Spectrum

RoscoShades Control Windowlight Inside The New BBC Morning Live Studio

Written by Tatiana Massano | April 13, 2023

Versa Studios is a broadcast, television, and film studio business that offers facilities and services for content creation in the UK. The company recently opened a 5,000-square-foot studio complex in the ABC building in Manchester that includes production galleries, dressing rooms, production offices, and green rooms. Located on the top two floors is the new home of BBC One’s Morning Live. In order to showcase the panoramic views of the city center, Versa Studios worked with Property Developer Allied London to install a RoscoShades System that would control the daylight exposure of the windows inside their new studio.

The space features twenty-two 1m x 3m (40” x 115”) floor-to-ceiling windows. Rosco’s window-control partner, Blackwalnut, collaborated with Allied London to fit each window with a RoscoShade system that would balance the daylight exposure with the studio lighting and allow the viewing audience to see the city of Manchester in the background.


RoscoShades are mounted inside the windows to showcase the Manchester views for BBC One’s Morning Live.

Blackwalnut custom-designed the manual shades to fit the windows’ height and width precisely, ensuring no light leakage around the perimeter. For this installation, the design team specified a three-shade system for each window that included an N.3, an N.6, and an N.1.2 Rosco Neutral Density filter. Each shade can be independently lowered or raised into the window to accommodate daylight conditions as they change throughout the day.

Each RoscoShade features three Neutral Density filters that can be lowered/raised in the window using a manual pull-chain.

Every RoscoShade is tailor-made to include the filter materials needed for the space and Rosco ensures swift delivery worldwide. Ted Hewins, Associate Director at Allied London, remarked that “Allied London selected Rosco as they were able to deliver the bespoke specification shades within the set studio build timeframe. Allied London enjoyed working closely with the Blackwalnut team, progressing the survey, manufacture, and delivery tasks associated with the shades to meet Versa Studios' requirements.”

Viewers can see Manchester's city center outside the BBC Morning Live set thanks to the RoscoShades in the windows.

To learn more about the window control product used inside Versa Studios, explore the RoscoShades product page on our website. If you need a window light control solution for your broadcast studio,  please visit our Window Control product page to explore all of our available solutions, or contact Blackwalnut - Rosco’s window control partner – for more information.