Rajasthan’s first privately owned HD channel, First India News studios in Jaipur posed an exciting design and technology challenge. In a very short period of time we had to learn about all the components of a television studio and execute it all in time for a channel launch before the state elections. Our scope encompassed expanding the existing Ground and Basement floors and the design and detailing of the full studio with sets, all technical, service and administrative areas. In close collaboration with NDTV and aptly aided by our consultants, we were able to address all points of the technical and aesthetic brief.

Our vision for the studio was based on the colours and forms of the Rajasthan landscape and people, to complement the logo and motifs designed by NDTV Worldwide. Each backdrop was deliberately created to look different so that the camera would have varied areas of interest as it panned around the small studio. We managed to create several distinct backdrops in this way.

The edit bay wall, backdrop for the 5 person desk, is a deconstructed version of the logo itself, using bands of light to articulate and punctuate the letters blown up to larger than readable size. A second highlight wall is an abstract grid of colored backlit panels; each color on separate switches so that keeping groups of colour off or on can make the wall look slightly different in each case. The grid form helps structure the television screens but more importantly hides and arranges several sets of switches, electrical panels, exhaust grills and a fire exit door within its seemingly random pattern. The bright blue and yellow PCR / MCR rooms taken from the colours of the logo stitch together the disparate backgrounds with a ‘1’ for First India News concealing a column at site. Faux French windows with changeable backgrounds form the background of the 2 person set, to allow ‘day’ and ‘night’ shots with Jaipur backdrops. Additional wall graphics were extracted from the NDTV created channel IDs to tie into the motion graphics of the channel.

The 3 person desk was a play on the traditional Rajasthani ‘pagri’ (turban) – a bright layered orange circle which swirls down in a tight circle to form the podium. To highlight the theme of interconnectedness, an idea also explored in the channel identity, we created two stand-alone desks with separate identities, connected through a colored strip which dips to the ground and then rises back up to connect the two. The desks also tie into the Chroma wall by means of a colored floor.  

The reception, canteen and office spaces were also designed to match thematically with the colors and materials. A grid holds the polycarbonate sheets of the structural extension together, while bands of colour make up the background of the reception. The basement office is characterized by large colored walls and blocks which seemingly cascade down the stairwell. It is naturally lit by the addition of ventilators and a sky garden adjacent to the CEO’s room. The canteen, meant to feel like a different space uses the waste plywood strips and creates a fun yet functional ceiling to hide all the services concealed above.

The logo and color theme is carried through to the external façade and entryway where the 1 of the logo forms the doorway into the premises and uses the form of the logo to create external signage. Planter walls punctuated by billboards form the three remaining external walls.