MILOS truss takes on a strong supporting role

The extensive range of MILOS truss supports just about anything – lights, sound equipment, LED screens, glass, wood, textile, etc. It reliably handles light to heavy loadings and can be used as a temporary or permanent solution in an extensive range of locations.

For a big project in France, several hundred meters of MILOS M290 Quatro truss took on a strong supporting role. In fact, it took on a total of seven supporting roles, for seven TV studios, in four buildings, on the Altice Media Group campus in the French district of Porte de Versailles, Paris. The Altice Media Group campus hosts a total of up to 6,000 students per day and supports the activities of the news organizations Libération, L'Express, and 01 Net.

In 2016, the Altice Media Group needed to expand the amount of studios on their campus and held a national tender for the construction of seven new studios in four buildings. The company who won the tender for this massive TV project was Red Bee Media (www.redbeemedia.com), a sister company of Ericsson. Red Bee is the system integrator of NextRadio TV, a sister company of Altice Media Group, and manages the activities of seven TV channels in France: BFMTV, BFM Business, BFM Paris, I24 News, RMC, RMC Découverte and RMC Sport.

Working together with Red Bee Media for this project was Eric Brancherie (TV Lighting Designer for NextRadio TV), who was responsible for selecting and sourcing all materials in the construction of the seven studios.
You can imagine that the equipment needed to furnish seven TV studios came at a premium cost. Well, you would be right. In fact, a total of € 2.5m was budgeted just for the lighting (light, trussing, wiring, installation). The cost for the studio, control board, video equipment, control room and audio components were in addition to this amount.

For a project of this size and importance, Eric needed to source his studio materials from a supplier he could trust and that had a proven track record. The company he chose was ESL (www.esl-france.com). ESL is a French company that has one of the largest selections in France of professional lighting equipment and related services under one roof. They’re a leading provider of products and services to professionals in the live performance, stage, theatre, touring, film & TV, events & exhibitions, corporate, educational and architectural markets. Their comprehensive product portfolio includes lighting fixtures, lighting control, cables, trussing, rigging, textiles, lamps, flight cases, audio and consumables. Based in Lattes, France (near Montpellier), ESL has been successfully serving the French market since 1992.

After discussing all details with Eric, and receiving the final order for material, ESL delivered the lighting, truss and chain hoists for all seven studios. The long list of equipment included a few hundred meters of black MILOS M290 Quatro truss, 700 LED spots and fresnels, 900 moving head projectors, 60 chain hoists, a few kilometres of ESL cabling and a few dozen square metres of ESL green screens.

The sheer scale of this seven-studio project is extremely impressive and is one of the largest ever seen in the media world. The combined talents of Red Bee Media, Eric Brancherie and ESL, with a strong supporting role by MILOS, delivered state-of-the-art broadcasting facilities that will bring high quality content to the French population for many years to come.