bTV Broadcast Facility

Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Approximate square footage: 247,000

bTV owned by Balkan News Corporation, a part of News Corporation is the first privately owned national television channel in Bulgaria.  DFW Consulting Group, Inc. was assigned the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing design of this state-of-the-art broadcast facility.  One of the many challenges that the designers and CAD staff faced while designing the facility was the task of converting all calculations from standard English to metric units.

The six-story facility, situated at the base of the Vihren mountain range, houses six studios: 1 news studio, 3 small production studios, a large production studio, and a studio for Slavi.  Slavi is the host of Slavi’s Show, bTV’s late-night talk show.  The electrical system for the facility is fed from the power company through a loop switch which allows the station to have power from two parts of the electrical grid.  This allows for a more diverse power feed to the station which will significantly reduce the possibility of power failure.  In the event that the station loses power the design includes a back-up generator to keep critical areas of the facility running.  The building air conditioning system is comprised of 3 chillers which supply chilled water to variable volume air handling units located throughout the station.  Building heat is provided via gas boilers and is designed for the extreme Bulgarian winters.  Additional heat is provided to perimeter glass exposures by baseboard heaters.