Germany: Wellen+Noethen to offer HD Technology to ZDF

Wellen+Noethen, under a new contract, will be allowed to lease out its media technology for live broadcasts of the 2010 Winter Olympics for German television. The winter games will be in Vancouver in February (where NBC Universal holds the U.S. broadcast rights).

The Wellen+Noethen contract is with German public broadcaster ZDF and entails most of the Olympics content to be aired within Germany during the games. Wellen+Noethen is a sister firm of Qvest Media, which is based in Dubai, UAE.

ZDF plans to air scores of hours of live HD coverage using tapeless digital technology to be preconfigured for an array of variable remote sites (including indoors/outdoors) by Wellen+Noethen. The German firm's equipment and technology will be used in tandem with ZDF's existing HD infrastructure for delivery to Vancouver and Whistler Mountain.

In the past, Wellen+Noethen and other Qvest Media entities have worked on various broadcast/productions scenarios with, among others, Avid, EVS, Grass Valley, Snell, and Sony.

For its internal communication system, ZDF will be supplied with several Artist-brand matrix intercom systems from Riedel.