The new television studio is situated on the third basement level of the building - an impressive feat in itself, considering that no basement levels existed at the beginning of construction. An 18m hole had to be dug under the building which was itself propped on stilts for the duration of construction. The official laying of the foundation stone was in February 2005, and the 55 employees of SRG were able to move into their new workspaces in May 2006: two days later, the first broadcast in the brand new Studio 4 was recorded.
"The good cooperation with ETC, plus their forward-looking project management and dependable products, contributed substantially to the smooth execution of this project," says Robert Girard, chief cameraman for SRG. Early involvement in the planning made it possible for ETC project manager Mark Tobler to deliver well coordinated products first-hand - with critical input on optimal ceiling construction for the lighting grid and the complex network, as well as on the best choice for lighting control systems.
During an early visit to ETC's Holzkirchen offices, Girard and cameraman/lighting specialist Andreas Gasser decided on the ETC Congo lighting control system after they had tested several other consoles. "Congo is arranged clearly and is simple to operate. Our requirements for a console were fulfilled perfectly," says Girard.
Two Congo consoles are now employed at the new media centre: one in the studio, for lighting control during recording and/or live transmission; the other located one level up, as back-up. Both systems are connected via Ethernet and ETCNet2 components and can take over back-up for each other. Meanwhile, 144 x 2.5 kVA dimmer circuits are running within two ETC Transtechnik FDX2000 installation racks in the dimmer room - each equipped with dual processors.
In spite of as many as 41 hoists, the lighting grid is light and unencumbered. With three dimmed circuits, a fixed electrical circuit, and different data and network connections, the hoists can be expanded flexibly for spotlights as well as for video or audio equipment. The fly is controlled with an ETC Transtechnik Voyager studio-automation system. Individual devices can be selected by simply pressing the touch screen, combining them into groups, or manoeuvring them to stored positions, which are then quickly and easily recalled. As a studio cyclorama, a six-metre-high gray Opera drop was installed in Bern. Some 105 Chroma 4 fluorescent-lamp modules, each equipped with four tubes in red, green, blue and white, shine from behind the milky, see-through plastic film. The 420 tubes can be triggered independently so that with additional colour mixing, countless colours and progressions can be projected.
In this, the first TV studio in Switzerland completely outfitted by ETC (from project planning and management to the installation of dimmers, flies, their substructures, and the corresponding lighting control systems), the SRG will produce the future broadcasts for Switzerland's four language regions.
(Lee Baldock)
