Hybrid Communication of the Future

New RTL studio sets benchmark for the perfect room setting

Are you prepared for the hybrid communication formats of the future? What spacial requirements are needed for brand-compatible communication?

The international architecture and design studio Veech x Veech has created a cgroundbreaking studio for the RTL Media Group in form of a programmable, robotically controlled architectural interface. It is the result of two years of development by the Vienna-based architects Mascha and Stuart A. Veech and, as a multimedia system at the highest technological level, completely redefines the requirements of hybrid communication for companies in all sectors.

More and more companies are facing the major challenge of communicating their brand identity on all channels in a wide variety of formats. The far-reaching change possibilities of the new news studio show what it takes for brand companies to confidently position their messages at all levels and in different directions: A flexibly adaptable setting allows the communication space to be individually designed and played with according to need and target group — from use as a virtual event space to product presentations to hybrid meetings. The unlimited changeability of the space is the basis for dynamic information transfer.

The new news studio for RTL has a spacious, open and freely configurable architecture, consisting of high-resolution LED walls with an almost unlimited range of programmable options with which the space can be adapted to specific format and target group requirements and used for cross-media communication. This already opens up new possibilities at the architectural level for conveying multimedia content in a way that is appropriate to the brand.

RTL’s news formats “RTL Aktuell” and “RTL Nachtjournal” as well as the magazines “Punkt 6/7/8” and “Punkt 12” are now produced within a single space. Photo © Annika Feuss

Successful hybrid communication relies on advanced technologies and dynamic architecture

Veech X Veech equipped RTL’s 445 sqm studio space with four hanging, movable and rotatable LED walls that can be variably moved and reassembled for the media presentations of the different broadcast formats using robotic drive elements. Within minutes the customized multimedia information environment can be created for each program change. Instead of a module-based set design, there is a dynamically playable 360° architecture that enables RTL to produce different news formats within a single space — a novelty in broadcasting that enables new efficiency, previously unknown flexibility and fluid format changes.

The fact that hybrid communication requires a brand-appropriate, equally changeable “analog” basis is demonstrated by the design line of studio furniture developed by Veech x Veech. The objects can be freely combined for the specified formats and complement the central LED wall elements of the architects’ modular, transformative studio concept. The pinpoint mobility of the 3 x 1.7 m LED walls through the robotic automation system — the walls can be interconnected to form a continuous screen of up to 12 meters – as well as additional computer-controlled image surfaces and mobile, vertically aligned monitors form a setting that sets a new benchmark on a technical level.

Hybrid communication formats need spaces in which they are technically located. The new RTL studio relies on a flexible setting. Photo © Annika Feuss

Despite all the technology — or precisely because of it: Human needs are the measure of hybrid communication concepts

The basis for the pioneering work of Veech x Veech was the desire of the presenters to be able to move freely in the studio without cables while communicating with other actors in the room or with digitally connected studio guests — a hybrid communication independent of spatial boundaries.

For the design and planning process, the architecture firm held intensive dialogue with RTL’s editorial, production and technical teams and external technical production partners. Through the innovative communication concept, RTL has fundamentally and technologically renewed the visual appearance of its core news programmes and magazines. RTL is thus positioning itself as a leading media company of the future that sees hybrid communication as both a challenge and an opportunity.

“We as architects and designers should focus primarily on the human factor whilst developing tomorrow’s more real/virtual environments.”

Mascha Veech, Veech x Veech

Mascha Veech, founding partner and lead architect of Veech x Veech, explains the expectations and requirements placed on the design of new communication spaces: “Rapidly accelerating digital communication is massively driving our global society creating an enormous momentum that offers a major opportunity for every organisation, industry, business, and ultimately each of us, but also challenges that go far beyond technology to achieve our goal for a better tomorrow. We as architects and designers should focus primarily on the human factor whilst developing tomorrow’s more real/virtual environments.”

Veech x Veech use the example of the new RTL studio to illustrate which equipment brand companies should target in order to be prepared for the demands of hybrid communication. A flexible room setting, movable furniture and configurable presentation walls are the basis for authentic corporate branding that is reflected in the individual room aesthetics. Cross-media and cross-format concepts are already the prerequisite for successful corporate communications at all scales — from the everyday CEO video call to the complex digital showroom.

Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof and Stuart A. Veech in the new RTL studio. Photo © Annika Feuss

About RTL News

RTL News is the most powerful journalistic unit for cross-media news, investigative and independent journalism and documentaries in Germany. Around 1,500 journalists work for more than 60 strong brands in the areas of TV, digital, audio and print.

About Veech x Veech

Veech x Veech is an international multidisciplinary design and architecture studio based in Vienna. Founded in 1993, Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof and Stuart A. Veech have been creating and realizing with their team a multitude of innovative concepts at the interface of architecture, media design and art.

The scope of their work ranges from hybrid communication spaces for media companies such as RTL News (Cologne/Berlin), SKY News (London), ORF (Vienna) or Al Jazeera (London/Doha) to brandscapes and exhibition design for Kunsthalle Vienna, Red Bull, OPEC, BMW and Swarovski, and from temporary urban installations as “Sprachpavillon” to masterplan & building design including the Al Jazeera Media Network Building in Doha, Qatar. Despite their striking variety, all Veech x Veech’s projects are characterized by their particular corporate ethos: designing real environments for an increasingly vir- tual world. The international recognition of Veech x Veech’s work includes numerous awards and nominations such as the British Council for Offices Award, German Lighting Design Award, Design Award Germany, Austrian State Prize – Adolf Loos Staatspreis De- sign, IF Communication Design Award, Eyes and Ears of Europe Award, PROMAX Eu- rope, and Joseph Binder Award.