Media Broadcasting Solutions

MDR is a German regional broadcaster and ARD member domiciled in Leipzig, serving the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Its core radio channels, Jump, MDR Info, MDR Sputnik and MDR Figaro, as well as the digital channel, MDR Klassik, are broadcast from the radio operations centre in Halle. The autonomous radio stations for each state, MDR 1 Radio Sachsen, MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt and MDR 1 Radio Thüringen, operate from regional broadcasting houses in their capital cities, namely Dresden, Erfurt and Magdeburg.

VCS has been collaborating with MDR continuously since 1996 and has equipped each of the eight radio channels and the four regional studios with the dira! production and playout system. The systems installed at the MDR have been continuously renewed and extended.

VCS has also supplied a turnkey computer-aided broadcast solution for the three regional stations; it facilitates the execution of all tasks within the dira! system, from programme exchange, production and transmission scheduling to playout, including logging and billing. High efficiency was achieved by configuring all three systems according to an identical pattern.

VCS projects at the MDR:

• dira! radio production & playout system for all MDR radio networks including the implementation of a  workflow analysis, logically separated LAN segments for performance optimization and 100% redundancy for current data as key features

• Integration of the MDR regional studios in Bautzen, Stendal, Dessau and Magdeburg. The office in Bautzen, near the Polish border, works with dira! in the language of the Sorbian minority

• Customized, dira! based solution for MDR Klassik, the first MDR radio channel that exclusively broadcasts in the DAB format