Revolutionizing corporate communications for RWE, a global energy company

Zero Density plus regional partner KST Moschkau built a small, automated virtual studio to help RWE send broadcast-quality comms to employees, partners and customers all over the world. Their corporate communications capability has been transformed for internal and external audiences ever since they mastered their corporate studio.

Global energy company RWE has a total of 80 sites worldwide with over 20,000 employees working in offshore and onshore locations. Maintaining clear communications with all of them was extremely challenging.

“In our daily work, having a digital solution to contact employees quickly is essential.
We have employees in over 50 countries, and want to discuss various topics quickly and virtually with our colleagues.”
Frank Arens, RWE

RWE found an innovative and sustainable way to stay in touch with their vast network of employees, as well as their partners and customers. Zero Density’s regional partner KST Moschkau provided an end-to-end solution, which combined KST Moschkau’s studio automation tooling with Zero Density’s real-time virtual production platform Reality5 in RWE’s corporate broadcast studio.

While creating their new building on the RWE Campus in Essen, Germany, RWE decided to include a virtual studio. The studio was designed and built by KST Moschkau to be an innovative audio-visual communication tool, providing a groundbreaking level of quality in modern TV standards such as UHD.

 “This studio is our broadcasting hub with a multifunctional structure. It can quickly broadcast our management board’s statements to the world.
This is crucial, especially in times of social media, where a quick response is so important.” 
Frank Arens, RWE

KST Moschkau built the green studio, set up the infrastructure, and also implemented the Zero Density virtual production platform.

At first glance, building a corporate broadcast studio might look daunting. However, the synergy between KST, Panasonic, and Zero Density platforms enables content creation for internal communication as well as external to be streamlined and successful, operated by a handful of people.

Because they do not employ professional studio personnel, RWE relies heavily on TV production automation. The nerve center of the studio is KST’s own camera control and automation software, CamBot^®️. A software interface allows operators to fully automate the robotic arm to perform highly-accurate, repeatable camera movement within the small studio space.

 “We don’t have a trained studio or sound technician.
We use our standardized system with various presets, which we use depending on what we’re shooting.”
Frank Arens, RWE

RWE now uses the 3D virtual studio mostly for internal, company-wide communication, but is working on new production formats for press conferences, press releases, training, and PR.

Initially, The virtual studio combined Zero Density’s virtual production platform, Reality, with 4 Panasonic 4K PTZ AW-UE150 cameras. After the first years of use the RWE team summed up to 350 different productions which led them to their decision to upgrade their studio from PTZ and SDI to high end cinematic cameras and an IP based / ST-2110 workflow with Panasonic's open IP / IT processing platform Kairos while still working with KST CamBot^®️ automation.

Initially, RWE received set design support from the KST team, but after a short training program, RWE’s own staff were able to take over operations, designing their virtual studio content and running the studio equipment by themselves.