Tremendous ongoing changes

Editorial by Goetz Hoefer, Studio managing director Hamburg Berlin Brandenburg GmbH

Around 2,000 companies from the television industry benefit from the outstanding conditions provided in the German capital region. This includes the UFA group, Europe's largest production company, and teamWorx, who produced the short series “Generation War“ which was nominated for the international Emmy Award.

State-of-the-art production sites such as Studio Babelsberg, Berliner Union-Film, and Studio Berlin Adlershof are excellently equipped for film and TV production. The highly specialised studios in the region produce 28 percent of all German series, spectacular primetime movies, successful talent shows, suspense-packed crime and action series, and music shows like the Adlershof-produced “The Voice of Germany“.

Studio Berlin is also a major producer of political talk shows – which is only partly due to the fact that guests get from the government district to make-up in no time. “Anne Will“, “hart aber fair“ and Günter Jauch's roundtable debate, recorded in the Gasometer in Schöneberg, are all produced by Studio Berlin. The TV debates during the federal election in 2013 and the FIFA world cup 2014 in Brasil also underscored the capabilities of Studio Berlin.

However, the media industry, the studios in particular, are in the middle of tremendous changes. All providers of equipment and technol-ogy for TV and movie productions feel the pressure produced by new media and new technologies. Decreasing production budgets make investments increasingly difficult.

Our innovative neighbourhood is facing this new situation with new ideas. We have moved away from the prevailing mindset to service our customers exclusively in Adlershof. We believe producers should receive support where they require it. The entire studio premises has been connected with fibre optic cables. Studio technology is now completely up to HD standard. New servers are tackling the vast amounts of data that cameras and microphones feed into the computers. Security and speed, as well as highly skilled staff, make us stand out in the competition. We were successful in attracting and securing renowned media companies as well as service providers from the creative industry and our studios are working at full capacity. The entire region has been revitalised.