A new video studio for CERN

On Monday, 14 February 2011 CERN's new video studio was inaugurated with a recording of "Spotlight on CERN", featuring an interview with the DG, Rolf Heuer.

CERN's new video studio.

Almost all international organisations have a studio for their audiovisual communications, and now it's CERN’s turn to acquire such a facility. “In the past, we've made videos using the Globe audiovisual facilities and sometimes using the small photographic studio, which is equipped with simple temporary sets that aren’t really suitable for video,” explains Jacques Fichet, head of CERN‘s audiovisual service. Once the decision had been taken to create the new 100 square-metre video studio, the work took only five months to complete.

The studio, located in Building 510, is equipped with a cyclorama (a continuous smooth white wall used as a background) measuring 3 m in height and 16 m in length, as well as a teleprompter, a rail-mounted camera dolly for tracking shots, a boom for overhead shots and a video mixing console with inputs for up to eight HD video cameras. “In the future, we could also install optical fibre cables allowing us to be connected directly to all of the meeting rooms and auditoriums at CERN or even to Eurovision for direct satellite feeds,” explains Jacques. “It will also be possible to conduct live webcasts of major events. Furthermore, we will be able to do multi-camera work using virtual sets with green screen backdrops, which will allow us to have several sets in just one studio. This capability is quite rare in the Geneva region.” The video mixer is broadcast-quality, which means that it complies with professional standards for high-quality broadcasting on global television networks.

The Visual Media Office team, comprising approximately ten people from the IT-UDS-AVC and DG-CO groups, will work on projects such as CERN News and other information broadcasts, including Spotlight on CERN. The latter, as its name suggests, is intended to provide focussed reports on CERN. It will deal with topics of a general nature and will be broadcast every six weeks. It was for a Spotlight on CERN broadcast that Rolf Heuer was invited to the studio for its inaugural production.

You can find all the videos on CDS or by clicking on the “video” link on CERN’s public web page.

by Anaïs Vernede