Avid completes WDR project
Avid has released the details of its four-year €4.5m installation at top regional German broadcaster, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).
The end-to-end tapeless workflow installation–based around the Avid Interplay Production Asset Management system, Avid ISIS shared storage solution and Avid Media Composer edit suites–will enable journalists in WDR’s 10 regional studios to centrally access, edit and play out its news and current affairs programming. WDR’s regional studio in Aachen is the tenth and final studio in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) to be equipped with Avid digital solutions to produce its news and current affairs programme content, and is expected to go live in early 2012.
“We have relied on our partnership with Avid since the beginning of our regional studio modernisation programme in 2007,” says Reinhold W. Vogt, chief department manager production NRW at the WDR broadcasting centre in Düsseldorf. “We’ll have installed edit bays with Avid Media Composer at all ten regional studio locations by early 2012. All edit suites are integrated with Avid’s central storage solution, Avid ISIS, which enables us to access recorded material instantly from all suites at all locations. This is a key benefit for our core business of news and current affairs. Thanks to Avid Interplay, all journalists in our regional studios can access and screen their material with the help of Avid Assist. In addition, we are using Avid Airspeed® as a playout system for broadcasting.”
Vogt also values the reliable compatibility and openness of Avid products with other manufacturers. “We were able to extend the digitisation and integration of our regional studios to the radio and Internet.”
The Mainz-based systems integrator BFE has been commissioned to install hardware at all studio locations and upgrade all its audio and video equipment. At the beginning of 2012, all WDR studios are scheduled to use the same technology, and will benefit from a seamless integration that will enable fast and reliable data access, editing and playout.
“Germany is a key country for Avid, and WDR’s investment in additional Avid solutions is another shining example of the long-standing relationships we have worldwide with media enterprises of all sizes,” said Gary Greenfield, CEO of Avid. “Our deep-rooted heritage in the broadcast industry, and in-depth understanding of the complex environment today’s broadcasters operate in, has enabled us to custom-design an infrastructure to meet WDR’s exacting requirements. The result of our long-standing, joint partnership since 2007 means for the first time all WDR assets are now available to WDR’s 10 regional sites across Germany – allowing them to truly reap the efficiency and revenue-making rewards of a centralised, end-to-end, and all-digital workflow.”