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. 

 

What a great six months of tennis it has been! Starting with the WTA Tour, the Western & Southern Open, the US Open, the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome to the Nitto ATP Finals in London.  

The Nitto ATP Finals ran from Sunday 15 to Sunday 22 November and is the second highest tier of annual men’s tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tournaments. On Sunday 22 November, Daniil Medvedev was crowned the champion of the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals!  

The Gravity Media team was onsite at The O2 in London delivering the host broadcast and supporting ATP Media, ESPN and IMG/Amazon for the week-long event. This tournament was delivered using our ATP Flypack and the Gravity Media production team also had some new toys to play with including the Sony HDC 5500 and Sony HDC 4800. 

It was a fantastic week of action! To find out how Gravity Media can help you with your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com  

The first-ever World Tens Series tournament is currently underway in Bermuda from Tuesday 24 October until Saturday 07 November 2020 where eight international privately-owned teams will be participating.  

From 2021 the tournament will be expanded to include 16 teams competing in tournaments in 12 locations throughout the world.  

London Royals and The Rhinos proved unbeatable on day one of the World Tens in Bermuda as both made it three wins from three.  

The tournament is currently being broadcast on Sky Sports in the UK and ESPN and ESPN+ for the Americas. The Gravity Media team is onsite providing one of our specialist flypacks for the rugby tournament. You can also watch selected days of the Bermuda World Tens for free via the Sky Sports YouTube channel from 12:30hrs GMT. 

From studio productions to remote outside broadcasts; from sporting events to reality TV, Gravity Media’s 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, our 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 more about our flypacks, click here and email enquiries@gravitymedia.com to see how we can help you with your next production.