When Meridian, the renowned British audio company, set out to launch their new high-performance streaming speaker, the Meridian Ellipse, they needed more than just a typical commercial. They wanted a visual experience as immersive as their sound – designed and engineered to deliver goosebumps. Director/DP Louis James-Parker and DP Paul Cook were tasked with creating a bold, elegant production that would bring the product to life and capture the powerful emotion of Meridian’s audio experience. To achieve this, the team turned to Litepanels’ Gemini series for the perfect combination of power, precision, and color accuracy to tackle the creative challenges ahead.
Merging Style with Substance
Louis, an award-winning director and DP with experience working for industry-leading brands like Red Bull, Spotify, and Intel, had established a reputation for delivering exceptional content. With five years of success at Meridian behind him, he had the full support of the team to take his creative vision to new heights.
Meridian challenged the team to deliver something distinctly different from their past work. “They wanted something bold, something that stood out,” Louis shared. The team decided to introduce robots into the shoot, combining dynamic movement with precise lighting to make the static product feel alive.
With only two days of studio time; one for pre-light and robotics testing, and one for shooting, every second mattered. Louis explained, “We started by visualizing the robot’s movements using my phone. From there, I developed five lighting setups, starting with dark and moody, and building toward a bright, vibrant reveal.” Meridian loved the concept and was fully on board.
The next challenge was securing a suitable location. Louis required a space that could accommodate dynamic camera movements and provide bold, vibrant backdrops. The solution? Ember Films‘ expansive 5,000 square foot white cyc studio, equipped with advanced motion control robotics. With a rich history of collaborating with top brands and broadcasters, Ember had a proven track record of delivering ambitious projects within demanding production schedules. With the concept and location in place, Louis brought in DP Paul Cook, who knew that achieving the desired result would hinge on using the right lighting.
Lighting the Scene
Paul, a long-time user of Litepanels’ Gemini series, faced a specific challenge: lighting a vast studio space while maintaining high color accuracy and saturation. “It’s difficult to find RGB LED lights that deliver both rich color and power,” he explained. “Often, when you go for colored lights, the power drops off significantly, but the Geminis were different.”
To light the scene, Paul relied on the impressive power of the Gemini 2×1 Hard, which delivers 23,000 lux at 10 feet (3 meters) while drawing only 500 watts at full intensity. To flood the background with vibrant colors, he used six Gemini 2×1 Hard panels—three on each side of the studio. Paul originally thought he’d need up to 10 lights, but the output from just six was more than enough. For the product itself, a Gemini 1×1 Hard with a honeycomb was mounted on a boom arm to provide a focused, soft wrap of light.
“The power of these fixtures was so impressive that we had to dial them down to 50%.”
Paul CookDP & Gaffer
Key to the commercial’s success was creating separation. “We wanted the product to stand out distinctly from the colorful background,” Louis explained. “We didn’t want a black product to suddenly look dark blue or a dark orange.” Gemini’s bright, saturated colors, combined with its intense output, provided the perfect solution. The crew were able to position the lighting in a way that it wouldn’t interfere with the camera’s color balance, whilst still maintaining a rich color wash on the background without causing any spill.
The camera package was equally important in achieving the high level of precision required. “We shot with a RED 8K Monstro paired with Zeiss CP3 lenses,” Paul shared. “The flexibility of this setup allowed us to get incredibly close to the product—sometimes as close as an inch away. We used diopters on the lenses to ensure sharp focus at that proximity, which was essential to capturing the fine details and bringing the product to life.”
Flick of a Switch
A key challenge was the need to quickly change lighting setups as the cinebot captured repetitive, dynamic shots against various colored backdrops. Paul used the Gemini DMX control and user programmable presets, which allowed the team to seamlessly switch between different lighting configurations. “We could change the entire lighting setup in seconds,” Paul said. “Going from blue to orange or orange to white was as simple as flipping a switch, thanks to the follow-lead system in the DMX setup.”
They also made creative use of Gemini’s built-in library of 300 industry-standard gels to amplify colors. “For the orange backdrop, we set the light to tungsten, adding the built-in CTO gels for extra vividness,” Paul explained. “With the blue backdrop, we set the light to daylight, adding cooler tones that intensified the blue. As we didn’t have to color balance with any other lights, we could be a little more creative.”
Effortless Efficiency
The flexibility and power of the Gemini lights were a game-changer for both Louis and Paul. “I’ve lit studio spaces many times with traditional lights like 5Ks and 2Ks, and it’s always time-consuming,” Paul reflected. “You end up with hotspots and have to blend them. But with the Geminis, the soft diffusion just blended everything beautifully, creating an even exposure without any extra effort.”
This efficiency meant they could spend more time focusing on complex motion-control shots, and less on adjusting lights. “The Gemini’s power, built-in gel library, and DMX system were crucial in helping us hit our packed shot list,” Louis said.
“The ability to light such a huge space with intense saturated color and quickly adjust the look with all the lights in sync was incredible.”
Louis James-ParkerDirector & DP