Safety at Küniglberg

The idea for the ORF media campus dates back a few years: At this point, the project was launched, several ORF locations in Vienna on Küniglberg in the 13th century. Centralize the district. With the laying of the foundation stone, management put the future of ORF on a stable footing: The n^ew buildings for Radio Austria 1, Hitradio Ö3 and the multimedia newsroom were built in the ORF Center on 6,000 m2. In parallel, some existing parts of the building were renovated and integrated into the media campus. The bundling of competencies offers a state-of-the-art working environment and ensures a sustainable supply of independent information for the Austrian population.

With these measures, ORF created the best possible conditions for media production in the digital age for a total of around 2,500 employees. The requirements to use more and more platforms with public law information are constantly increasing. Since commissioning in 2024, increased multimedia work at a common location has therefore enabled extensive synergies to be created between editorial offices — which previously worked separately from each other. The multimedia newsroom is at the heart of the ORF media campus. It offers state-of-the-art production facilities and office infrastructure on two floors and houses several radio studios and a new TV studio. A total of around 100 news offers are produced or supplied with content here every day. A flexible room concept ensures that we can react accordingly to any new requirements in the future.

Technology at its b
est In order to put the ORF media campus on a solid and future-proof foundation in terms of building technology, the project was implemented with Siemens. “After all, our technology, primarily MSR and fire alarm technology, has already proven itself in the ORF Center for many years,” says Siemens sales manager Emmerich Wöls. The renovated or new buildings of the ORF media campus have now been integrated into the existing fire alarm system. “Thanks to its flexibility, our Sinteso fire alarm system with FC20 fire alarm control panels is ideal for applications like this,” explains Wöls, pointing out the particularly convenient operation: “The modern ergonomic concept paired with interactive and dialog-based processes guarantees

“Reliability and cybersecurity are major issues for a critical infrastructure company. ”

Emmerich Wöls, Sales Manager, S
iemens AG Austria

safe handling. ” Sinteso is ideally equipped to meet all requirements with the highest standards: This is reflected not only in modern technology and network capabilities, but also in the almost unlimited scalability of the system. “A total of 7,500 fire detectors and four remote control panels as well as 15 FC20 fire alarm control panels have been installed,” says Wöls. One advantage is that the existing Siemens building management system can be expanded flexibly and across technologies.

Expanding and scaling
Siemens’ fire alarm technology was supplemented by a video surveillance system and an access system. The threads of all these systems come together at the Siemens SiControl Safety Control Center. Emmerich Wöls: “With SiControl, we can optimally meet the requirements of a large company with hundreds of employees, as we can individually integrate a wide variety of applications via many interfaces. ” For example, garage billing is also carried out using this system, to name just one example. High flexibility and scalability make it possible. Last but not least, the MSR technology for heating, ventilation and air conditioning of the renovated or newly constructed ORF media campus buildings is also based on Siemens technology. In order to always provide optimal support for the complex plant construction and expansion, Siemens has stationed a team of specialists at Küniglberg during the entire construction phase. “This enabled us to offer optimal support and react quickly at any time,” says the expert, highlighting the excellent cooperation with ORF. “This proximity to the customer made a significant contribution to the smooth execution and thus to the success of the project. ”

Focus on secur
ity “Reliability and cybersecurity are major issues for a critical infrastructure company,” Wöls concludes. Siemens is working closely with IT experts from ORF to ensure that the Austrian population is always supplied with news. The ORF media campus therefore has a comprehensive emergency and backup system, which ensures continuous power supply and thus the reliable provision of independent information even in the event of a crisis. In order to securely store its valuable data, ORF also uses fire protection technology from Siemens. To protect data centers, Sinorix 1230 automatic gas extinguishing systems were integrated in conjunction with the Smart Discharge Unit as a replacement for pressure relief valves.