TF1 has renewed its news studio with the objective of transforming the way it brings daily information to millions of viewers. The vision was to create a studio that could immerse audiences through visuals while giving production teams a more flexible and reliable workflow. To realise it, TF1 turned to Disguise, adopting its GX 3 servers and Porta control system to power a new broadcast setup, as Disguise has claimed in a statement.

TF1’s existing graphics infrastructure was struggling to keep pace with the broadcaster’s ambitions. The current system powering its LED displays was outdated, making it difficult to achieve the level of rendering quality expected by both creative teams and viewers. At the same time, editorial teams needed a way to build and manage playlists with greater speed and flexibility, ensuring they could adapt instantly to breaking news and evolving stories.

Additionally, every existing graphic asset had to be rebuilt in Disguise, and the system needed to run reliably during live broadcasts each day, from morning through evening news slots.

New studio

TF1 redesigned its studio in two phases. First, the physical environment was modernised with the addition of new curved LED walls and a LED floor. Then, the broadcaster replaced its legacy graphics system with a Disguise-powered workflow.

The new setup centres on three LED zones: a large curved wall with a resolution of 11,264 x 1,280 pixels, a second curved wall at 5,376 x 1,536 pixels, and a 1,920 x 1,080 LED floor. Four Disguise GX 3 servers manage playback, with two dedicated to the LED walls, one acting as a stage manager to coordinate the system, and one serving as a backup.

To meet the need for efficient playlist control, TF1 collaborated closely with the Disguise team to integrate Porta. The tool was customised to enable collaborative workflows between editors and visual mixers. Editors can prepare daily templates and imagery within Porta, while the visual mixer layers them with the regular show elements and plays them out during broadcast.

At the end of 2024, TF1 went live with its new Disguise-powered studio for its flagship news programme. “With Disguise, we were able to replace our old system and achieve the flexibility we needed to keep our most important news programme running smoothly every day”, affirmed Cécile Duboc, PO News – Live Production, TF1.