Just in time for the World Cup, the sports show is getting a new studio – with an innovative design and state-of-the-art technology. As a special highlight, the video cube creates a stadium atmosphere.
Without a doubt: it is the eye-catcher in the new sports show studio – the video cube. Although perhaps more appropriate because of its round shape “Video Donut” should be called, as Boris Inanici, editorial director of the ARD SportHub, admits with a wink. The new studio not only cites – as the video donut reveals – stadium architecture. “We wanted to visually get as close as possible to the sporting events around the world and give those watching the feeling of being there.”said WDR sports director Karl Valks: “I think everyone who helped plan and build the new studio did a really good job.” The new sports show studio will be inaugurated on Sunday, June 7th at 7:15 p.m. with the last sports show before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The Sportschau-Blue is back
The new studio has a round basic shape with a diameter of 20 meters and a media area of 65 square meters. The wood look has disappeared. Instead of brown, the typical sports show blue dominates again. LED surfaces and white light elements in the architecture ensure an impressive look. Only the location has remained the same: Since the beginning of the 1960s, the home of the sports studio has been in the basement of the law school – this is where the cult show has reinvented itself again and again.
All Bundesliga broadcasts as well as all other regular sports shows now come from the new decoration. The studio will be the new living room for the major sports events in the ARD SportHub. Boris Inanici: “We already host all of ARD’s major sporting events in Cologne – with the exception of the TV production of the Olympic Games. The leading state broadcasters come to us on WDR and produce their event program across media.”
Flexible and cost-effective
The studio allows small, medium and large productions to be flexibly realized in one place – in a wide variety of formats. This pools resources and creates more synergies within ARD. Complex programs with a large team, such as important World Cup games or the sports show on Saturday, can be produced there as well as less complex and more cost-effective productions, for example programs about the Bundesliga on Sunday or smaller sporting events.
In addition, in the future there will only be two options for live sports broadcasts within ARD – with a few exceptions – and they will all come centrally from Cologne: either as a large broadcast from the Sportschau studio or as a smaller one Remotely-Production. These remote productions “are now the absolute standard. The majority of the staff in editorial, production and technology no longer travels, but produces from Cologne”says Boris Inanici and adds: “The direction and editing complex are located in Cologne, for example, without giving up the journalistic standards on site. Moderations and comments take place on site or in the studio, comments come either from the stadiums or from the ‘box’ – the SportHub can do both.” On the one hand, this saves a lot of money because there is only one studio for sports on ARD. On the other hand, there is no need for a lot of on-site technology and personnel at sporting events at home and abroad. In addition, with the new LED walls and their landscape and portrait formats, it is now possible to produce for different linear and digital output channels at the same time.
This was developed “House of Sport” in a SportHub sub-project led by Dominik Graw in collaboration with the Sportschau editorial team. Ursula Milbradt from On-Air Design is responsible for the planning and construction of the new sports show studio together with her colleague Bernd Jünger. André Müller (director) and Manfred Leinen (technology) made sure everything “playing in the camera” and works.
Efficient production mix for the World Cup
There will be a production mix during the World Cup: Esther Sedlaczek and Bastian Schweinsteiger present games directly from stadiums in Mexico, Canada and the USA. Further games will be moderated and discussed by Lea Wagner and Malte Völz with expert Robin Gosens from the new Sportschau studio. “This flexibility is not only necessary because of the enormous distances on the American continent; games in the middle of the night also make this production mix based on remote technology efficient.”says Karl Valks, who is accompanying the tournament as a supervisor. The SWR is in charge.
The studio will receive a further update when the ARD winter sports operations from Bocklemünd also move into the new Sportschau studio. “Winter sports in the afternoon, Bundesliga in the evening and always great events. We will get the most out of the new home”says Boris Inanici happily. Now we’re off to the night shifts. The Football World Cup can begin – also in Cologne.
By the way:
The old moderation table from the studio was auctioned off to the highest bidder as part of the WDR 2 Christmas miracle – for 10,000 euros. Now the dynamically designed piece of sports history serves, as Zeigler’s wonderful world of football reported, a group of East Westphalian friends for joint sports show evenings.