WDR appoints T+M as main contractor for the refurbishment of its control room at the Philharmonie in Cologne.

Towards the end of summer this year, WDR will put one of the most modern and up to date control rooms in Europe into operation. The new technology will be used for live broadcast as well as high quality production work.

As the main contractor, Thum+Mahr will replace the control room and postproduction facilities operated by WDR at the Philharmonie in Cologne. The centrepiece of this prestige project will be the “AURUS” mixing console from German high tech specialist StageTec. The console’s particularly flat and low-profile user surface, equipped with 48 direct access channels, matches the modern architecture of the refurbished accommodation superbly. The “NEXUS” fibre optic networked routing system is also a StageTec product.



Christoph Gronartz, sound engineer for WDR production technology, and “Landlord” of the new Philharmonie production facilities, justifies the choice of the StageTec Aurus console: “The Aurus desk gives me a user surface with a genuine analogue feel, combined with the full functionality and flexibility of a digital console.” In addition to the control room to be fully renovated by Thum+Mahr, a tapeless postproduction facility and a speech recording room form part of WDR’s Production Complex 83. Thum+Mahr IT specialists working under the project management of Boris Raskob have carried out a joint development with WDR to provide the most modern, high-availability IT solutions for the postproduction area.

This includes two Fibre Channel networked Sequoia editing systems, which are connected to the Nexus switchers via MADI Direct Interfaces. Together they form a NAS (Network Attached Storage) providing 8 Tbytes of local production storage on a Raid platform. A particularly significant feature here is the automatic mirroring of the 8 Tbyte local production storage, in which the data stored in the Philharmonie is transmitted to WDR’s broadcasting house in Wallraffplatz via a redundant radio data link.

Thum+Mahr will install the "twin", which is a second, identical 8 Tbyte production storage system in the production complex of WDR’s main radio building in Wallrafplatz. This is integrated into the production environment of the radio station and overnight will automatically duplicate the data stored in the Philharmonie.

This enables productions that are recorded in the Philharmonie during an evening performance, to be freely available for immediate access the following morning. Alternatively, Production Complex 83 can also act as a reserve, or emergency standby, for WDR’s broadcasting house.