IBC 2010: SWR Awards Contract to Wellen+Nothen

Implementation of tapeless production for the new production centre in Stuttgart

AMSTERDAM and COLOGNE, Germany, September 10, 2010 - Wellen+Nothen GmbH today announced that German public broadcaster SWR
(Sudwestrundfunk) has awarded it the contract for the overall implementation
of a file-based production system at the broadcaster's new production centre
in Stuttgart. Wellen+Nothen thus won a nine-month, European-wide tender
process as systems integrator for implementation of the project.

SWR decided in 2007 to centralise the parts of its business spread over
the city of Stuttgart into a single location. The broadcaster's three media
divisions of TV, radio and Internet will in future be concentrated under one
roof in a 22,000 m2 building.

As general contractor for the file-based production infrastructure,
Wellen+Nothen will assume responsibility on SWR's behalf for all phases of
the project such as development of the technical concept, planning and
requirements specification, technical implementation and commissioning as
well as for support during the initial phase of operations.

Already during the tender process the broadcaster attached great
importance to the production of a sustainable concept which is based on an
IT-based infrastructure. Therefore the selection of appropriate suppliers and
products was an essential point during the tendering phase for Wellen+Nothen.
"Our job as general contractor is to create a solution composed of innovative
products from a wide variety of manufacturers. We have therefore selected
different manufacturers to discuss the matter and developed feasibility
studies to define a tailored concept for SWR," explains Timo Punke,
responsible for project sales at Wellen+Nothen.

One of Germany's most advanced production studios will be set up in the
new production centre in Stuttgart during the planning phase that is just
starting. As part of technical implementation, Wellen+Nothen will specify,
among other things, the system components and processes of the central media
asset management system (MAM) and implement the MAM as a cross-functional
control unit for broadcasting processes. The complex IT-based technological
approach will be systematically pursued in other contract areas covering such
topics as ingest, playout, central storage, studio automation as well as
video, audio and graphics editing. A particular challenge in this context is
the development of special connectors between individual areas of the system
that will allow the standard exchange of data between different processes.

"The project's high degree of complexity is a multi-layered challenge. It
is especially important to combine the various products used in the best
possible way in order to fulfil SWR's vision of its future audio-visual and
IT-based workflows. After nine months of intensive preparatory work during
the tender process we are now delighted that we will be implementing the
future hub of SWR's new production centre at the Stuttgart site and embarking
on the practical part of the project," declares Daniel Url, General Manager
at Wellen+Nothen.

Operation of the new production centre in Stuttgart is scheduled to
commence in 2011.

Bjorn Korb, plus4media GmbH, +49-(0)-221-97-77-67-11, bjoern.korb at plus4media.de