The brand-new International Tennis Complex in Kuwait City has opened its doors to thousands of fans showcasing a world-class venue home to 18 tennis courts including two show courts accommodating 5,000 and 1,500 people. The complex is now also home to the Kuwait Tennis Federation, the national teams and the Rafael Nadal Academy, the largest Tennis academy in the Middle East.

Gravity Media was delighted to provide the broadcast cabling infrastructure to connect the technical production facilities for the host broadcast on the main show court. Gravity Media has previous experience completing over a dozen new venues to a high international standard across the sporting, cultural and educational sectors in the Middle East.

With over twenty-years of tennis technical broadcast experience across the globe year in year out, Gravity Media has the people and expert knowledge to deliver broadcast services in the sport. At Gravity Media, tennis is in our DNA.

Our coverage, live feeds, production, technical and installation services to tennis authorities and media providers are founded on having the very best equipment for each project – and a work ethos of getting it right first time, every time. In addition to our state-of-the-art technology, which we specifically select to achieve the best outcomes for each tennis project, we’re particularly well known for pioneering replay and highlight content. Our 360-degree replay shots and automated highlights editing have proved a game-changer for tennis viewing the world over.

For example, two of our world-first innovations are our NetCam tennis solution, which has been used at all four Grand Slams since its launch in 2018.

Are you considering or building a future-proof sports arena or stadium fit for international standards? If so, reach out to our expert Systems Integration team, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com.

The art of the possible 

Gravity Media has a long and distinguished history in systems integration, with a reputation for delivering reliable, high-quality and cost-effective solutions for clients worldwide. We’re home to some of the industry’s most sought-after designers and engineers, whose expertise covers every aspect of broadcast infrastructure build and implementation: planning, consultancy, design, engineering, installation, maintenance, project management and aftercare. 

Blending both traditional and cutting-edge technology, our permanent infrastructure builds expand the art of the possible – engineered to ensure you’re constantly operational, connected and fully prepared for content creation and distribution. Whatever the job, we can deliver, with recent projects ranging from full-service studios and production workflows to large-scale stadium and arena projects. The sectors we support span sport, news, entertainment, corporates, eSports and more, and we have teams on the ground in all the major broadcast markets. 

Meanwhile, we’re also a trusted global provider of system upgrade solutions for live production environments, where we oversee hassle-free updates to OB, studio and production facilities without our clients needing to go off-air. We look after everything, from project and risk management through to providing temporary facilities. 

Our systems integration process starts with an assessment of your specific requirements, so we can be sure the setup will meet your production needs both now and in the future. We’ll then oversee the procurement of all the equipment, the system design and installation, and the eventual end-user configuration. Alongside precise project management, you’ll also benefit from our in-depth knowledge of the latest production technologies – as well as access to the manufacturers of those cutting-edge solutions.  

We have strong relationships with all the leading suppliers, including Grass Valley, Ross and Lawo, and count those relationships as invaluable. Not only do they mean we get the latest in technology now, but they also ensure we’re always the best informed when it comes to emerging trends and the further evolution of key production hardware.  

Facilities Management & Managed Services 

An increasingly popular option with clients is for our specialist teams to install and integrate their permanent studio facilities and production workflows, and then manage those facilities for them. This service allows clients to focus entirely on programming, leaving the technical and infrastructure responsibilities to us. Taking our involvement, a step further, our Managed Services offering sees us produce the content too, supporting everything from idea generation and content creation, to post-production and distribution. 

Facilities Management is one of the best examples of Gravity Media’s global scale and in-house expertise coming together to meet the market’s ever-changing requirements. Clients benefit both from high-end infrastructure, and from avoiding the day-to-day technical and operational challenges that can frustrate modern productions. Managed Services enables clients to simultaneously streamline their operations and their lower costs, while gaining permanent access to the latest technology and expert levels broadcast and production support. Equipment that never gets old; personnel who never miss a beat.  

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

Following the success of Eurosport’s Cube at the US Open, the Gravity Media team is now in France at the all-new Philippe-Chatrier stadium for this year’s Roland-Garros. 

Gravity Media helped the FFT to set up a studio on site and is on air for Eurosport with ‘the Cube’, taking pictures from France and other Eurosport Studios, and feeding them back to the Cube studio in London.

The Gravity Media team is now in New York at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for the US Open and is also on air for Eurosport with ‘the Cube’, taking pictures from the US and other Eurosport Studios, and feeding them into a virtual set from Whitelight and Dimensions to allow remote studio presentation of the US Open for the next two weeks.

Gravity Media is a renowned broadcast systems integrator and builder, with a reputation for delivering reliable, high-quality, cost-effective solutions for clients worldwide. With experience spanning planning and consultancy through to design, engineering, installation, maintenance, project management and aftercare, our experienced team covers every aspect of broadcast infrastructure build and implementation to offer you the highest-quality studio and outside broadcasting solutions.

Blending both traditional and cutting-edge technology, Gravity Media designs and builds full-service studios and production workflows. Our permanent infrastructure builds are engineered to ensure you’re constantly operational, connected and fully prepared for content creation and distribution. And size doesn’t matter – Gravity Media also delivers large-scale stadium and arena projects, supporting sport, entertainment, corporate and eSports requirements worldwide. 

Gravity Media is also a trusted global provider of system upgrade solutions and technology for live and offline production environments. We oversee hassle-free upgrades for your OB, studio or production facility without the need for you to go off air. We look after everything, from project and risk management through to providing temporary facilities.

As part of a series of blogs on Gravity Media Group’s core services, here we take a quick look at Gearhouse Broadcast’s systems integration services within stadiums and arenas. The Gearhouse team has decades of experience covering every aspect of big-venue systems implementation, from planning and consultancy through to design, engineering, project management, installation, commissioning, training, maintenance and aftercare.

And as our business operates worldwide, customers benefit not only from our capacity to take on projects big and small anywhere in the world, but also a uniquely flexible service, both operationally and commercially.

For a recent project in the Middle East, we were commissioned to install a broadcast system within Qatar’s most historic sporting venue – the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. Built in 1976 and completely renovated in 2017, the 40,000-seat arena has previously hosted the Asian Games, the Gulf Cup and the AFC Asian Cup, and will play a major role in the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup.

A key requirement of the project was to enable broadcasters to plug into the permanent on-site infrastructure from multiple positions (to allow a variety of live productions). Our team took on end-to-end responsibility for the job, first advising on planning and design, and then overseeing the supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the entire system.

The solution required 51 wall boxes (and 131,200 metres of cable!) installed at various locations around the ground, each connected to a central OB patch room that we kitted out with an Imagine Communications-based audio and video distribution infrastructure, as well as conversion equipment.

For all your AV, IPTV, cable infrastructure, production facility, large-screen playout and digital signage needs in venues ranging from sport and entertainment to corporate events, our solutions will ensure you’re constantly connected and fully prepared for content creation and distribution.

Blending both traditional and trailblazing technology, Gearhouse Broadcast does a great line in designing and building full-service studios and production workflows. It’s a collaborative process though which we assess our customers’ specific requirements so we can be sure each setup will meet all their production needs and more.

To create quality content you need quality kit. So we’ll spend time getting to know you and what your aspirations are before we create your personalised solution.

A good example is Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology in Dublin. Home to 2,500 students, IADT offers excellent technical facilities, including TV and radio studios, and digital video editing. The facility has to cater for a number of different users, from residential students to international TV producers and broadcasters looking for additional facilities during high-volume periods. When it was time for an upgrade, the Institute asked Gearhouse Broadcast to supply, install and support a new state-of-the-art, two-studio HDTV facility.

Our Systems Integration team provided a full turnkey solution, handling everything from planning and project management to design, installation, commissioning, technical support and training.

We prefabricated a lot of the infrastructure at our Watford HQ, and then travelled to Dublin to complete the installation. We equipped the main film/TV studio with five Hitachi multi-format HDTV production cameras with Fujinon lenses, hot-swappable between the two studios as needed.

The second studio features a FOR-A Virtual Studio System, paired with the HVS-390HS video switcher, which offers a great range of standard functions including mixed HD/SD input, frame synchroniser, 3D wipe effects, DVEs, chroma keys, DSKs, still stores, picture-in-picture, multi-viewers and more. We also supplied an ARRI ALEXA camera with ARRI Alura 35mm zoom lenses, as well as three Sony CineAlta 4K Prime lenses. To complete the technical setup, we fitted out a comprehensive Production Gallery, with vison and audio mixers, replay systems and an Avid Nitris DX edit station.

Both studios are fully soundproofed and have resin-based, anti-static screed floors that provide optimum camera tracking performance. Two external wall boxes provide capacity for OB connection and/or for external filming and relays.

The main studio is about 200m², with a clear shooting height of six metres and a motorised lighting grid. It is fully connected to the Production Gallery via eight wall boxes, and is also equipped with black, white and green cyclorama curtains.

The green screen studio is approx 45m², with a shooting height of four metres. It’s connected to the Gallery via two wall boxes, or can be operated separately using a mobile production unit. It has 75% surround chromakey walls and a black cyclorama curtain.

All in all it’s a setup that will easily satisfy all of IADT’s educational and facility-hire requirements for years to come. So when it comes to designing, configuring and building a full-service, permanent TV studio, you know where to come. And don’t forget we can also help with post-production and delivery once you’ve got your content safely in the can.

Last year, we were kept busy the world over, working on projects as far afield as Africa, North America, the Middle East, Europe and Australia. While those projects ranged in scale from small flypack facilities to full broadcast studios, one thing remained constant: customers want more guidance, and they want more value.

The trick is to be completely in front of new technologies, and to sift through the proposals we receive from new and ‘forward-thinking’ vendors to offer our customers the expert, independent advice they need.

The role of a systems integrator is evolving faster than ever. There’s a perception that all new technologies will save money – but that’s just not the case, and it’s our job to help customers see the wood for the trees and get a better, longer return on their investment.

One of the trends that has caught our eye of late is IPTV, but although the operational efficiencies of internet protocol systems are rightly generating interest, there’s still a lack of commitment to move into full IP solutions, and a big market remains for standard baseband. 

Perhaps a more interesting proposition is remote production, primarily because it’s got the ability to make a huge difference in the live environment. Gravity Media (as Gearhouse Broadcast) has been one of the leaders in this area, having already initiated a number of successful remote projects.

For some time now, we’ve been looking ahead to a point where cost-effective bandwidth solutions are available to the market. We’re getting closer to that stage, and connectivity inside venues is continuing to improve, which means we have a better grounding than ever for remote productions to take off.

Meanwhile, higher resolutions have been conversation, as always, but HDR stands out for me because in reality it’s a more suitable solution for everyone, bringing outstanding picture quality without the need to invest in delivery solutions and 4K-ready end-user devices. Big sporting events are often used to introduce new broadcasting technologies, and this year has a packed sporting calendar that will undoubtedly drive the widespread uptake of HDR content.

One of our key projects last year was to build full HD studio for Live Point Art Production in Dubai. The fast-turnaround project took just 13 weeks from order to completion – there aren’t many systems integrators that have the skills to deliver something of that size at that speed.

With a number of interesting global projects on our books already, 2018 is shaping up to be another big year for our Systems Integration team. We look forward to bringing our customers along the journey with us.

Gearhouse Broadcast Qatar and associate company AV Tech were awarded the contract to upgrade the technical infrastructure at four football stadia in Doha, Qatar – Al Gharaffa, Al Rayyan, Al Sadd Sports Club and the Qatar Sports Club.

As the preferred supplier to the Qatar National Olympic Committee, Gearhouse Broadcast and AV Tech have previously completed a number of broadcast cabling and audio visual contracts at various sports arenas including; the Aspire Tower and Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence, Khalifa Tennis and Squash Centre, Qatar Sports Club, Al Arabi Sports Club, Al Khor Sports Club and the Al Wakrah Sports Club.

The stadia were all being upgraded from SD to HD and the new installation consisted of installing new cabling, wall boxes and technical equipment.  The installation was spread across four stadia and the upgrade consisted of 115 wall boxes, SMPTE hybrid fibre, HD video and audio and network cable.

The equipment racks used for the upgrade were assembled in the UK prior to the installation phase and shipped to site pre-wired to all the local termination panels. This meant that only the wall box connectivity will need to be terminated on-site thus speeding up the installation process.  Imagine Communications distribution and conversion equipment was used, along with Tektronix video test equipment, Bel audio test equipment and Belden and Draka audio and network cable.

To complete the installation Gearhouse Broadcast provided a supervisory management team of 12 Wireman, 16 riggers, a Project Engineer and a Project Manager.   Each venue had a dedicated installation team headed up by a Site Supervisor, who oversaw the pulling in of all cables from the TV Rooms to the correct locations.   The HD upgrade took two months to complete and was ready for the start of the Asian Football Cup which Qatar hosted in January 2011.

As the shift from SD broadcast technology to HD broadcast Equipment gathers ever greater momentum around the world, so does demand for the specialist services of the Systems Integration Division at Gearhouse Broadcast.

The latest leading satellite television company to call on the expertise and experience of the Gearhouse Broadcast Systems Integration’s team of engineers and technicians as it looks to upgrade its broadcast facilities from SD to HD is Asian giant Astro.

The Malaysia-based satellite television company, the country’s equivalent to SKY in the UK in terms of output and subscribers, currently offers 125 channels, including eight HD channels, but their capacity to broadcast in HD is now being significantly increased as part of Astro’s stated aim of ‘placing Malaysia in the forefront of multimedia technology.’

The team from Gearhouse Broadcast has a proven track record in helping broadcasters make the transition from SD to HD broadcast equipment and technology smoothly and efficiently.

Recent projects have included delivering SD to HD solutions to the prestigious Khalifa Tennis and Squash Centre in Qatar and the building of India state broadcaster Doordarshan’s first outside broadcast HD truck.

Astro produce much of their own programming from a network of six studio facilities and are keen to upgrade most, if not all, from aging SD broadcast equipment to the latest HD technology.

The UK-based Gearhouse Broadcast team, with some additional input from their colleagues at the company’s Sydney offices, has been called in to advise and oversee the upgrading of four studio floors and associated control rooms, with the potential to eventually help convert all six studios in the Astro stable.

Dave Gill, Senior Systems Engineer at Gearhouse Broadcast, said: “It is becoming increasingly recognised across the broadcast industry that when it comes to upgrading from SD to HD broadcasting, the level of HD experience that we have across all divisions of the company is a very valuable commodity.

“We’ve successful built up a reputation for enabling conversions from SD to HD because we not only own our own HD equipment but we also install it, operate it and sell it.

“It’s that proven day-to-day, hands on experience of HD broadcast Equipment and the technical expertise that comes with it that our clients value so highly.”

With a total floor area of 350,000 square feet, the Astro All Asia Broadcast Centre (ABC) in Kuala Lumpar is one of the world’s largest and most advanced all-digital broadcast and production complexes.