Wow, what a weekend. 45 heads of state and government, more than 90 ministers and an MSC studio: the who’s who of all world politics met for the 59th time in Munich to discuss and deliberate on current foreign and security policy issues. As in the previous year, we from Stream1 were there. Because the cooperation with the Lobeco agency worked so well that we ran the MSC studio again this year. In this blog post we give you a little insight into the past days and what it means to work in the middle of a security zone guarded by a total of 5,000 police officers.
The MSC studio gets an upgrade
Officially we started on Wednesday with our setup of the MSC Studio. Directly to the right of the main entrance we were allowed to install our technology and live control room. This year there was an update to the MSC studio, we got more than double the space we had last year. In the premises is otherwise a jeweler. But the store was completely emptied out for the Munich Security Conference. Booth builders pulled in walls, installed carpeting and put up walls with MSC branding. In addition, this year there was an extra waiting area in the front of the studio for the accompanying persons. On two large televisions, they were able to follow live what was happening in the studio.
The boss as a light double for the studio setting
On Thursday we continued with the construction. Countless LAN and SDI cables were laid, monitors set up and cameras aligned. For the optimal camera image, we have to consider various aspects: Over the next three days, there will be everything from simple feeds to large discussion groups with up to 5 people at the same time. So we set up the chairs, Martin and Melanie took their places as lighting doubles and camera operator Jakob and livestream producer Andy checked out the picture and adjusted the cameras. Another challenge on set-up day: the difficult parking situation in front of the Bayerischer Hof. Because although the area was not yet a high-security zone, it was not allowed to stay too long in front of the hotel, the parking spaces were also needed by other service providers. That’s why it was a matter of loading and unloading quickly.
Spontaneous and flexible was the credo at the security conference
Then it finally started on Friday. We were at the MSC studio promptly at eight to boot up all the computers, turn on the lights and start the sound mixer. What’s special about the MSC studio is that although there is a schedule for which journalist interviews which politician, there are always shifts at such a large conference with hundreds of participants. So our top two commandments are spontaneity and flexibility. Guests in the MSC studio on Friday were:
- Ben Wallace, Minister of Defense of Great Britain
- Mircea Geoană, Deputy Secretary General of NATO
- Francia Marquez, Vice President of Colombia
- Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia
- Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Member of the German Bundestag and Chairwoman of the Defense Committee
- Benedetta Berti, Head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General of NATO.
- Ian Bremmer, President and Founder, Eurasia Group and GZERO Media
- Comfort Ero, President and CEO of Crisis Group
- Brad Smith, Vice Chairman and President of Microsoft
- Nic Robertson, International Diplomatic Editor at CNN.
Jens Stoltenberg, Christiane Amanpour and Dmytro Kuleba in the MSC Studio
Saturday is the main day of the Munich Security Conference. Most heads of state and conferees arrived in Munich the day before. Saturday was also a busy day for us in the MSC studio. A total of ten shots with different settings were on our agenda. Depending on the preferences of the journalists and presenters, we rearranged the chairs and, if necessary, the cameras. Thanks to the space-saving dimensions, we can set up and align the remote PTZ cameras at any position in the studio. The highlights on Saturday were undoubtedly the interview of anchor legend Christiane Amanpour with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, and the conversation between CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble with Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. We were visited by the following guests on the second day of the Munich Security Conference:
- Baiba Braže, Deputy Secretary General for Public Diplomacy at NATO
- Francesco La Camera, Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency
- Alexander Schallenberg, Foreign Minister of Austria
- Zoé von Finck, Katharina Schüller, Florence Gaub
- Mujtaba Rahman, Managing Director Europe of Eurasiagroup
- Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO
- Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
The MSC Studio is also suitable for podcast recording
Sunday, and with it the last day of the security conference, was all about podcast recordings. With podcasts, the most important thing is the perfect sound. Our sound man Carsten had his hands full with wiring the guests and equipping them with headsets. In total, there were no less than five podcast recordings in the MSC studio, three of which were audio-only. The Deutsche Welle podcasts “Global Eye” and “Conflict Zone” also featured the matching camera image. For these five podcasts, episodes were recorded around the topic of MSC:
After the eventful three days at the Bayerischer Hof, the last item on the agenda was the complete dismantling of the MSC studio. But when five people are rolling up cables, packing cameras and unplugging lights at the same time, the dismantling goes by quickly. We at Stream1 are grateful that the Lobeco agency has placed its trust in us for the second time. The MSC Studio is a unique opportunity to be close to the political action for three days.
