For 25 years, the Media Lab at TU Ilmenau has shaped media technology education with state-of-the-art studio equipment, creative teaching, and innovative research. On its anniversary, the lab proudly looks back on a quarter-century of media competence and innovation – and a success story that continues into the future.
When the Media Lab began trial operations in August 2000, it was none other than Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder who inaugurated the film and television studio at TU Ilmenau, together with Thuringia’s Minister President Bernhard Vogel and the Chair of the German Council of Science and Humanities, Professor Dagmar Schipanski. Just two months later, the lab officially went into operation. Since then, its high-end facilities for film, television, and audio productions have become an integral part of teaching and research at the Institute for Media Technology (IMT) and of iSTUFF, the Ilmenau Student Television Association. Since 2022, the Media Lab has also been part of the Ilmenau Interactive Immersive Technologies Center (I3TC), one of four technology centers at TU Ilmenau.
At a reception in mid-October, attended by current and former staff, students of Media Engineering and members of iSTUFF, the university celebrated 25 years of the Media Lab – and looked ahead to the future. “A quarter-century that has shown how research and teaching, theory and practice can be combined in an almost perfect way,” said Professor Wolfgang Broll, Director of the I3TC.
From vision to role model
“Roughly two hours before Chancellor Schröder’s visit, the demo we wanted to show finally started working,” recalls initiator Professor Hans-Peter Schade, thinking back to the early days, when cables ran meters-long through the studio. That moment crowned a remarkable success story that had begun back in April 1993 with the pilot project “Electronic Media Technology", initiated by Professor Schade. It was Germany’s first university program in media technology. Demand was high, and just three years later, TU Ilmenau launched three new degree programs combining technical, economic, and communication sciences:
- Media Technology (since 2024: Research in Media Engineering),
- Applied Media and Communication Science, and
- Media Management (since 2025: Digital Business – Media Management and Digital Markets).
This interdisciplinary approach became known as the “Ilmenau Model” and continues to shape education in media, communication, business, and engineering at TU Ilmenau today. Even Chancellor Schröder recognized the university’s pioneering role at the time:
This is a success story that has been written here.
High-tech at ARD level
To create the technological foundation for cutting-edge media technology education, a state-of-the-art studio complex was established at the newly founded Institute for Media Technology (IMT) under the leadership of Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg, supported by the State of Thuringia, the Federal Government, and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
TU Ilmenau thus not only gained a fully equipped film and television studio with audio control room and video editing suite — “at 200 square meters, exactly the same size as the ARD Capital Studio in Berlin,”
as Professor Schade recalls — but soon also a virtual studio that uniquely combined real and computer-generated environments.
This made TU Ilmenau a leader in media technology education and broadcasting training. “This story shows that universities must look far ahead to prepare students for the technologies of tomorrow,” Schade emphasizes.
Learning Through Practice
Since its founding, the Media Lab has served both as a research facility and, above all, as a hands-on training environment for TU Ilmenau students. Many have gained practical production experience at a professional level. The iSTUFF student television station, founded in 1996, also uses the lab regularly for its productions. IMT Director Professor Matthias Hirth is convinced:
“Students rarely have such a flexible opportunity to work with such modern technology and gain hands-on experience as they do here.”
Kira Bayer, a student of Applied Media and Communication Science, agrees:
“For us students, it has always been amazing to experiment creatively and gain cool experiences in the studio.”
She not only participated in daily live broadcasts during the International Student Week (ISWI) but also helped produce and host shows. For the future, iSTUFF plans to revive its Late Night Show format from the Media Lab.
Pioneering Tomorrow’s Media Research
The Media Lab stands as a symbol of the university’s strong link between research and practice. “Only by doing it yourself can you truly understand the complexity of video studio production,” says Professor Schade, already looking to the next developments:
In the future, there will only be a computer network between sensor and display, signal processing will be entirely software-based, and AI tools will be integrated into every process. These are research fields that we can explore right here.
For the past three years, the Media Lab has been part of I3TC, a research and training center for advanced virtual and augmented reality technologies that is unique in Thuringia and beyond. Here, students and doctoral researchers from engineering, business, and media disciplines work together — continuing TU Ilmenau’s success model of interdisciplinary, research-based learning.
Ilmenau media lab celebrates its 25th birthday: To the report in the MDR Thüringen Journal
Contact
Thomas Helbig
Technology and Research Officer I3TC