Bridgeville, PA, February 18, 2025 — Designing standout broadcast lighting is something the team at Brightline Lighting does every day. CRI and lumens are part of the company’s DNA. However, some projects go beyond physical lighting and bring more lightness to life.
That is the case with Brightline’s role as a technology partner with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF). Since 2010, RSF has built state-of-the-art Seacrest Studios inside children’s hospitals. These studios give patients hands-on access to broadcasting and entertainment activities. Each studio broadcasts on the hospital’s closed-circuit TV network, sending programming directly to patient rooms. Today, 14 children’s hospitals have a Seacrest Studio.
The initiative has clearly taken off. In just 18 months, RSF opened new Seacrest Studios in Queens, Memphis, Salt Lake City, and Atlanta. The studio at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital is the most recently completed project. It opened on October 11, 2024. In addition, new studios and upgrades to existing Seacrest Studios are planned at several hospitals over the next two years.
Meredith Seacrest Leach, Executive Director & COO of RSF, explained why the studios are so popular. “Children’s hospitals are realizing how important it is to not only care medically and physically for their patients, but to also provide a variety of options supporting their mental health and overall well-being. Seacrest Studios are designed to be a safe space where kids in the hospitals can escape and have fun. They are a ‘no-poke zone’ that allows kids to just be kids and help bring some joy and happiness during their time in the hospital. It’s been very rewarding to see leading pediatric hospitals continue to apply for one of our studios.”
For the team at Brightline, being selected as a key part of the “no-poke zone” at hospitals nationwide has made a major impact inside the company. “It’s an honor to light Seacrest Studios,” said Kathy Katz, Managing Partner, Brightline Lighting. “They’re bringing real light into children’s lives, and we’re all so excited to play a part. Dealing with an illness can be such a serious, dark challenge. However, with a full-scale production studio in the building, children get to experience a very different, positive challenge. It can make a profound change in a child’s day-to-day life at the hospital.”
Behind-the-scenes and on-camera opportunities abound at Seacrest Studios. “Patients are highly encouraged to learn how to use the equipment,” explained Nicole Mead, VP, Business Development & Operations, Ryan Seacrest Foundation. “It’s very important to Ryan that patients be hands-on in the studio in areas that spark their interest. For some patients that means a more behind-the-scenes approach, such as learning how to use camera equipment or edit content. For other patients, it means working with studio staff to conceptualize, produce, and even star in their own shows.”
The children are not the only people who benefit from a hospital’s Seacrest Studio. The space also provides an entertaining escape for parents and siblings. It also instills pride in hospital staff. “When I was at the install at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens, New York, I saw families waiting on surgery and test results watching the action in Seacrest Studios,” said Michael Zihmer, Brightline National Sales Manager. “It’s much more engaging than staring at a TV monitor of generic programming in a waiting room. It takes you away from where you are for a moment. Suddenly, they’re not in a hospital anymore.”
Seacrest Studios use a core package of broadcast-quality equipment. Along with Brightline SeriesONE and Flex-T lighting fixtures, the package includes JVC cameras, JVC and NewTek (Vizrt) video switchers, SAS audio consoles, and Genelec monitors. This package works consistently across Seacrest Studios. The design concept has also been developed and refined since the first studio installation.
Lighting is the first piece of the production package installed. This helps create the cleanest look with the greatest mobility. To reduce floor clutter, Brightline LED studio lights and in-ceiling architectural lights are placed overhead. As a result, wheelchairs and gurneys can move easily inside the space. The overhead approach also provides more flexibility for equipment placement and different shooting styles.
Mead has noticed the change since standardizing on Brightline lights. “It makes all the difference in the content produced, both live content and photography and videography to be published. We have noticed an immense difference in the quality of our content since installing the Brightline lighting packages.”
Studio lighting is designed to match the hospital’s nearby architectural lighting. The goal is to bring studio-quality lighting into a non-studio environment. Fixtures used for hospital house lighting must have a high CRI (Color Rendering Index) to match the production lighting. When both sets of lights share compatible color temperature, the final look is more cohesive.
Most Seacrest Studios are located at or near hospital lobbies, where daylight and windows are common. The new three-story studio in the lobby of the Arthur M. Blank Hospital in Atlanta is surrounded by a glass atrium. It can also be seen from multiple floors.
The Foundation relies greatly on the expertise of its partners. Mead explained why RSF selected Brightline as its production lighting vendor of choice. “We were looking for a lighting partner known for its support and innovation. We needed a manufacturer that could provide the support we needed for each studio and a company with the innovation required to pivot design plans when needed within a very fast-paced build cycle. We have found exactly that in Brightline.”
Lighting Complement at Seacrest Studios:
Brightline SeriesONE L1.2 LED Studio Fixture: https://brightlines.com/product/seriesone-l1-2-led-studio-fixture/
Brightline Flex-T In-Ceiling Architectural Lights: https://brightlines.com/architectural/
About the Ryan Seacrest Foundation
The Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF) is a non-profit dedicated to inspiring pediatric patients through entertainment and education-focused initiatives. RSF’s primary initiative is to build broadcast media centers, known as Seacrest Studios, within pediatric hospitals. These studios allow patients to explore radio, television, and new media. Founded in 2009, RSF currently has Seacrest Studios at hospitals in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Orange County, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Nashville, Orlando, Memphis, Queens, and Salt Lake City. Two new studios are scheduled to open in the next 24 months, with Miami planned for this year and New Orleans planned for next year. Visit www.ryanseacrestfoundation.org.
About Brightline Lighting
A leading manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting systems for broadcast, videoconference, e-learning, and government, Brightline’s mission is to enable communication through clarity. With more than 5,000 customers in over 35 countries, Brightline specializes in enhancing the presentation of visual images by providing high-quality, environmentally responsible, and cost-effective evolutionary lighting solutions. Get enlightened at brightlines.com.
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