Pinkbox Studios is a production studio in Los Angeles’s historic fashion district. The space features a 30 foot prelit cyclorama, an LED wall, and production amenities for music videos, social content, and commercial shoots.
To improve coverage across the cyc, co-founders Bobby Astro and Sebastian Kolderup-Lane upgraded to seven NOVA II 1x1 fixtures. The new system fully lights the cyc at just 25% intensity and saved the studio more than $10,000 compared with a proposed 13-panel setup.
A Sidus One transceiver and Sidus Link Pro added wireless CRMX control for faster, repeatable adjustments without needing to physically access the lighting grid.
Before: yellow lighting with RGBWW panels on the cyc with the Pinkbox team
After: yellow lighting with BLAIR-CG panels (NOVA II 1x1) on the cyc with the Pinkbox team
Sebastian auto-patches seven NOVA II 1x1s with Sidus Link Pro
Sebastian controls the NOVA II 1x1s via wireless CRMX on Sidus Link Pro
The completed setup
Growing a Small Production Studio
Small production studios have exploded in number in the last decade thanks to rental sites like Peerspace. These studios are a popular choice for music videos, social media visualizers, and other shoots that don’t need the scale of a traditional soundstage.
Pinkbox Studios is one such company: a warehouse in Los Angeles’s historic fashion district that offers a prelit cyclorama, an LED wall, and related amenities.
Co-founders Bobby Astro and Sebastian Kolderup-Lane knew they needed to continue to improve the studio if they wanted to attract high-end clients. “We wanted to upgrade the lighting for the cyclorama because it's the number one ticket item at the studio,” Kolderup-Lane says. “It's what most people come here for.” The 5 Nova P600cs were a step up from many small studio spaces’ lighting, but didn’t fully cover the surface area of the cyc. Bobby says, “It was what we were able to afford.”
Initial quotes proposed adding 13 traditional 2x1 LED panels, at a high cost. The team sought more options, and the upgrade ended up saving over $10,000 while offering better output, coverage, and color rendering.
Full Cyc Coverage With Just Seven NOVA II 1x1s
The new panels on the studio grid
After reviewing the numbers, the team realized NOVA II 1x1s could meet their lighting needs with just 7 fixtures.
The upgrade cost ended up at the amount Pinkbox spent on the original lighting, $10,000 below the quote for traditional 2x1 panels. The new array could fully light the cyc at just 25% intensity.
Faster, More Repeatable Lighting Control With With Sidus One and Sidus Link Pro
Sebastian controls the NOVA II 1x1s via wireless CRMX on Sidus Link Pro
The Pinkbox team also took the opportunity to upgrade the studio’s lighting control, with a Sidus One transceiver and Sidus Link Pro. Running CRMX made lighting changes more repeatable and reduced the need to physically access the lights on the grid. Astro says, “You turn it on, you go to the settings, make sure they're connected, and then boom, it was that easy.
Rich Colors, Full Coverage, Bigger Clients
The specially-tuned BLAIR-CG engine in the NOVA II 1x1 exceeded Pinkbox’s output needs and deepened the color options available to clients.
“The colors are so much more robust,” Kolderup-Lane says. “It's not just like, ‘Hey, what we offer with our lighting on the cyc is yellow, blue, green, red. You could do eight different looks within green.”
Before: yellow lighting on the cyc with the Pinkbox team
After: yellow lighting on the cyc with the Pinkbox team
Co-founders Bobby Astro and Sebastian Kolderup-Lane
The upgraded cyc lighting has led to surprising responses from professionals. Kolderup-Lane says, “[A gaffer friend] saw that we had a CRMX set up, and he felt like we had like taken the next step and that he could recommend us to his bigger clients. We were now considered legitimate because we had stuff that was reliable. And I think reliability is the biggest thing in this industry.”
