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ETC Lights Swiss Federal Media Centre
The first TV broadcast from the new media centre of the Federal Houses of Parliament in Bern, Switzerland, has been transmitted. Accommodating the editorial offices of various radio and television stations, as well as production workspaces and radio studios, the media centre is home to the 280m2 TV studio of the SRG SSR (Swiss Radio and Television Association). Much of the lighting equipment for the new studio was supplied and installed by ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.) from their offices in Holzkirchen, Germany.
In February 2000, the Swiss Parliament’s Council of Ministers decided to provide the news media in Bern with their own separate facilities since, with reporting increasingly done in the city, workspace for SRG correspondents, editors, and employees in the parliament building had been exhausted. After evaluating various possibilities, the council chose a landmark building, also owned by the federation, directly across from the parliament. The complicated construction work on the 1863 building began in October, but only after the compilation of an extensive list of requirements.
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 (requiring approximately 15,000m³ of excavation) had to be dug under the building that, in turn, was propped on stilts for the duration of construction. After the official laying of the foundation stone in February 2005, all trades worked together on structural work for the basement, as well as bricklaying and installation work on the upper four floors. The 55 employees of SRG were able to move into their new workspaces in May 2006, and 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.
Girard continues: "For me, as chief cameraman and co-project manager of SRG, it has been a dream come true: to build a television studio and to work with ETC on planning how all the rigging, spotlights, cyc with cyc lights, and curtains would be delivered and installed."
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, as well as 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.
Girard explains the advantages of this background lighting: “We actually lose about one metre around the studio, since an appropriate distance has to be left between the Chroma 4 lights and the drop. But we’re able to hang the spotlights almost at the edge of the studio without being floodlit from conventional lights and without casting shadows on the background.”
The more expensive fluorescent lamp modules were deliberately installed in the studio because conventional lights emit large amounts of heat, which must then be removed and cooled by a large air conditioner. For taping, which must be filmed without background illumination, a blue as well as a black curtain is also available. A lowering station makes quick changes between curtains possible. With a switch, the three-track rail system can be used quickly and easily, with versatility.
In this 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. “Our task is the daily news coverage of La Berne fédérale for the radio and television programs of the SRG SSR idée suisse. That’s an easy task in such a bright new studio – since everyone enjoys working there and the atmosphere is so good,” says Joachim Rüede, manager of the Federal Production Centre.
21st September 2006
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