Whisper Cymru has announced a collaboration with Creative Wales, Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), Tramshed Tech and Channel 4 to open a fully accessible remote production facility ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Based at Tramshed Tech in the Welsh capital, Cymru Broadcast Centre has been designed to be “one of the most accessible remote production hubs in Europe,” said the company.
Equipped to enhance production efficiencies and content transfer, the centre is equipped with two production control rooms and sound control rooms, a master control room, a central apparatus room, numerous edit suites, two production offices and a multiplex. Timeline TV assisted in the design of the facility and will operate the space following the Paralympics. BMC over Open Reach and Ogi fibre aim to provide connectivity to the centre.
The centre includes wide walkways, ramps, power-assisted doors, a changing spaces toilet and accessible signage. Channel 4 and Media Cymru conducted R&D into accessibility in live production with The Ability People, which it is hoped will provide a case study for further technical facilities to use as best practice when implementing their own projects.
During the Paris 2024 Paralympics, which begin on August 28th, a team of more than 200 people from Channel 4 and Whisper will deliver over 1,300 hours of content from the Centre, which will include 300 hours of coverage for linear TV an 1,000 hours on 16 live streams.
Sunil Patel, co-founder and CEO at Whisper, said: “The vision back in 2019 was always to meaningfully invest into Wales, focusing on people and global production. Hiring the best local talent and nurturing the next generation was at the forefront of our plans – and we now have a 30+ strong team in Cardiff, as well as the Whisper Academy. Bringing the C4 2024 Paris Paralympics to Cardiff means it will be one of the biggest sporting productions to come out of the nation, with more to come in 2025. The Cymru Broadcast Centre is the crystallisation of an idea that will impact positive change within Wales and leave a lasting legacy. This goes down as a special moment at Whisper.”
Alex Mahon, Channel 4’s CEO added: “The realisation of the state of the art, fully accessible Cymru Broadcast Centre in Cardiff chimes with everything Channel 4 stands for. It’s a wonderful example of what can be achieved when we pull together with a focus to make our industry accessible to everyone. It’s a fabulous asset for Cardiff and I’m genuinely thrilled that its inaugural broadcast will be Channel 4’s coverage of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.”
A series of training schemes has been planned at the Centre, with more international productions already in the pipeline.
