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Project Type
Live for Broadcast. A live, multi-day television production and nationally broadcast competition produced for the E.W. Scripps Company. The project encompassed the complete scenic and lighting environment for the Bee’s competition rounds, culminating in a live primetime championship broadcast from Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Lighting design by John Viesta, Infinite Designs, Inc.
Project Name
Scripps National Spelling Bee
Design Criteria
Executive Producer Michael Davies wanted to reimagine the Scripps National Spelling Bee as a true primetime television event, creating a more cinematic visual language while ensuring the focus always remained on the remarkable students competing.
The creative team was tasked with elevating an iconic American competition without losing the authenticity, history, and sense of occasion that have defined the Bee for generations. Rather than simply placing a television production within Washington, D.C.’s historic Constitution Hall, the goal was to embrace the architecture of the room and transform the entire venue into a cohesive broadcast environment.
As the competition progressed, the visual language needed to evolve with it. The championship rounds called for greater focus, contrast, and dramatic tension, allowing lighting and the surrounding architecture to reinforce the increasing stakes of the competition without ever overpowering the students at its center.
At the same time, the lighting design had to satisfy the practical demands of a live, multi-camera primetime broadcast: beautiful and consistent lighting for the competitors and host, strong compositions from a wide range of camera positions, and an environment capable of moving seamlessly between intimate moments at the microphone and the scale and spectacle of a national championship.
Project Description
The 2026 Scripps National Spelling Bee marked an effort to elevate the iconic competition into a true primetime television event. Broadcast live from Washington, D.C.’s historic Constitution Hall, the lighting design introduced a more cinematic visual language, using color, contrast, texture, and architectural lighting to give the production greater scale, depth, and drama while keeping the young competitors at the center of every frame.
Challenges and Solutions
The greatest challenge was transforming a historic concert hall into a sophisticated primetime television environment without losing the intimacy of the competition. Constitution Hall presents significant architectural and technical limitations for a modern multi-camera production, yet the design needed to feel intentional from virtually every camera position.
Our solution was to treat the entire room as part of the lighting design. Architectural surfaces, audience areas, stage elements, and the competitors were composed as layers within the television image, allowing the lighting to create depth and scale beyond the physical stage.
For the primetime championship, we drew inspiration from the visual tension of classic high-stakes quiz programs such as Mastermind. As the field narrowed, the lighting became increasingly focused and controlled, using contrast, color, and isolation to heighten the drama surrounding each student at the microphone. The challenge was achieving that intensity without making the environment feel intimidating or allowing the production itself to become more important than the young competitors.
The design also had to function as broadcast lighting. Every dramatic choice needed to coexist with consistent, flattering key light, multiple camera positions, live audience coverage, and the unpredictability of an unscripted competition. The result was a system capable of moving between broad architectural spectacle and an intimate close-up of a single student—often within the same moment.
Photo credit: E. M. Pio Roda/Scripps National Spelling Bee
Equipment
Fixture selection was driven by the need to balance precise broadcast lighting with a flexible theatrical system capable of transforming Constitution Hall for primetime.
Robe iFORTE fixtures provided the primary key light, offering the control and consistency required for the competitors and host. Robe Spiiders provided flexible audience coverage, while Chroma-Q Color Force II fixtures were used extensively to tone the room and architecture, creating depth and extending the visual environment beyond the stage. Integrated LED tape added another layer of color and dimensionality throughout the design.
Together, these systems allowed us to move seamlessly between clean, flattering broadcast lighting and the more dramatic, cinematic environment of the championship.
Team
Location: D.A.R. Constitution Hall — Washington, DC, USA
Lighting Designer: John Viesta, Infinite Designs, Inc
Lighting Director: Tyler M. Perry
Programmer: Bob Going
Production Gaffer: John Salzmann
Production Electricians: Eric Kasprisin, Nkosi Mason, Tom Thayer
Production Head Rigger: Shawn Robinson
Production Rigger: Nick Fedeli
Lighting & Rigging Equipment: Main Light