The 2021 FIFA Arab Cup took place between 30th November to 18th December 2021 which saw Algeria beat Tunisia 2-0 in a gripping final in front of 60,456 fans, a record attendance for a football match in Qatar. Gravity Media was thrilled to be involved in this test, warm-up tournament in the lead up to the eagerly anticipated inaugural Arabic World Cup.  

Gravity Media supplied six Infotainment systems to the Local Organising Committee, Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, which were permanently installed at all six FIFA Arab Cup stadiums across Qatar. The system consisted of a Simply Live Replay and Production Server, a Riedel Bolero Wireless Comms system, and Blackmagic vision mixer along with converters and glue.  

The team also integrated the legacy system with an overlay system to complete specific operations requirements by adding RF cameras, an audio system, and a Digital Talkback Matrix.

The countdown is now on for the world’s biggest football tournament taking place this year! Our local team in Doha are offering stand-up and temporary studio positions with broadcast facilities for both rights and non-rights holders plus the use of a six camera Outside Broadcast vehicle, Suhail so, reach out for more info via enquiries@gravitymedia.com.

Koh-Lanta is a French reality game show based on the popular international TV series Survivor. The Gravity Media team in France recently participated in the show, as they supplied the broadcast equipment and all the flyaway kits to shoot the special 20 year anniversary programme of Koh Lanta.  

Our reality TV flypack is suitable for deployment to the most hostile parts of the world as it supports a full range of discreet specialist cameras that get the viewer as close as possible to the unfolding drama, as well as enabling large-scale post-production and ingest requirements, supporting all editing and media management needs. It also enables all programming stream cuts plus integration with all leading social media platforms.  

To find out how we can help on your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com  

FRENCH

Gravity Media participe à Koh-Lanta ! 

L’équipe de Gravity Media France a récemment participé à l’émission Koh-Lanta en fournissant le matériel de diffusion et les régies mobiles pour le tournage d’un programme spécial dédiée au 20ème anniversaire de l’émission. 

Nos régies mobiles sont adaptées au déploiement dans les régions les plus hostiles du monde car elles intègrent une gamme complète de caméras spécialisées, discrètes, qui permettent au  spectateur d’être au coeur de l’action, tout en offrant une qualité de captation de haut niveau.  

Elles permettant également d’offrir un service adapté aux enjeux de post-production à grande échelle, allant de la création de mini-résumés en quasi-live à la gestion de contenus pour les réseaux sociaux. 

Pour savoir comment nous pouvons vous aider lors de votre prochaine production, envoyez un e-mail à enquiries@gravitymedia.com

On Friday 01 October, the Eiffel Tower turned pink for the launch of Pink October in Paris. The event was attended by Paris’ Mayor, Anne Hidalgo, government officials and singers as they showed support for all those fighting against breast cancer before a month filled with events.  

Gravity Media supplied a flypack that the team integrated in an outside broadcast truck. From studio productions to remote outside broadcasts; from sporting events to reality TV, our compact flypacks contain everything you need to deliver complex high-definition multi-format broadcasts.  

Featuring leading-edge vision mixers, routers, and servers, as well as sophisticated communication systems, Gravity Media’s flypacks are designed to be taken to any location in the world. They can be rigged and de-rigged quickly, leaving you more time to get on with the business of broadcasting. 

To find out how we can support your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com  

I joined Gravity Media in March 2021, and so far it has been non-stop. I’ve worked on the Welsh Elections, the Europa League Final and the six weeks of the Euros, as well as the UEFA Super Cup and the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals. Gravity Media is one of the few companies that pioneers the use of IP, which is what excited me about joining the company, and thanks to my previous experience ‒ working on the integration and build of the UK’s first IP trucks ‒ I’m allocated to many of the IP and SDI-based projects.  

Every single job I’ve done, right down to the cards in the glue frames, has been completely different. A bespoke system rolls out of the door every single time. Each project begins with the client brief, and from that I will establish what needs to be delivered: which formats we’ll use, the type of conversion necessary, how to integrate audio into that. Then the system needs to be decided on, and the project engineer, head of engineering and director of services will discuss the client’s requirements to agree on the appropriate kit. Assembling the kit takes time. If a job is big, the number of individual pieces of kit required runs into the thousands. For the Super Cup, the kit alone totalled 1,300 items transported to site in a 40ft articulated lorry ‒ and that was just a medium-sized project; a single football match.  

The next step is to build the system, which involves lots of screen time creating rack layouts, paperwork, the cable schedules and kit lists. I will work with both the Asset and Warehouse teams and, once everything required is booked out, then it’s time to build the test rig. For the Super Cup Technical Operations Centre (TOC), I looked after the technical workbook, which we used to build all the systems and make sure the rigs were assembled and tested before shipping. Time-wise, normally you get a couple of weeks to prepare for a TOC.  

All the rigs travel pre-built, so everything goes out as it is ‒ the router rack, the sound rack with Codecs and Lawo core ‒ it is all rigged and tested and travels in a flight case with that rack. For the Super Cup, it was a five-day rig; the kit landed in Belfast on match day minus eight, and I had to be ready to hand over by lunchtime on match day minus two. But that wasn’t the end of my duties. The role of Project Engineer has three elements: rigging engineer, support engineer, and team manager. It’s at handover point that my role moves from rigging engineer to onsite support and team manager. I have to handle the distribution of feeds to the unilateral broadcast partners (UBPs) and all the feeds to QC, which is continuous. If anything breaks or there are any faults, it is down to me to find it and fix it if it originated with us. In addition to this, I am running the onsite crew; I must look after them, keep everyone fed, watered and happy, and make sure their travel arrangements are sorted ‒ all the personnel aspects. Most of it is routine, and the only crisis management I’ve had to do so far was COVID-19-related ‒ test results did not return, so retesting needed to be done, which meant flights back home were delayed.  

When a project involves flypacks, you know the job is going to be a minimum of about two weeks, and can be anything up to eight. We fit our downtime around that. We’re incredibly busy at the moment, so it’s more on than off, but we’re all just pleased the business is doing so well. It is always full-on during a project, but that’s what I thrive on and, onsite, team spirit is what keeps everyone going. We provide each other with a support network onsite, which keeps morale buoyant – and delivering an outstanding result for the client is an incredible feeling. Over the six weeks we did on the Euros – across the 11 UEFA TOCs, BBC Sport and the ESPN output – Gravity Media had 100% clean to air ‒ you can’t top that! 

It’s exciting to be working on such high-profile events – particularly the Euros, which had such an incredible, positive impact on the country for a few weeks. You’re working of course, so you can’t fully get into in like the fans at home, but for the Euros, I was working in the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), doing the remote operation for ESPN. We were sited quite close to two British areas, with a Spanish broadcasting team just down from us and an Italian one across the other side. Even though I was quite remote from the action, it was easy to tell how the game was going from which group was screaming when their team scored a goal.   

My first six months have been a bit of a whirlwind, but I’ve been loving what I’m doing. Moving forward, I’d like to continue running projects and designing systems, and whatever happens, I want to remain on a technical, practical project management route. One of the things I like about working here is that there is no chance of losing touch with engineering even when moving into a managerial role. As a vision engineer and EIC (engineer in charge), I’m always heavily involved in the engineering side of things. We have other great people dedicated to production account management and technical project management; it’s brilliant to have so much resource at our disposal, which is ultimately there for the benefit of our clients.   

To speak to a colleague about how we can help with your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com. 

In October 2020, Gravity Media partnered with Telstra to deliver the seventh annual Telstra Vantage event, a celebration of world-class ideas, technology, and business solutions.   

Until 2020, Telstra Vantage had been a physical event where Telstra’s enterprise customers gathered to learn about new ways to solve their business problems. However, with the introduction of COVID-19, Telstra had to reimagine the event to engage with their audience in a completely different format. 

The result was Telstra Vantage Remixed.  

As Telstra’s production partner – Gravity Media was excited to bring Telstra’s vision to life. Working alongside creative agency Imagination, Gravity Media delivered 40 hours of live broadcast across three livestreamed channels. The result was 38 sessions, panel discussions and keynote presentations from Telstra, their partners and special guests live, online and on demand, exclusively for Telstra’s enterprise customers.  

Gravity Media delivered a start to finish solution, bringing together a range of different signals from all around the world and integrating them into three control rooms.   

“Gravity Media and Imagination go back over 10 years… so we knew that we could trust them for really complex projects with lots of moving parts, so they were an obvious choice when it came to Telstra Vantage Remixed.” – Heath Campanaro, Director, Imagination  

The event was live across two days on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 October. Two of the channels were produced from Telstra’s Sydney Customer Insight Centre, while the third channel was broadcast from Gravity Media’s studio at its Production Centre in Sydney.  

At each location Gravity Media provided full production crew along with broadcast and camera gear, including a turnkey flyaway kit on location at Telstra. 

To find out how Gravity Media can help you with your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com

Following the success of the Super 50 Cup, the Gravity Media team in the USA is now covering the action from the upcoming West Indies cricket matches over the next two weeks alongside Whisper.  

The team has deployed a flypack on site at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua as the West Indies competes against Sri Lanka in the ICC World Test Championship.  

Gravity Media’s flypacks contain everything you need to deliver complex high-definition broadcasts worldwide. Built with the latest UHD, 4K and IP technology and sophisticated communication systems, they’re designed to be taken to any location in the world. 

They can be rigged and de-rigged quickly and easily, leaving you more time to get on with the business of broadcasting. 

Find out more here and to find out how we can help you with your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com