Gravity Media, the global provider of complex live creative production and media services, has welcomed Rhona Keegan as Service Delivery Manager to provide a Managed Services solution at world-leading game publisher Riot Games’ state-of-the-art remote broadcast centre (RBC), Project Stryker in Dublin, Ireland.

Joining an expanding team, as Service Delivery Manager, Rhona will be responsible for working across Riot Games’ esports broadcasts featuring championships and tournaments from titles; League of Legends and VALORANT. The Service Delivery Manager will be working with the Senior Leadership Team in the most advanced Remote Broadcast Centre in the World.

With over 15 years of experience, Rhona is a highly-trained and skilled broadcast professional in the Irish, North American and Australian markets. Rhona is proven to be adept at managing productions and workflows on numerous international co-productions, in collaboration with creative teams to deliver outstanding results.

Rhona is the latest hire as part of Gravity Media’s recent partnership with Riot to source remote production support specialists in a variety of roles at Riot’s Dublin-based RBC. In this role, Rhona will be a primary figure in the delivery of service to Riot Games, whilst using a variety of data points for reporting to Business Stakeholders and the Senior Leadership Team as part of performance and service measurements against set KPIs defined under the SLA.

Prior to joining, Rhona worked with some of the world’s leading international broadcasters in the industry including WTFN Entertainment in Australia, Australian Broadcast Corporation, ITV Studios Australia, Prospero Productions and Vision Independent Productions.

Over the years, Rhona has successfully managed multiple projects in production with a strong focus on documentary, factual and entertainment. Rhona has a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of production from development through to final delivery.

Ed Tischler, Managing Director at Gravity Media said:

“We are thrilled to have Rhona join our Gravity Media team. With Rhona’s impressive experience, we believe she will be a valuable asset and help us to continue growing and innovating the team’s work. We look forward to working and welcoming Rhona to our team.”

Rhona Keegan commented on her new role:

“I am excited to be joining the Gravity Media team at Riot Games and to be a part of such a talented team. I look forward to contributing my skills, working creatively, and collaborating with my colleagues to help lead the way in the esports industry.”

Furthermore, Rhona holds RTE 1 & 2, BBC Northern Ireland, VMTV (Ireland) and ABC, ITV Australia, Nine Network Australia, 7 Network, Network 10, Discovery Networks International and Food Network (International) credits.

Rhona is a valuable addition to the Gravity Media team and will play an important role in delivering exceptional service with measured results at Riot Games for Project Stryker.

PRESS COVERAGE

Gravity Media, the global provider of complex live creative production and media services, is proud to further bolster its esports credentials by partnering with the world-leading game publisher Riot Games, providing a Managed Services solution at their state-of-the-art remote broadcast centre (RBC) in Dublin, Ireland.

The appointment of Gravity Media as a broadcast Managed Services partner will further bolster and elevate the technical offering at the RBC for live esports broadcast production, which will see the team provide wider remote production support on all the ongoing global Riot Games esports events.

Gravity Media’s Managed Service offering has become an increasingly popular option over the past couple of years. Working in partnership with Riot Games, Gravity Media will enroll highly-skilled, motivated, and ambitious individuals, who will work in a combination of technical and operational roles producing the best-in-class live events for global audiences. These individuals will provide support at the Dublin-based remote broadcast centre operating under Project Stryker, Powered by AWS, Riot Games’ latest investment toward global live broadcast production.

The 50,000-square foot production space located in Swords is the first of Project Stryker’s three RBCs strategically placed around the globe to support regional and global live esports across Riot Games’ trio of esports titles: League of Legends Esports, VALORANT Esports and Wild Rift Esports. It stands as Riot’s second footprint in Dublin, joining its City Centre office with approximately 165 employees specialising in business operations, development, engineering, localization, and player support.

Riot Games was founded in 2006 to develop, publish and support the most player-focused games in the world. In 2009, Riot released its debut title, League of Legends, to worldwide acclaim. League has gone on to be the most-played PC game globally and a key driver of the explosive growth of esports.

Project Stryker represents an efficient new approach to live global production where broadcast feeds from live esports competitions happening around the world can be sent to Riot RBCs where content is produced, broadcast and distributed in multiple languages to esports fans. The Dublin RBC is equipped with a TOC, six remote casting insert stages, six production control rooms (PCRs), six audio control rooms (ACRs), multiple bullpens for observers (in-game camera operators), graphics, replay and editing, allowing it to broadcast six live events at a time around the globe.

Project Stryker Dublin features impressive global connectivity at 200 Gbps and over 32km of cabling carrying live event feeds to the production facility in about 1/10th of a second. Courtesy of Riot’s partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), two control rooms are outfitted with future-forward technology and cloud-based zero client computing enabling Riot to efficiently produce events even more virtually and remotely than before.

Project Stryker provides a great opportunity to attract the best talent to join the future of esports based in Dublin.

As part of the partnership Gravity Media will ensure remote production and engineering specialist talent work collaboratively to install and integrate the permanent studio facilities and production workflows as part of the growing facility.

“We are excited to partner with Gravity Media and their extensive network of talent to attract the best and brightest minds in live broadcast production to Riot Games and Project Stryker,” said Allyson Gormley, Global Operations Director, Project Stryker at Riot Games. “Gravity Media has some of the best talent across broadcasting, production, and technology that will certainly be a valuable asset in our ambitious live esports productions that continuously attract millions of viewers around the world.”

Eamonn Dowdall Gravity Media’s Executive Director says of the partnership:

“We couldn’t be prouder to start 2023 by sharing the exciting news of our partnership with Riot Games.

This opportunity allows us to leverage and showcase our global esports credentials and world-leading broadcast talent, working closely with Riot Games at their European HQ, enabling us to service Riot Games globally in the delivery of the most engaging and immersive projects ever created.

Our Managed Services offering sees Gravity Media manage facilities, and produce content where we can support with idea generation and content creation ensuring post-production and distribution.

Gravity Media will further ensure that Riot Games remains the most player-focused game company in the world, which sees the brand revolutionise esports broadcast production worldwide.”

PRESS COVERAGE

Gearhouse Broadcast was pleased to support CTV Outside Broadcasts with its coverage of the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, NI.

It had been 68 years since The Open was last staged at Royal Portrush – a legendary golf club that’s home to one of the best and most challenging links courses in the world. The Dunluce Links includes a stunning 382-yard, par four 5th – a dogleg hole played from an elevated tee towards the ocean, with the White Rocks beach lying just beyond the rear of the green. Golfers enjoy stunning views towards the 15th Century Dunluce castle, as well as the surfers braving the swells below.

With an estimated television audience of 600 million worldwide, all eyes were on Rory McIlroy to see if he could win his first major in his native Northern Ireland. Alas it was not to be, with McIlroy shooting a 79 on Thursday and failing to make the cut, but home fans still had a lot to shout about as Shane Lowry became Ireland’s new Open champion with his remarkable six-shot victory.

148th Open Championship ran from 18 to 21 July. Gearhouse’s Rental team supplied CTV with a comprehensive set-up, featuring Sony HDC4300L 4K UHD camera channels and Sony HDC-2500s, with Canon HD and UHD lenses. Managing the workflow was an extensive EVS XT network, featuring the latest XT VIA technology, and media management and ingest workflows were controlled using IP Director workstations.