Tungsten or LED for a Small Studio Set: A Clear Recommendation
Two lighting options for a presenter set compared on colour, heat, power and camera behaviour, with the choice we would make for most small studios planning live work.
FM
Fiona MacLeod
5 min read
The choice in front of most small studios
When a studio in the Highlands or anywhere else asks me about lighting, the first question is almost always the same: should we buy tungsten fresnels, as the old galleries did, or build the set around LED fixtures? Both can produce a good picture, and both have been used on live news and interview programmes for years. The difference shows up in the details of daily running rather than in a single quality test.
I have lit sets with both and signed off plots that mixed them. This piece compares the two on the points that decide a live show: how the light looks on skin, how much heat and power it demands, how it behaves when you dim it, and how much work it creates for the crew. At the end I give a recommendation, and say when I would choose the other way.
How each option treats a presenter's face
Tungsten has a warm, continuous spectrum, and skin tones sit comfortably inside it. A key light from a fresnel with a little diffusion gives a soft, familiar look that cameras have been balanced for since the earliest days of television. Dimming it shifts the colour warmer, which is usually acceptable on a bulletin but needs watching if two presenters are lit at different levels.
Good LED fixtures can match that look, but quality varies a great deal between models. Cheaper panels can leave a faint green or magenta cast, or show colour shifts that only appear on camera. Fixtures with a high colour rendering rating, tested against your own cameras before purchase, hold skin tones well and keep colour temperature steady through the dimming range, which matters when a producer asks for a little less on the guest.
Tungsten: warm, forgiving, colour drifts when dimmed
LED: stable colour when well chosen, uneven when not
Heat, power and the comfort of the room
A tungsten set of eight lamps puts out a surprising amount of heat. In a small studio the room warms steadily over a long recording, presenters sweat under makeup, and the air conditioning has to work against the rig. Power draw is also high, which can limit how many lamps share a circuit and sometimes forces a call to an electrician before the first day.
LED fixtures draw a fraction of that power and stay cool to the touch, so rigging at height is safer and quicker, and the set is pleasant to sit in for a two-hour live programme. For venues with limited supply, or temporary studios built into a hall or office, this difference alone often settles the argument before colour is even discussed.
Flicker, dimming and what the cameras see
The risk everyone worries about with LED is flicker. Poorly driven fixtures can produce banding on camera at certain shutter speeds, and it can be invisible to the eye in the room. It is a fault of the driver electronics, not of LED as such, and a ten-minute test with your own cameras at your normal frame rate will expose it before you spend money.
Tungsten has no such problem and dims smoothly through a standard dimmer, which is why many experienced crews trust it. Its weakness is the dimmer itself: older packs can hum, which reaches open microphones, and bulbs age, changing output and colour over time. Ewan on our audio side has traced more than one stubborn hum back to a lighting dimmer rather than a microphone.
Test any LED fixture at the show's frame rate and shutter
Keep dimmer packs away from open microphones
Running costs and crew time
Tungsten lamps are cheap to buy but need replacing, and they take time to rig because of weight, barn doors and heat-resistant cabling. Over a year of regular use the bulbs, the electricity and the air conditioning add up to more than most people expect when they compare the first invoice.
LED costs more at the start. In return, fixtures are lighter, many can be controlled over a simple desk or even a tablet, and colour temperature can be changed per fixture without gels. For a studio that changes set between a morning interview and an evening show, that saved time is real money. Bi-colour fixtures are especially useful, letting Isla match window light or move to a warmer evening look in seconds.
Our recommendation and when to choose differently
For a small studio or a venue adding live television, I recommend LED as the main source: a soft key, a fill and a couple of back lights, all bi-colour with good colour rendering, tested on your own cameras before the order is placed. It is cooler, lighter on the supply and quicker to adjust, which suits live work where nobody wants to climb a ladder mid-rehearsal.
I would keep one or two tungsten fresnels for a hard, shaped accent or a set where a warm practical look is wanted, and I would choose a full tungsten rig if you already own it, the room is large and ventilated, and the crew knows it well. Replacing working kit for its own sake rarely pays. A lighting plot should be drawn for the cameras and the set first, then the fixtures chosen to fit it.
Main sources: bi-colour LED, tested on your cameras
Accents: a small number of tungsten fresnels if wanted
For most small live studios, LED as the main light with a little tungsten for accent gives the best balance of comfort, cost and control. Whatever you choose, test fixtures with your own cameras and rehearse the dimming before the first broadcast. If you would like a plot drawn for your set, send us the room dimensions and camera details and we will go through the options with you.
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