics from its portfolio: SLOTLIGHT infinity, VIVO, ARCOS and ONDARIA. SLOTLIGHT is an elegant continuous light line that integrates seamlessly into the room architecture. The VIVO LED spotlights enhance the general lighting with points of light and are characterised by a high colour rendering index and extremely uniform light distribution. The ARCOS LED spotlight system with its minimalist design complements finely accentuated lighting with broad diffusion. In addition, the decorative round luminaire ONDARIA provides soft, pleasant lighting reminiscent of natural light, thanks to direct and indirect light distribution from a single, wide-area light source with an ultra-thin profile. ONDARIA was also the first choice for the lounge zones, as well as for the corridor lighting throughout the building. For the modern, open-plan office spaces, Zumtobel chose several variants of the SLOTLIGHT infinity in cross and rectangular shapes, reflecting the lively, dynamic nature of a TV station’s newsroom.

Powerful combination of spotlights in the radio studio and meeting rooms

In the radio studio and in the meeting rooms, Zumtobel uses a powerful combination of spotlights, including SUPERSYSTEM and PANOS evolution downlights. Excellent light quality with a colour temperature of 4000 K and consistently excellent colour rendering (CRI >90) provide first-class functional and architectural lighting here. SUPERSYSTEM is also used in the lounge zones and kitchens, where the system focuses primarily on the effect of the light in the space and offers flexible, efficient accent lighting with a wide range of customised settings.

Zumtobel also installed CLEAN cleanroom lights in the kitchens, while emergency lighting is taken care of by the discreet, state-of-the-art PURESIGN escape-sign luminaires.

Zumtobel. The Light.