WELT news studios

Studios:

• Studio 1: 175 m², about 5.5 m height
• Video wall on 3 sides behind an opera foil, 9x motorized video panel.
• With one side window to the newsroom
• Studio 2: 175 m², about 5.5 m height
• Half green studio, half with 3 sided videowall behind an opera.

Project scope & USPs: 

• A lighting system, integrated into the broadcast concept, incl. automation and incorporated in the central broadcast control system
• Ease of use for a state-of-the-art news studio (24/7 studio and live broadcasting) with minimal staff and maximum flexibility and stability of the system
• First time a news studio is outfitted with end-to-end IP-technology, down to the luminaires (IP end-to-end)
• Simple monitoring of the lighting system and first-time integration into the central monitoring
• Remote setup and service for short changeover and setup times

ARRI Solutions Group Services:

Turnkey: Lighting network, -control, suspension (pipe system) incl. power distribution of both studios and for all systems

ARRI Lighting products: 
(among other third-party products)

Studio 1:

• 30x SkyPanel S30
• 12x SkyPanel S60

Studio 2:

• 40x SkyPanel S30
• 10x SkyPanel S60
• 10x SkyPanel S120

Project Details:

At the new Axel Springer Campus in the heart of Berlin, WeltN24 has commissioned two state-of-the-art TV studios for the station WELT. The new studios are not only an architectural statement for the digital tomorrow. Both news studios are equipped with Ethernet/IP-capable lighting fixtures throughout, enabling IP-end-to-end communication and, therefore, efficient workflows that are fully integrated into the broadcast infrastructure. The ARRI Solutions Group handled the consulting, planning, and turnkey installation of the studio lighting and control systems on behalf of the system integrator Qvest Media and in close partnership with the planning office mo2 design.

WELT’s two TV studios enable closer networking and collaboration with digital and print. This exchange is also reflected in the visual concept of the studios, each measuring 175 m² (1,938 sq. ft.) and 5.5 m (18 ft.) high. Glass fronts in Studio 1 ensure transparency, visibility, and interaction. Particular challenges in terms of the lighting design were also the motorized and movable LED video panels on three sides and a required minimum range of movement for the presenters on set without changing the lighting fixture positions. After extensive testing, a total of 100 soft lights of the ARRI SkyPanel series (S60-C, S30-C) and Moving Lights with the Fresnel characteristics from Robe Lighting were chosen. These are supplemented by LED bars which are affixed to the top of the motorized video panels to direct an appropriate backlight onto the presenters.

In Studio 2, especially for the green box, ARRI’s SkyPanels with different apertures (S120-C, S60-C, S30-C) were specified to achieve optimal light distribution according to templates of photometric simulations created by ARRI Solutions Group. An important criterion for selecting the type of lighting was a certain quality level—this enables the fixtures to meet the requirements of an HD/UHD environment in the long term. These include the level of color rendering index, options for color temperatures adjustments, calibration standards used for the LEDs, and their service life.

The core of the studio lighting design is an IP-based control system for the luminaires including their integration into the broadcast automation and a central monitoring for lighting. “Lighting networks that have been traditionally controlled exclusively via DMX are experiencing more and more limitations in practice. Therefore, increasing our customers’ requirements for efficient workflows can be met by specifying or designing end-to-end IP systems only,” explains Paul Flemming, Head of Projects at the ARRI Solutions Group. This is one reason why the ARRI team is focusing more and more on the implementation of Ethernet/IP-based lighting solutions. “ARRI has been a pioneer in this area thanks to the integration of an IP interface in the SkyPanel series from a very early stage, and we have found strong support for this idea with the manufacturers of Moving Lights, Robe Lighting,” adds Flemming. He continues, “DMX, as a traditional network protocol, limits the use of an intelligent monitoring for the lighting system. Using RDM as a return channel may destabilizes the network, plus there are limitations defined in the standard in regards to the data rate and the maximum number of channels per one DMX universe. With a lighting control infrastructure based solely on Ethernet/IP, as with WELT, we were able to achieve a system-wide increase in lighting system flexibility and realibility, which is hugely important, especially in 24/7 operations.”

Ethernet/IP, especially in lighting systems, is a great relief for broadcast engineers, enabling them to take holistic control over the components for video, audio, and light in a studio. Initially, Zabbix, an open-source software for monitoring of various IT components, acts as the central monitoring tool. In cooperation with WELT, the implementation of a specialized monitoring tool for the lighting system is planned. In the future, this will enable the crew to monitor the status of all lighting components with an interface to the central broadcast monitoring by centrally managing the RDM and SNMP status information of all the lighting system components.

Customer Quote:

“The ARRI Solutions Group, with its high level of expertise and international experience, has made a significant contribution to the fact that we will be using one of the world’s most innovative lighting system solutions in our television studios,” emphasizes Thorsten Prohm, Chief Technical Officer at WeltN24. “With great commitment, we were able to develop workflows together as a team that meet our special requirements as a news broadcaster while, at the same time, optimizing the budget. The product management, including implementation and installation, under the management of Project Engineer Carolin Schramm, was carried out at an extremely high level. Through the collaboration with the ARRI Solutions Group, we are now launching the ‘digital tomorrow’ not only in our new TV studios but also in the area of professional lighting technology as well.”

Photos: WeltN24 GmbH/Anne Hufnagl