CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, September 28, 2022

NBC Chicago unveils set filled with video walls and city references

NewscastStudio: NBC’s Chicago station, WMAQ, debuted a light and bright home for its newscasts mixing large LED video walls with city iconography. WMAQ, which has studios inside the NBC Tower in downtown Chicago, retooled its existing space with a look that, like other NBC-owned stations, is dominated by video walls and color-changing elements.

2 comments:

Abby Brunner said...

I feel like many people don’t think about news channels like NBC needing a set designed and built. But if you think about it, the news channels are TV sets as well and are small versions of a theatre in themselves. I think it’s really interesting to see how the designer wanted the new stage to be portrayed and used in the space provided. This renovation allows NBC Chicago to create a new look for their studio that encompasses what the city of Chicago means for the people who watch NBC. I love that the NBC logo on the news desk is able to change different colors for the reports to help showcase causes or themes that are present in the news NBC is broadcasting. I also like how the designer made every element of the set for a reason to encompass what the city of Chicago looks like and how it feels. In terms of feeling, the designer was able to encompass the city of Chicago in one set-piece that helps to create a slick new look for NBC Chicago.

Kaylie Carpenter said...

3. More and more these days I find myself gravitating towards managing this kind of work. Back when I worked at Six Flags, one of the things I truly loved most about it was providing a service to people. If I’m being completely honest, I have grown tired of the….self-importance of theater? I’m not sure that is the right word. But I guess I just really appreciate the idea of designing and executing something for the purpose of serving a client’s needs which I why I have been looking into applying at Jack Morton closer to graduation. I wonder if production companies like Jack Morton have to deal with contracts that prevent them from working with competitors. For instance, I was at an autoshow last weekend that Jack Morton worked on. I am aware that they are often hired for GM’s experimental marketing, but are they barred from producing work for Ford or Stellantis/Chrysler.