WDR Relies On Riedel Backbone For Remote Production Of UEFA Euro 2024

The German regional public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) has implemented a Riedel backbone for communications and signal distribution for the ARD broadcast of the UEFA European Football Championship 2024.

In collaboration with Broadcast Solutions and Riedel's Managed Technology Division, the media and intercom infrastructure at WDR’s Broadcast Center Cologne (BCC) was temporarily expanded to enable flexible and efficient remote production for linear TV, radio, online, and social media.

WDR opted for a centralized remote production from its Cologne location, which helped reduce travel and personnel costs. For this purpose, all UEFA feeds were centrally organized via the German public broadcaster control room in Mainz, decoded, and sent directly to Cologne over fiber. In addition, signals from up to six unilateral cameras with embedded audio were transmitted from each stadium to Cologne. There, all signals converged in a dispatcher room used by production, editorial, and technical staff, and were distributed throughout the Cologne campus.

Due to the high number of additional signals to be processed in the BCC, the WDR infrastructure was temporarily expanded by 17 MediorNet MicroN UHD nodes. Ten of these nodes were equipped with the Standard App to sync the unsynchronized UEFA feeds to the house clock and enable flexible distribution of video and audio signals. The remaining seven nodes used the MultiViewer App for scalable multiviewing capacities. The orchestration layer, hi human interface from Broadcast Solutions, was chosen to control and configure the infrastructure.

In addition to the existing intercom system, WDR rented an extra Riedel Artist Node with MADI cards to connect the commentator stations in the stadiums, as well as additional intercom panels to accommodate the increased number of workstations.

The integration of Euro 2024 into WDR's ongoing operations required careful planning to ensure that its regular processes remained undisturbed. For example, the Euro 2024 control room was decoupled from the main WDR control room to ensure dedicated processing of the European Championship content. Close cooperation from system planning to technical implementation ensured that the system met WDR's requirements and functioned flawlessly. 

You might also like...

Standards: Part 18 - High Efficiency And Other Advanced Audio Codecs

Our series on Standards moves on to discussion of advancements in AAC coding, alternative coders for special case scenarios, and their management within a consistent framework.

HDR & WCG For Broadcast - Expanding Acquisition Capabilities With HDR & WCG

HDR & WCG do present new requirements for vision engineers, but the fundamental principles described here remain familiar and easily manageable.

What Does Hybrid Really Mean?

In this article we discuss the philosophy of hybrid systems, where assets, software and compute resource are located across on-prem, cloud and hybrid infrastructure.

Future Technologies: Artificial Intelligence In Image & Sound Creation

We continue our series considering technologies of the near future and how they might transform how we think about broadcast, with a discussion of how the impact of AI on broadcasting may be more about ethical standards than technical standards.

Standards: Part 17 - About AAC Audio Coding

Advanced Audio Coding improves on the MP3 Perceptual Coding solution to achieve higher compression ratios and better playback quality.