‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ campaign takes over entire ad break during Nine’s coverage of grand slam tournament

Gearhouse is best known for its work behind the camera, but at the 2019 Australian Open, it stepped in front of the lens for a TV advert for Uber Eats. The food delivery service has partnered with host broadcaster Nine for its coverage of the grand slam tennis tournament and took over a commercial break, tricking viewers into thinking they were back watching the tennis live. However, they were actually seeing a series of short skits where someone at the tournament pauses mid-job to order food using the Uber Eats app.

For Gearhouse’s on-screen debut, one of its TV camera operators is caught missing the action on-court when he momentarily steps away from his camera to order some chicken souvlaki with mixed pickles and Saganaki cheese on his smartphone.

Uber Eats’ ‘Tonight I’ll Be Eating’ campaign was devised by creative agency Special Group and has featured other Australian Open-related spots including Rafa Nadal receiving a dinner violation from the umpire and a physio interrupting treatment of Nick Kyrgios to get her buffalo wings.

Fortunately, in the real world, our professional crew are well catered for on-site, so they can focus on the job at hand – ensuring every shot at the Australian Open is captured perfectly from every angle possible.

As an equipment supplier to SIS LIVE, broadcast solutions company Gearhouse Broadcast ensured that every serve and volley at this year’s Wimbledon Tennis Championships could be seen around the world in outstanding high definition for the second year running.

SIS LIVE, Europe’s largest outside broadcast and uplink supplier and providers of all technical facilities at this year’s Wimbledon, brought in Gearhouse Broadcast to provide a large variety of the HD equipment for this summer’s tournament, including five Sony HDC 3300 slow motion cameras.

Broadcast technology also supplied by Gearhouse included; 264 x 264 3GB Cyprus video router, vision mixer, four Sony MFS2000 Multi Format Production Switchers, nine HD EVS systems, HD and SD distribution and audio embedding equipment, along with distribution amplifiers and the infrastructure, or ‘glue’ as it is known in the industry, to tie it all together.

Prior to the event, Gearhouse Broadcast’s Rental Division and engineering staff worked closely with SIS LIVE’s engineers to ensure that all the equipment supplied met their technical solution requirements.

Once identified, all the kit was thoroughly tested and configured by Gearhouse Broadcast engineers in workshops at their Watford Head Office before being delivered to site.

During the set up week prior to the event, Gearhouse appointed a Project Engineer to assist SIS LIVE’s engineers with the integration of the equipment, as well as providing 24/7 technical back up.

Alan Wright, SIS LIVE Engineering Manager, said: “The Wimbledon Championships are one of the biggest and most complex annual events that we cover and Gearhouse Broadcast supplied a variety of equipment to ensure this year’s coverage was successful.”

What did you make of the HD broadcast coverage of this year’s Wimbledon? We’re always interested in your views, so please let us know.

The schedule of a top international tennis player is hectic – as is that of the broadcasters who follow them to all points of the globe to bring the action to huge audiences across the world.

Gearhouse Broadcast Project Solutions Division is proud to have been chosen for the tenth  year in succession to deliver technical and production broadcast facilities for the ATP  World Tour Masters 1000  – nine tournaments throughout the season taking place in venues as far flung as Cincinnati,  Toronto, Miami and Monte Carlo.

Gearhouse Broadcast has also been contracted to provide the technical facilities for this year’s tour finale, The Masters Cup – where the eight top ranked players compete to become the overall series winner – in London at The 02 Arena in November 2010.

Of paramount importance to clients ATP Media  is the ability to provide comprehensive and consistent technical and production facilities for the 50 leading international broadcasters who cover the series whatever the venue, in order to maintain and enhance the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 ’ status as one of the most important events on the international sporting calendar.

Key to this is Gearhouse Broadcast’s state-of-the-art digital flyaway rigs, which feature video routing, distribution, communication, CCU and monitor gallery rigs.

After each event these are configured specifically to meet the demands of the next location on the tour so that they can be quickly and effectively integrated and installed by project engineers on site.

The tournaments usually cover two or three courts in the initial stages then go down to one court as the knockout stages progress, meaning that some of the equipment can be removed, configured and then sent on early to the next destination.

ATP Media’s CEO Steve Plasto says: “We opted for Gearhouse Broadcast because we are confident in their capabilities to create the same broadcast environment anywhere in the world. They have demonstrated their expertise and professionalism time and again throughout the Tennis Masters Series tournaments.”

Other services that have made Gearhouse Broadcast the system integration solutions provider of choice include:

Forward planning, site visits and liaison with venue managers through the tournament.