Trickbox TV championed its versatility with simultaneous live broadcasts of Brexit coverage on Friday 31 January, for two separate broadcasters in neighbouring studios.

Interest in Trickbox’s Tower Bridge TV studios initially arose due to its location and views of Tower Bridge, City Hall and the City of London. A terrestrial UK broadcaster hired one of the facilities studios, complete with full technical support from Trickbox. A European broadcaster hired the second studio, also with technical support. Both studios broadcast live throughout the evening as the UK left the EU.

A studio director reflected on the success of the broadcast, “Thanks to Andy Yates and everyone at Trickbox that helped make the show run so smoothly. We were all very happy with the result. It’s a great location, everyone was extremely flexible and helpful, and the professional approach from Trickbox was appreciated. We’ve done two successful broadcasts from the studio and hope to do more.”

Tickbox TV’s Head of Live, James O’Farrell said, “Our studios provided perfect backdrops for such a momentous and historic occasion. I’m immensely proud of our team, for delivering two simultaneous live broadcasts.”

Gravity Media, the leading global provider of complex live broadcast facilities and production services to content owners, creators and distributors, has promoted Ed Tischler to the position of Acting Managing Director. In this new role, Ed will be responsible for the strategic direction and commercial performance of all Gravity Media’s UK-based operations, which include Media Services & Facilities, Production & Content and Equipment Rental & Sales. This appointment follows the recent move to the single brand of Gravity Media late last year and Ed will take the lead in integrating the former Gearhouse Broadcast, HyperActive Broadcast and Input Media businesses in the UK. In addition, Layla Cook has also been promoted, becoming Gravity Media’s new UK Broadcast Equipment Rental Manager. 

Ed will report directly into John Newton, Gravity Media’s CEO. In the UK he will work closely with James Gander who continues to oversee Gravity House, the Soho post-production facility, as well as the integrated workflows service for live broadcast and feature film post-production and Steve Norris, the new Director, Production and Content. 

Layla will now oversee Gravity Media’s extensive inventory of the latest professional equipment which includes 4K-ready lenses, cameras and live production tools.

Gravity Media, a leading provider of outside broadcast trucks and flyaway production kits, is building further systems in preparation for premier sporting events in 2020, including a major football competition in Europe. Central to the new flyaway kits is the Platinum™ IP3 router from Imagine Communications.

The key to success in building flyaways is to create a system which provides all the resilience and reliability needed for live broadcasting, but in a compact footprint. As the name suggests, these often have to travel by air freight to meet deadlines, where additional space and weight can be prohibitively expensive.

“We picked the Platinum IP3 because we know it is reliable — we know what it does,” said Peter Newton, technical and operations director at Gravity Media. “Because of the established partnership with Imagine, we knew that we would get good support if we need it, and we will get ample utilization of the equipment. It is a good solid product that does what it says it will.”

Gravity Media has used equipment from Imagine Communications for over 15 years, which has established Imagine as a trusted partner. When it came to choosing routers for the new flyaways, Gravity Media compared all the popular models on the market, but was confident in selecting the field-proven Platinum IP3. The new flyaways will use both the 15RU and 28RU routers.

The key project for which these flyaways are designed requires support in 12 locations over a four-week period in June 2020. The kits will provide live production functionality. The Platinum IP3 routers incorporate integral multiviewer technology, reducing space in the racks and simplifying setup. The order also includes a number of modules from Imagine’s Selenio 6800+™ processing range, along with Magellan™ router control panels.

“While the headlines are about the transition to IP, it is important to remember that a lot of broadcasters and production companies need to extend and enhance existing, SDI-based systems,” said Mathias Eckert, SVP & GM EMEA/APAC, Playout & Networking, at Imagine Communications. “Because of our close partnerships with major operators like Gravity Media, we clearly understand the need for high-functionality, high-reliability SDI solutions, as well as IP technology, and we are committed to supporting our customers for as long as they need SDI, as part of our ‘your path, your pace’ approach to the IP transition.”

For more information about Imagine Communications’ products and solutions, please visit https://www.imaginecommunications.com.

Italian systems integration company Chromaline, which specializes in outside broadcast trucks, has built OBX, a flagship production unit for Videe. The revolutionary design, focused on creating a comfortable working environment for the biggest live events, depends upon core infrastructure products – including routing and multiviewers – from Imagine Communications.

Viewsat, one of the fastest-growing operators within the global broadcast and transmission services industry, today announced that is has substantially expanded the platform upon which it will deliver a range of new, quality services to customers worldwide.

White Light is delighted to reveal the ground-breaking ‘Mixed Reality Tech Lab’ in the Future Zone of IBC2018. Powered by the disguise media platform, this fully immersive production environment will showcase the latest developments in workflows for live broadcast.

Dejero, an innovator in cloud-managed solutions that provide video transport and Internet connectivity while mobile or in remote locations, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. This marks a decade since Bogdan Frusina founded the company in June 2008, with a focus on the development and refinement of innovative network blending technology.

Imagine Communications, empowering the media and entertainment industry through transformative innovation, has completed a major upgrade for Omantel, the national and leading telecoms company of Oman. These latest enhancements significantly boost the performance and resiliency of Omantel state-of-the-art contribution and distribution networks, which rely heavily on the Selenio™ Media Convergence Platform (MCP) from Imagine Communications.

Powerful Sports Telestration and Analysis: Paint 7.4

In use by a multitude of sports organizations and thousands of live productions every year, Paint is ChyronHego’s award-winning telestration analysis solution for sports broadcasting. Paint’s power lies in its feature-rich set of tools and its sheer simplicity of use, which means that anyone working on a sports production can use the tool whether in front of the camera or behind the scenes. Sports pundits, commentators, or even assistant producers use Paint to help them create informative and visually appealing sports highlights without the need for additional infrastructure or specialist operators.

Austrian production specialist, Mediahaus, has delivered live coverage of the inaugural European Snow Volleyball Championships with a Blackmagic Design multicam set up, including two URSA Broadcast cameras. Staged at the top of an Austrian ski resort, in a specially constructed snow stadium, the finals were broadcast live on channels including ORF and Eurosport. Mediahaus delivered an international feed, big screen coverage for spectators and livestream content from a portable OB set up, built around an ATEM Television Studio HD Pro.

Celebro Media today announces the launch of its new Washington DC live broadcast studio with stunning views of the White House. The multi million-dollar build will be the first US studio to be fully 4K/UHD functioning with pioneering IP technology and multi-camera capabilities.

Blackmagic Design has today announced that its URSA Mini 4.6K and URSA Mini Pro cameras were used to produce a live YouTube broadcast during this year's Ultra Music Festival (UMF). For the first time at the UMF, DJs on the Main Stage were captured and broadcast in stunning 4K. 

BSI UK, the European business of Broadcast Sports International, specialist provider of wireless cameras and microphones for live broadcast, has started to work with 360° filming, and has been developing a 360° solution which can be integrated into live broadcasts that using BSIs wireless camera systems.