Yle News and Current Affairs Studio Renewal

Yle is renovating its TV studio production area used for producing News and Current Affairs (NCA) content. The studio renovation project will include technology and facilities as well as visual design. Design renewal is a separate project, and is not part of this procurement. The renovated studio production area will also transition to updated working methods.

NCA studio production is abandoning the previously used mixed model where work was carried out by using automation alongside traditional methods. With traditional methods, most stages of the work are arranged so that they are carried out by an individual employee using dedicated technology. The new workflow based on automation, robotics and artificial intelligence (e.g. auto tracking with camera robotics) works by organising the different stages of production into a series that is carried out by automation and robotics.

Yle will arrange market dialogues with selected interested suppliers. For participating in the market dialogues please see section “VI.3) Additional information” of this EU Prior information notice.

In order to renew Yle news and current affairs studios, Yle invites interested suppliers for the News and current affair studio production management systems. Yle is looking for experienced partners that can create flexible, reliable and easily modified platforms.

The supplier is required to provide at least one reference from the News area from a 24/7 production-based system. The supplier must have experience in building IP (NDI, 2110, AES67) based solutions, virtualized production platforms and use of shared resources.

PROJECT OBJECT AND CONSTRAINTS

The project will implement the technologies of three NCA studios: the main studio and a medium-sized studio and their control rooms and two new generic control rooms. The project covers the facilities in Yle Media House 2nd floor.

MAIN STUDIO

The new main studio for NCA studio productions will be built on the second floor of the Media House. The studio will cover approximately 300 m2 of space that has a high ceiling. The main studio will produce live broadcasts for morning programming Ylen Aamu and the main news broadcasts in the evening, as well as the Swedish-speaking news TV-Nytt, the Urheiluruutu sports news and the A-ohjelmat current affairs programming. Daytime programming may include pre-recorded productions.

The studio will have a process production method with no daily set construction or lighting. Visual variations between programmes will be created with video walls and pre-planned lighting setups. The cameras used in the studio will be robotic cameras that are free-roaming or track-based dollies or static studio cameras or PTZ cameras when suitable. The use of the cameras will be based on pre-set images and movements controlled by automation combined with manual remote control from the control room. Only the hosts and featured guests will be at the studio during broadcasts. Yle is also interested about the possibility of controlling cameras by AI tracking using facial or skeleton based detection

MEDIUM-SIZED STUDIO

A new medium-sized studio for NCA studio productions will be built on the second floor of the Media House. The studio will have a surface area of about 85 m2 and a ceiling height of approximately four metres.

The medium-sized studio will facilitate all news broadcasts until 6 p.m. after which the main studio will be used. The medium-sized studio can also be used to produce breaking news broadcasts and chat shows with one or two guests. The studio will have the same process production method as in the main studio.

The cameras used in the studio will be robotic cameras that are free-roaming or track-based dollies or static studio cameras or PTZ cameras when suitable. Yle is also interested about the possibility of controlling cameras by AI tracking using facial or skeleton based detection

CONTROL ROOMS

Two main control rooms and two smaller control rooms will be built on the second floor of the Media House. The main control rooms will primarily be for the production of programmes in the main studio and the medium-sized studio. The smaller control rooms will be used for Parliament broadcasts and for lightweight productions, even ones produced remotely with no studio time.

The control rooms are planned to have the simplest possible user interfaces and technology, utilising touch screens and programmable user interfaces. The planned operating model will be taken into account in the design of the technology. This for example means that it must be possible to operate the various functions of the control room alone for solo productions as necessary. Compared to the current control rooms, the aim is to find significantly more lightweight solutions in terms of cost and technology.

TECHNICAL PROCUREMENTS OF THE PROJECT

The Studiopolku studios and control rooms will mainly be based on new technology entirely. NCA productions will be carried out as usual during construction, so the current technology cannot be utilised to any significant extent in the new studio production area. Using existing software licences (Mosart, VizRT, VSM) should be possible in the new production area during construction and testing.

The lighting of the studios will be based on LEDs that are as energy-efficient as possible. There will be no daily lighting construction in the production area. Instead, the lighting of the programmes will be based on standardised light setups that can also be run by Mosart automation. Studio lighting equipment will not be part of this RFI.

The sets and visual appearance of the studios will utilise display surfaces with both LCD and seamless LED technology.

ROLES DURING PRODUCTION:

Pilot & co-pilot:

Planning of broadcasts and their output, technical management of the studio, automation operation, production of visual materials for broadcast, supervision during the broadcast situation.

Operation of cameras, preparation of live connections, image monitoring, preparation of studio for broadcast, production of visual materials for broadcast Managing external connections together with technical role

Technical role:

Sound systems management / audio output on TV broadcast, studio preparation for audio, management of external connections, Image monitoring, image processing

To be defined later in the final call for tenders, if applicable.

Yle will arrange market dialogues with selected interested suppliers before publishing the invitation to tender.

Interested suppliers are invited to take part in the market dialogue by sending a request to participate by email to tarjoukset.yle(at)yle.fi at latest by 25th of February 2022.

Please include a description covering the following topics in your email:

-A short company presentation;

-Your experience of similar studio production area projects;

-What kind of technologies you would use;

-Maintenance and development on the chosen production platform;

-Recommended business model; ownership of the technical platform or service based model.

Yle will choose the most appropriate suppliers and arrange the market dialogues in early March.

The invitation to tender is estimated to be published early April. Preliminarily, the implementation is planned to start in December 2022. The schedules are estimates and may change.

NOTE: With this EU Prior information notice Yle is not asking for offers. Also, it is not necessary for a supplier to participate in the market dialogues in order to later participate in the procurement procedure.