After several years of modernization, WDR has now completed the renewal of nine regional studios in North Rhine-Westphalia in cooperation with MCI as system integrator and general contractor. On June 10, 2024, the studio in Bonn went on air as planned, accompanied by a grand opening ceremony. Among the guests were WDR Director General Tom Buhrow and Bonn’s Mayor Katja Dörner.
The first of the nine studios to go on air was the modernized WDR Regional Studio in Duisburg in May 2020. This studio was the first at WDR to be prepared for Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) production. In the future, WDR will be able to deliver even higher quality broadcasts, especially from its regional studios.
Since the end of 2020, the studios in Wuppertal and Siegen have been on air. The studios in Dortmund and Essen followed in May and November 2021, respectively. The locations in Bielefeld and Aachen went on air in March and November 2022. The studio in Münster began broadcasting in March 2023, and the studio in Bonn followed in June 2024.
As general contractor, MCI planned and implemented the installation and commissioning of nine regional studios and their integration into the central exchange platform ZAP.
Planning for the required production technology to implement the new studio concept and full integration into WDR’s networked production environment began in April 2019. The challenge was to unite previously separate areas into a demand-oriented, cross-media production complex and, at the same time, ensure future readiness through UHD production.
To meet the demand for flexibility in a modern studio and the requirements of new channels and viewing habits, the concept for the new studios includes, in addition to classic TV and radio production, a cross-media editing room where content can be prepared and provided quickly, flexibly, and efficiently for all distribution channels.
To improve production workflows, WDR, in cooperation with MCI, relied on smart solutions when selecting the technology.
In the course of modernization and conversion to 12G SDI Single Link UHD technology, the project team faced the task of examining all technology for UHD compatibility and finding suitable integration.
The control room was newly designed and equipped with four workstations. To enable future UHD production, a Ross Ultrix video router, a Ross Video Carbonite Black Plus 12G+ video mixer, and graphics systems from Avid were integrated. A Stagetec Auratus audio mixing console and the matching Stagetec Nexus audio router ensure excellent audio quality. For classic studio production, Ikegami UHD box cameras on Vitec Group column pedestals are used, which can be flexibly controlled remotely from the control room thanks to their pan and tilt heads.
Two newly created presenter areas were designed for self-operation and each equipped with small, easy-to-use Yellowtec Intellimix mixing consoles.
For user-friendly operation, the main workstations were equipped with KVM systems from G&D.
To keep track of the complex studio technology, the IP-based vsm studio control system from Lawo brings everything together, providing all important parameter values in real time and making them accessible to users. This ensures smooth cross-media production operations.
Another complexity during the conversion was integrating the new studio concept into WDR’s existing, long-established networked production environment and the central exchange platform (ZAP).
Based on VPMS and IBM Arema, ZAP is used throughout WDR for file-based production. As part of the project, the regional studios, including their editing suites and ingest and playout servers, were fully integrated into ZAP.
The editing suites are connected to a central AVID Nexis production system installed in Cologne.
Playout in the regional studios connected to ZAP is performed using the HMS ClipBox product. Playback of fill and key signals to the video mixer is also possible. Furthermore, a MOS connection to OpenMedia supports the established placeholder workflow at WDR. In this process, content and its media objects are created in OpenMedia. The playout server manages and links the media objects with clips. In the final step, OpenMedia provides a broadcast schedule for playout via MOS. ClipBox is mainly operated remotely via the video mixer, allowing playout and video mixing to be combined at one workstation.
The central connection to ZAP and the modernization of studio technology address the cross-media requirements of the industry regarding information processing, changing viewing habits, speed, and image quality. In the future, content can be processed and provided flexibly and location-independently on all channels, in any common format, and at any desired resolution.
All nine regional studios are now on air. Due to existing technical conditions in program distribution, the studios will initially produce and broadcast in HD quality. With future expansion of distribution channels, the program could also be offered in UHD quality.
MCI is pleased, as WDR’s technical partner, to have created the conditions for further expansion of cross-media reporting.
