SCISYS delivers CMS for WDR

Bochum, June 2012 – On March 1st 2012 the WDR radio channel Funkhaus Europa began broadcasting from its new location, followed in April by the WDR 1LIVE channel – both using SCISYS dira! radio system as a single common content and production management system. These two channels are the first step in establishing a single CMS for all radio channels by WDR – WDR 2, WDR 3, WDR 4 and WDR5 will follow and produce their content using dira!

Thomas Reyers, Key Account Manager SCISYS, said: “Because of the great scalability and the multi-client capability, of dira! several channels can share a single system. dira! is the best choice for the operation of such a large system: when all the WDR channels  are operational on this system, this dira! system will be one of the largest in Germany, maybe even in Europe!”

WDR’s new concept for its production infrastructure is that scheduling and planning will be made with the NRCS OpenMedia by Annova, with dira! handling the actual production and content management. The two systems are integrated using an extended MOS-protocol. The radio specific MOS extensions are a part of an agreement between the vendors and the German radio networks of ARD. Because of their considerable newsroom system integration experience , SCISYS were able to complete this integration in just five months.

Beside the management of audios, the dira! System for WDR is also managing program associated data such as covers and other pictures. One of the most important requirements by WDR was that the system supports virtual architecture – including the clients.