In 2019, Gravity Media was chosen to produce a new studio show for Indonesian broadcaster Mola who acquired the English Premier League rights for their territory. 

Fast forward to 2022, the Gravity Media team at The Production Centre in London delivered the debut Eredivisie League Studio Show forMola. Gravity Media continues to produce their studio wrap-around programmes around a selection of live games throughout the Premier League and Eredivisie season.

Gravity Media provides the studio, gallery, and staff to produce the coverage for Mola, which will feature matches on both Saturdays and Sundays, and often feature consecutive games back-to-back.

Gravity Media installed a video wall which allows live feeds from different grounds to be displayed behind the studio guests with UHD quality and minimal bezel space showing, out studio can switch between programme backgrounds in a matter of seconds.

Football is in our DNA and to find out how we can help you with your next production, email enquiries@gravitymedia.com

Gravity Media, the leading global provider of complex live broadcast facilities and production services to content owners, creators and distributors, has provided BT Sport’s exclusive PPV coverage of the Deontay Wilder vs Tyson Fury 2 heavyweight title fight. Columbus, Gravity Media’s Los Angeles-based 4K multi-purpose mobile unit, was deployed at Las Vegas’ iconic MGM Grand venue alongside its operational B Unit for the rematch on February 22, which was expected to become the biggest fight this year. This follows the split-decision draw between the Gypsy King (Fury) and Bronze Bomber (Wilder) in December 2018.

The two Gravity Media mobile units joined three additional OB trucks and six SNG vehicles within the TV compound at MGM Grand showing the scale of the intense media interest. They were used to produce BT Sport’s on-site presentation studio as well as coverage from ringside. In addition, Gravity Media also supplied commentary and comms solutions to the UK rights holder.

The flexibility offered by its 60ft single expanding Columbus unit, which carries and deploys UK-friendly production solutions, was one of the key attractions for BT Sport when it came to selecting its facilities partner for this project. Tools such as Glensound commentary equipment, and Coles lip mics, combined with an engineering team that’s experienced in UK production workflows involving EVS and intercom particularly, make Gravity Media an ideal choice for British broadcasters operating within North America. Gravity understood BT Sport’s requirements from the outset as the team clearly understood the UK technical language that was being used by BT Sport’s engineers and operations team.

Marc Genin, Gravity Media’s Executive Vice President, added: “Although Columbus was built to serve the North American production market, it can be reconfigured with elements that are preferred in British productions. This means that we can meet the specific requirements of UK content creators such as BT Sport which are covering major events over here without having to compromise on ambition or quality to achieve a familiar feel.”

Columbus is the flagship of Gravity Media’s North American fleet and was the first mobile unit to feature a full 4K monitor wall, one-button hydraulic deployment and integrated RF. It has been used for a range of high-end 4K HDR and UHD sports and entertainment productions in the US.

*Photos supplied by the Seven Olympic Unit – @7olympics, #7Olympics

This month saw the Seven Olympic Unit take over Gravity Media’s Production Centre in Sydney, Australia for their Athlete Profiles for the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympics.

With two production studios and one photography studio set up at The Production Centre, the Seven Olympic Unit was able to cover all of their requirements with the athletes.

Featuring current Olympic 100m Freestyle Gold Medallist Kyle Chalmers, 4 x100m Freestyle Relay Gold Medallists Bronte and Cate Campbell, three time Paralympics Gold Medallist Dylan Alcott and seven time World Surfing Champion to the new Olympic Sport Stephanie Gilmore the two day shoot was a topic of who from Australia’s sporting talent will be heading to Tokyo next year.

With the Opening Ceremony on Friday 24 July, the clock is now ticking for both the athletes and production teams. Bring on Tokyo 2020!

Image by Dolly Clew.

In the past week, Gravity Media’s Production & Content business (formerly known as Input Media) has delivered a monumental amount of sporting content for a range of high-profile clients around the world. The skilled team at The Production Centre in Chiswick, West London was responsible for the co-ordination, production and delivery of more than 50 hours of programming of men’s and women’s football, tennis and MMA.

Projects included… 

• The creation of highlights shows, instant highlights feeds and digital clips from 48 matches across three nights of UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europe League action
• A preview show for The FA Cup that took viewers from Southend to Nantwich via Dulwich, with a number of stops for qualifiers along the way
• Covering 40 FA Cup 1^st Round matches, which included providing eight World Feeds for international rights holders and being responsible for filming, digital clips, highlights shows and much more at 32 other ties. We were also present at Brisbane Road to produce the OB for the biggest story of the round as non-league Maldon & Tiptree knocked out League Two’s Leyton Orient
• Using Gravity Media’s new OB truck to deliver the in-stadium screens production at Wembley for the England v Germany women’s international football friendly, that saw a record home crowd of 77,768 present
• Delivering a complex Cage Warriors production live from Cork, Ireland for BT Sport
• Producing a highlights show of the 2019 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final as France beat Australia 3-2 in women’s tennis’ most important tournament between national teams
• Studio-based presentations of three Premier League fixtures including the top of the table clash between Liverpool and Man City for Indonesian rights holder Mola TV
• Ongoing work for Premier League in-house club channels Chelsea TV and Tottenham’s Spurs TV.

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.