THE CLIENT

ORF (English: the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation), is the Austrian national public service broadcaster. It is Austria’s largest media provider, operating four national television channels and 12 radio stations, as well as a range of websites. 

THE PROJECT

Gravity Media was engaged to support ORF with the implementation of its remote live production workflow at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

THE APPROACH

We supplied a comprehensive broadcast setup at the Olympic Broadcasting Services’ International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Tokyo, as well as at the ORF Olympic TV studio in Tokyo and six further installations spread across selected Games venues. 

The main programme feed was cut at the ORF Production Centre in Vienna. 

THE OUTCOME

From 21 July to 8 August 2021, ORF successfully broadcast 500 hours of live Olympic coverage. The bulk of the Games was shown on ORF 1 and ORF SPORT, with additional events live–streamed via ORF.at. 

ORF had access to over 55 events at the Olympics, ensuring that almost every competition with Austrian participation could be seen live. For visually impaired and hearing-impaired sports fans, a large part of the ORF Olympic broadcasts were also audio-commented or subtitled.  

Austria won seven medals at the Games, including a cycling Gold in the women’s individual road race. This eclipses their 2016 performance, where the country won just one bronze medal. 

THE CLIENT

Leonardo/Finmeccanica, on behalf of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy – the organisation responsible for World Cup operations and planning.

THE PROJECT and approach

In the years leading up to the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar has been a hive of activity as it equips the host stadia with the infrastructure to accommodate such a large-scale and high-profile event. A key element of each stadium project has been to ensure that the broadcast and communications infrastructure is in place, which will enable broadcasters to quickly and easily produce and distribute content to billions of fans around the world.

Gravity Media was commissioned to do the cabling installation for Al-Bayt Stadium, one of eight stadia being used for the World Cup. Al-Bayt is a 60,000-seat arena that’s covered by a giant tent structure – said mimic the traditional Bedouin tent (Bayt Al Sha’ar), from which it also takes its name. Located in the northern city of Al-Khor, Al-Bayt has the honour of hosting the opening match of the tournament, as well as fixtures right through to the semi-finals.

The installation required a total of 300km (186 miles) of cable – 76km (47 miles) of Triax, 41km (25 miles) of 8-pair audio, 29km (18 miles) of 12-core fibre, 75km (47 miles) of SMPTE and 72km (45 miles) of video cable – enabling broadcasters to connect their outside broadcast trucks to 70 positions across the venue through multiple cable formats.

The job required us to pull cables of up to 600 metres in length at heights of 12 metres, meaning the 30-strong installation team all needed height training to ensure their comfort and safety. This, combined with the extremely hot conditions and the sheer length of the cable pulls, contributed to a challenging project that had to be carefully managed by our team of cabling experts.

tHE OUTCOME

Installing tactical fibre and SMPTE cable makes Al-Bayt compatible with the latest broadcast technology, which is particularly important for when the World Cup starts being aired live to around 200 countries globally. The cabling will also future-proof the stadium, ensuring that they have the infrastructure to deliver live broadcasts there for many years to come; the venue’s legacy will include tracks for running, cycling and horse riding.

We ran the project from our office in Doha, with our in-house team of cable experts working onsite to complete the installation.

The CUSTOMER

The ATP Masters 1000 Series is a demanding schedule of 10 events taking place across the world covering Cincinnati, Shanghai, Indian Wells, Madrid, Miami, Monte-Carlo, Montreal, Paris and Rome, concluding with the World Tour Finals which since 2009 has been staged in our home town, at the O2 Arena in London.

Over 50 broadcasters across the globe take coverage of the series include ABC, CCTV, ESPN, Fox Sports, Sky Sports, CBS, TVE and Eurosport.

The approach

Gravity Media provides broadcast equipment, production facilities, systems integration and scalable flyaway solutions.

The solution delivered by Gravity Media employs state-of-the-art digital flyaway rigs consisting of audio and video routing, distribution, communication, CCU and monitor gallery rigs. These rigs are configured prior to arriving on site and are then integrated with other key elements and installed by specialist Project Engineers.

Supplying up to 80 crew members at any one location, 24/7 technical resources and full operational and logistics support, Gravity Media have provided this type of project management across all ten venues since 2000 for ATP Media.

The broadcast requirements that Gravity Media is responsible for include:

the Outcome

In addition to the work it does with ATP Media at each event, Gravity Media also provides on-site production facilities and equipment to ATP World Tour and ATP World Tour Finals rights holders including Sky Sports.

Dominic Gresset Head of production for ATP Media said “We opted for Gravity Media to provide equipment, facilities and technical support for the Tennis Masters Series and subsequently the Masters Cup 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 that have taken place this year”.