ITV Daybreak Smartglass

Client

ITV Television

Project

Daybreak is the weekday breakfast television programme broadcast from 6:00am to 8:30am for the British commercial ITV network anchored by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley.

Daybreak took to the air as the much-heralded replacement for breakfast TV show GMTV. More than one million people tuned in to see the launch of ITV’s new breakfast show – an improvement over its predecessor, GMTV. ITV said the show, which featured an interview with former Prime Minister Tony Blair, peaked at 1.5m viewers. ITV are one of the UK’s largest broadcasting stations and reach approximately 13 million viewers a week with Daybreak regularly accounting for a large proportion of this.

The Daybreak studio is located in the heart of London at South Bank studios. The London City skyline is the backdrop to the Daybreak studio offering an unrivalled view across the city from St. Paul’s Cathedral right across to the Gherkin.

“The spectacular backdrop of St Paul’s Cathedral and the London skyline is a scene to wake up to”
Christine Bleakley

Challenge

The huge range of ambient light that confronts the studio through the seasons during the early-morning shoots is a backdrop that varies from almost pitch black during winter, to summer when the sun will rise directly behind the presenters’ sofas – positioned neatly to frame St Paul’s, due east.

Solution

SPD SmartGlass is the ideal solution for a project of this type precisely meeting the design brief to control levels of lighitng within the studio. SPD SmartGlass was specified for this state of the art television studio project to create a solar control glazing system that would combat the negative effects of direct sunlight including glare and heat.

SPD SmartGlass offers the perfect solution and is installed in approximately 100 panels throughout the studio. The glass facade can be automatically dimmed from clear to dark controlling glare and solar heat gain while protecting the studio inhabitants from the damaging effects of UV

SPD SmartGlass can be manually or automatically “tuned” to precisely control the amount of light, glare and heat passing through a window. While glass is a favored product for use in building facades; glare, solar heat gain and UV exposure are problematic and can often make the use of glass impractical resulting in the need to invest in expensive solar shading devices. Glass facades using patented SPD light-control technology reduce the need for air conditioning during the summer months and heating during winter.

The ability to instantly switch the glass to maximize daylight when it’s really needed and to provide controllable solar shading during peak light conditions is valuable and unique. This feature is especially useful for application in a television studio as it allows for maximum daylight to enter without compromising recording quality and controls room temperature which is also critical in this particular environment.

Result

When the sun is just rising over London the backdrop is in darkness, at this stage the glass is at its clearest state where it will allow for maximum light penetration. As the morning gets brighter, the glass is “tuned” to control glare from the sun and heat passing through into the studio. SPD SmartGlass has lots of advantages supplementary to what is listed above including energy savings on cooling and light costs, reduction of buildings carbon emissions and elimination of the need for expensive window dressings.

When the power supply is switched on, the rod shaped suspended particle molecules align, light passes through and the SPD SmartGlass panel clears. SPD SmartGlass protects from damaging UV when on or off.

When the power supply is switched off, the rod shaped suspended particle molecules are randomly oriented blocking light and the SPD SmartGlass becomes dark blocking up to 99.4% of light.

SmartGlass International is delighted to work on such a state of the art project where innovation and design are at the forefront.

Testimonials

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