Televizní středisko Kavčí hory Building complex

Welcome to Prague 4. You are standing in front of one of the most important centres of Czech broadcasting, which is the TV centre of the Caucasus Mountains. If you look around you now, you will see a large area that serves as the headquarters of Czech Television. The first thing that is likely to interest you, which you see as the main dominant feature of the whole place, is the narrow building in which studies and television technology are located. It is a building that, with its shape and height, stands out significantly from the surroundings and immediately shows you that you are in a place where there is a picture and sound that is accompanied by millions of people every day in their homes.

Now let's stop a little bit at how this place actually came into being and why it was built here. The history of this site begins in 1962 when construction started. At that time, there was a need to create a space that could technologically separate the production of television content from its broadcasting process. Think of it as a division between the workshop where things are made and the delivery center, which then sends them to the world. The aim was to create a modern background that would be able to cope with demands for quality and efficiency of creation. The whole complex was not created at once, but gradually in several stages to keep up with the development of technology.

If you look at the buildings in front of you now, feel them as a whole. The architects of this project were František Šmolík and Jiří Holý. Their intention was to design the premises to be self-sufficient. This means that there are all the necessary elements for full operation in one place. Notice the layout of the space. The dominant narrow building of studies, which I mention at the beginning, is not just an aesthetic element, but a fundamental technical function. It's the heart of production, where programs, movies and news are created in a controlled environment.

Now pay attention to the timeline that will help us understand how this place evolved. The first part of the Centre was set up in 1970 and at that time there were two studies. It was a big leap forward that allowed for much wider possibilities of creation. Just three years later, in 1973, another major milestone came in, which was putting into operation a color check-in complex. Remember that the transition from black and white television to color was at that time a revolution that completely changed the way people perceived the world on television. The Caucasus mountains were prepared for this change and became the peak in the area of color broadcasting.

Another important step came in 1979. It was this year that a television newspaper building was set up. This object was equipped with three news complexes, which enabled much faster and more efficient information processing. News is the most demanding part of television production because it requires an immediate response to events in the country and the world. Thanks to this extension, the Caucasus Mountains have definitely become the centre of television production throughout the country.

If you look at these buildings today, you might think of everything that's inside, except for studies and editors. Here we come to a part that is invisible to a normal visitor, but from a technical point of view absolutely essential. The whole complex is designed to work perfectly even in crisis situations. For technical and safety reasons, it is part of the complex, for example, its own cooling station and fire safety. These elements are essential because modern television technology produces huge amounts of heat, and any failure of cooling could mean a stop to broadcast. It is a fascinating idea that under the surface and behind the scenes of these buildings runs a complex system of pipes and cables that ensures that the image in the television does not flash and the sound is clean.

The interesting thing that may interest you is the said technical self-sufficiency. Architects and planners wanted the site to be able to function as a separate organism. This is difficult to imagine these days when we are used to connected networks and cloud services, but at the time of creation it was crucial to have everything under one roof and under strict control. This autonomy manifests itself in every detail, from the distribution of the studies to the wss of the cooling station.

Feel the atmosphere of this place. Although it may act as a set of administrative and technical buildings on the outside, drama takes place daily, history forms and public opinion forms. Each meter of these corridors and every room in that narrow studio building witnessed thousands of hours of broadcast. It's a place where creativity, technology and time pressure come together that accompanies every live broadcast.

Let's sum up what we saw today. You are standing in front of the premises, which since 1962 defines the form of Czech television broadcasting. From the first two studies to the arrival of colours to specialized news complexes. It was all designed to separate production from broadcasting and to make the system as safe and self-sufficient as possible. The dominant narrow building of studies you see before you remains a symbol of this technological progress.

You can now continue your journey in peace and explore the surroundings of Prague 4. If you are interested in how architecture changed in the second half of the twentieth century, please note the other buildings in this area that complement this unique technical complex. Thank you for your attention and I wish you a pleasant rest of the day to discover the beauty of our main. Goodbye.