LONDON—NEP Europe has announced a new multi-year agreement with Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS) to remain the broadcast services provider and detailed how it used a number of innovative technologies to produce The Championships, Wimbledon 2026, which continues at the All England Lawn Tennis Club through Sunday, July 12.

"What makes this relationship successful is a shared commitment to continually improving how The Championships is delivered," said Ed Tischler, managing director, NEP UK. "Working alongside WBS, we've evolved the host broadcast operation by finding smarter ways to work, embracing new technologies and giving both teams greater flexibility to innovate. This new agreement reflects the trust we've built together and, most importantly, the commitment of our people who continue to push the operation forward every year."

"Our focus is always on delivering the highest-quality coverage of The Championships for rightsholders around the world while continuing to evolve how the event is produced," added Paul Davies, associate director of broadcast, production, and media rights at The All England Lawn Tennis Club. "NEP has worked in close collaboration with our team to refine workflows, adopt new technologies and continually improve our production approach. That shared commitment to innovation has strengthened the host broadcast operation and provides a strong foundation as we continue to enhance coverage of The Championships in the years ahead."

In making the announcement, NEP also detailed a full range of technical services from across the content supply chain that are being used to deliver the broadcast feed to rightsholders around the world.

The 2026 deployment expanded the use of SMPTE ST 2110 infrastructure across The Championships grounds, with NEP's TFC broadcast control system serving as the central orchestration layer that coordinates workflows across the production. Together, they enable more agile production workflows, streamline replay operations and provide more efficient deployment of engineering and production resources.

Supporting the production are two IP-powered UHD HDR outside broadcast units, a large-scale IP flypack serving 11 production galleries and seven automated courts, and an integrated workflow featuring more than 150 cameras, 32 EVS replay servers, NEP's MediaBank media asset management solution, graphics, quality control and new video review capabilities. More than 350 engineering, operational and commercial specialists from NEP are supporting the delivery of The Championships, along with the Qualifying Competition at Roehampton.

Specialty cameras were also used to expand court coverage. NEP's AI-powered Tr-ACE robotic camera system provided automated capture across Courts 4–7 and 9–11 while enabling a single operator to manage complete on-court coverage. For the first time, Centre Court and No.1 Court also feature NEP's Nucleus camera system, delivering ultra-high-quality 4K super slow-motion images that bring fans even closer to the action.

In addition, Creative Technology (CT), NEP Group's live events solutions division, is delivering one of the largest visual technology deployments at The Championships, with 74 LED displays installed across multiple venues, including the iconic Henman Hill. CT also manages live content production for public viewing areas, helping create an engaging spectator experience throughout the grounds.

MELBOURNE, Australia—Gravity Media, a global provider of production and content and media services and facilities, delivered the Australian Open 2026 with a bespoke international broadcast centre and large-scale IP production environment. Together, this formed the technical backbone for Tennis Australia’s creative, editorial and operational delivery of the tournament to audiences worldwide.

Across the 15-day tournament, Jan. 23-Feb. 1, Gravity Media delivered more than 200 hours of coverage to international and domestic rights holders, including Nine Network in Australia, ESPN, Eurosport, CCTV, and WOWOW.

The 2026 tournament marked the 12th year of the broadcast and technology partnership between Gravity Media and Tennis Australia, and the 22nd year Gravity Media provided host broadcast technical facilities for the Australian Open.

A dedicated team of 75 specialists from Australia, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany designed, deployed, and operated the Melbourne Park broadcast centre, managing over 100 tonnes of fly-away infrastructure and more than 150 broadcast cameras across the precinct.

Across Melbourne Park, 172 camera sources captured every match and surrounding activity, including:

• Spidercam above centre court
• Sony HDC 3500 / 5500 cameras, with super slow-motion and ultra-motion camera channels
• Robotic camera systems
• 22 roving RF cameras and two remote RF robotic cameras delivering mobile and panoramic views across the venue

An extensive RF and communications network supported seamless operations throughout the site, with 48 Bolero antenna positions enabling 150 belt packs for presenters, production staff, and rightsholders.

The production galleries and audio control rooms were housed at Tennis Australia’s headquarters and was connected via 500 metres of fibre and dual 700-gig data links to the central equipment room at the broadcast compound.

The facilities comprised 10 production galleries, nine audio control rooms, and 11 ViBox systems covering the outside courts. In total, the environment supported over 130 operating positions and more than 150 multiviewers displaying approximately 1,700 picture-in-picture sources.

Signal routing was managed through a large-scale IP and baseband system providing a 4,000 x 4,000 routing environment, while over 2,500 audio signals were handled through a hybrid Audio Live and Calrec solution. This fully IP-based architecture enabled the integration of live match coverage, highlights production, and digital content workflows, according to Gravity.

As part of the 2026 deployment, Gravity Media refreshed the technical furniture across the production facilities, replacing workstations that had been in service for more than a decade while maintaining the established layouts developed with Tennis Australia.

In the lead-up to the Australian Open, Gravity Media delivered broadcast and technical facilities for the United Cup in Perth and Sydney, as well as the Brisbane International and Adelaide International.

For the United Cup, Gravity Media provided outside broadcast production trucks and facilities in each city, accessing 28 cameras, multiple EVS replay and edit suites and Livetools equipment for use by teams and players. Additional bespoke fly-away production systems were implemented in Sydney so that Tennis Australia could integrate coverage from multiple cities into a fully produced “world feed” for delivery across international broadcast and subscription platforms.

The Adelaide International and Brisbane International were supported with state-of-the-art high-definition outside broadcast trucks, using 22 cameras across each site to deliver bespoke coverage for Tennis Australia and its domestic and international broadcast partners.

In addition to its role as host broadcast technical partner, Gravity Media continued to support international broadcast partners, including ESPN and Eurosport, with production and technology services for their Australian Open coverage.

“The Australian Open continues to be one of the most complex and rewarding productions in the world of live sport,” said Eamonn Curtin, Chief Commercial Officer of Gravity Media. “Delivering this coverage is a true demonstration of the collaboration and expertise of our teams across Australia and Europe. 2026 builds on our legacy of collaboration and we’re proud to support Tennis Australia in bringing this iconic tournament to audiences everywhere.”

LONDON, BERGEN, Norway, NEW YORK and BURLINGTON, Canada—ATP Media, the global media and distribution arm of professional tennis' ATP Tour, has entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with Play Anywhere for interactive tennis graphics.

“We are honored to partner with ATP Media to bring enhanced consumer experiences to viewers while ensuring that all parties in the value chain are remunerated, helping to expand the Play Anywhere ecosystem as a global standard," said Yaacov Ben-Yaacov, CEO of Play Anywhere.

The agreement establishes Play Anywhere as the exclusive provider of contextual and monetizable interactive experiences across all of ATP Media’s broadcast and streaming distribution worldwide.

Based on Play Anywhere’s interactive rights framework, the partnership enables ATP Media to provide engaging interactive experiences powered by official data from Tennis Data Innovations (TDI) to fans worldwide while ensuring that production quality is preserved through the Play Anywhere compliance platform. The system includes the front-end television-quality interactive graphics engine of Evertz-owned Ease Live, Evertz said.

Play Anywhere will be offered to ATP Media’s worldwide broadcast partners and launched via its direct-to-consumer streaming service Tennis TV, across both linear and digital distribution.

“Our collaboration with ATP Media and Play Anywhere will revolutionize the tennis fan experience globally,” said Kjetil Horneland, CEO of Ease Live. “Our interactive graphics platform integrates seamlessly with existing broadcast and sports data workflows, giving ATP Media the scalability to engage audiences worldwide. By delivering interactive overlays across the screens, we help ATP Media foster deeper connections with fans and open new avenues for monetization automated by Play Anywhere."

The partnership follows Play Anywhere’s launches with LALIGA and at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Play Anywhere’s LALIGA launch has engaged sports fans around the world, and its Olympics interactivity was enjoyed by viewers in over a dozen countries across more than 30 sports. This partnership with ATP Media further cements Play Anywhere’s position as the leader in interactivity compliance and monetization, Evertz said.

“We are very excited to partner with Play Anywhere and Ease Live. We are impressed with their best-of-breed interactivity, their field-tested and cutting-edge clearinghouse platform, and their creative approach to identifying new revenue streams for content owners, rightsholders and other participating stakeholders in the sports broadcast and streaming ecosystem, while always ensuring that we can control the production quality through their unique compliance platform,” said ATP Media CEO Mark Webster.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), whose Max streaming service is the exclusive host to Eurosport, the leading sports broadcaster in Europe, announced that it plans to broadcast every match live from tennis’s 2024 US Open for the first time ever. The US Open takes place in New York, Aug. 26-Sept. 9.

Eurosport, for its part, will showcase the best matches on its television channels in 45 markets across Europe, with exclusivity in 41 countries, in its 24th consecutive year of broadcasting the tournament. Selected matches in Denmark (6'eren), Norway (Rex), Sweden (Kanal 9) and Finland (TV5) will be shown free to access. TVN will also show the women’s final on its free-to-air channel in Poland should five-time Grand Slam champion and national hero Iga Świątek make it through to the final round in her bid to reclaim the title she won in 2022, the streamer said.

Tennis legend John McEnroe, who is also covering the matches for U.S. host broadcaster ESPN, will be pulling double duty, providing insight and analysis for Eurosport’s pan-European feed along with seven-time Grand Slam winner Mats Wilander and former Grand Slam doubles finalist Barbara Schett while viewers in France will be able to watch a localized studio show featuring seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin and five-time Grand Slam doubles champion Nicolas Mahut who joins Eurosport’s expert team for the first time.

In 2024, Eurosport secured its biggest ever tennis audiences for its live coverage of the Grand Slams and Olympic Games. For its exclusive coverage of the Australian Open, Eurosport reached more than 50 million people across all platforms and followed by delivering its biggest ever Roland-Garros audience in its 35-year history, growing unique streaming viewers by almost a third following the launch of Max in Europe, the streamer said.

LONDON—The All England Lawn Tennis Club and Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations have announced a new multi-year agreement that will see Hawk-Eye continue to provide its ball tracking and officiating services at The Championships. 

In addition to providing data tracking and officiating services at The Championships using its player and ball tracking technology, the Hawk-Eye solutions will also be used for officiating systems and to power advanced performance analytics solutions.

Hawk-Eye first debuted at The Championships in 2007, and each year has brought improvements, efficiencies and innovations to their services. This year during the tournament, which will end on Sunday July 14, players, media and fans saw new bounce visualizations on replays, modernized broadcast, live augmented reality views and other innovative applications of player and ball tracking data to enhance fans’ viewing experience, the company reported. 

Looking ahead, the collaboration will continue to explore how Hawk-Eye’s ever-evolving technology can further amplify the use of player and ball tracking information before, during and after The Championships, increasing the overall engagement and dialogue as records are broken on the historic grass courts.

“I am delighted to extend our collaboration with Hawk-Eye,” said Bill Jinks, technology director at the All England Club. “Since 2007, Hawk-Eye has delivered line-calling to the high standard expected at The Championships and has evolved their solution to fit the unique needs of the only Grand Slam played on grass. I am looking forward to working with Hawk-Eye on future innovations.”

The Championships are staged from 1 to 14 July 2024 at The All England Lawn Tennis Club and the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Semi-finals are set to produce historic moments once again through the weekend.

WIMBLEDON, U.K.—Video production company hsc.tv worked with Director of Photography Bryan TWZ Brousseau to create a unique lighting and set design for ESPN’s player interviews at Wimbledon during the two-week event taking place in the U.K.

“Under the direction of the ESPN features unit: Cathi Cappas, Kathryn Davidson, Lauren Collins, and Tessa Diestel we wanted to change the look this year to reflect the next generation of great players. So, we went with a modern LED lighting and set design look that would look great across the color schemes of Wimbledon, US Open and the Australian Open,” said Bryan TWZ Brousseau, Director of Photography. “I looked at a lot of different lights and chose the new Aputure Infinibars as the primary lights, as I wanted lights that could also look great on camera and the Infinibars look great!”

Brousseau selected the Infinibars based on their shape and CRI, as well as the fact that they’re mountable at every angle. The hsc.tv team performed many camera tests at various color temperatures against their backdrops and textures until they were satisfied with the final results. The team additionally used every size from the PB12’s to the PB3’s and mostly in the 3D configuration to create depth in the set and for their key lights up close and personal with the players.

The deep background was created by NYC artist Adam Mills and the wooden wallpaper was created by the company Arte in Belgium, discovered by ESPN Creative Producer Candace Jordan. hsc.tv rounded out the light package with Fotodiox Pro Flapjacks, Aputure Amarans150Cs, and LiteGear Litemats Plus4’s .

Pier de Sanctis, CEO of Hsc.tv said, “Bryan’s work at Wimbledon exemplifies our commitment to excellence and innovation. His ability to integrate cutting-edge technology with creative design ensures that every viewer feels the thrill and prestige of Wimbledon, particularly through the personal stories of the players.”

With published reports indicating that Warner Bros. Discovery is fighting an last minute battle to retain some rights to air NBA games, WBD’s TNT Sports has strengthened the company's sports offering with a 10-year agreement with the French Tennis Federation to add The French Open (also known as Roland-Garros) to its portfolio of premium sports rights in the U.S. beginning in 2025. 

The Athletic reported that the agreement is valued at $650 million. NBC previously owned the rights in the U.S. 

This agreement with TNT Sports in the U.S. now makes WBD the largest global broadcast partner for Roland Garros building on a long-standing relationship with Eurosport (dating back to 1989), which distributes the event to 55 countries outside the U.S.

Per the agreement, TNT Sports will exclusively present all live action from the Parisian Grand Slam in the U.S. including: 

• Featured live matches on TNT, with additional live coverage across TBS and truTV;
• truTV with all-day studio, match and whiparound coverage;
• All live matches available on Max – nearly 900 matches across all competitions – including simulcasts of matches airing on TNT, TBS and truTV;
• In-depth highlights, behind-the-scenes and ancillary content airing across all platforms (TNT, TBS, truTV, Max, Bleacher Report, House of Highlights and HighlightHER).

"TNT Sports is thrilled to partner with the French Tennis Federation and exclusively present unprecedented coverage of Roland-Garros – one of the most prestigious sports events every year – across our full array of platforms,” said Luis Silberwasser, chairman and CEO, TNT Sports. “Roland-Garros perfectly aligns with our global sports strategy and our commitment to adding premium live sports content to our TNT Sports portfolio. We look forward to serving fans with a best-in-class content experience and providing them with direct access to more live Roland-Garros coverage than ever before.”

“We’re very proud to sign this agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, one of the world’s leading media groups. It will enable the Federation to ensure maximum exposure for Roland-Garros in the USA and help further promote the tournament. With this long-term agreement, we aim to win over new fans in this key territory for the FFT,” said Gilles Moretton, president of the French Tennis Federation.

The deal was facilitated by IMG, the French Tennis Federation’s exclusive media rights representative in the U.S.

NEW YORK—Gravity Media Australia has inked a new deal with The All England Lawn Tennis Club for continued use of its “NetCam” for global coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon.

Under the agreement, the camera technology, which was designed and developed in Australia, will continue to be used next year. The deal builds on Gravity Media Australia’s deployment of NetCam at Wimbledon, which began with its Wimbledon debut in 2018, Gravity Media said.

“The use of NetCam on Centre and No. 1 Court brings a unique and dynamic perspective to the broadcast coverage during The Championships,” said Paul Davies, head of broadcast, production and media rights for The Championships, Wimbledon.

“The delicate challenge of integrating these cameras within the grass courts has always been sensitively managed between Gravity Media Australia and our ground staff, and we look forward continuing this long-standing partnership.”

The company’s NetCam has also played an integral role in covering the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and will again be used for next year’s coverage of the Australian Open Tennis Championships. It also is used for coverage of Grand Slams and ATP and WTA Finals, the company said.

Gravity Media’s NetCam features a dual UHD camera platform with two simultaneous 12G-SDI digital video transmission outputs—one from each camera. This allows both players to be filmed simultaneously, it said.

Mounted in the center strap of the net—just behind the white vertical adjustment strap, NetCam gives viewers an entirely new vantage point. The camera relies on a courtside fiber converter to transform incoming camera signals into an optical format, which can then be transported to a mobile control room or production truck, it said.

“Gravity Media Australia is pleased to be working in partnership with The All England Lawn Tennis Club and delivering our specialist camera technologies to add further depth and audience engagement for the internationally recognized global television coverage of The Championships,” said Greg Littrich, director of operations at Gravity Media Australia.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—As the U.S. Open heads into its final weekend, Gravity Media has laid out some of the technologies and resources it used to facilitate the broadcast of the 142nd consecutive edition of the prestigious tennis tournament. 

Getting everything rigged and ready for the first day’s play required a full Gravity Media crew of over 150 skillful individuals arriving on site in early August, installing and testing the core Host Broadcast Facilities, whilst working closely with an abundance of vendors to ensure successful delivery of the tournament, the production services company reported.

On site at peak periods, Gravity Media deployed over 70 talented technical crew members plus an additional 81 expert production and technical crew to facilitate coverage. 

Across the tournament, Gravity Media is responsible for providing extensive coverage of the entire US Open Tennis Championship, ensuring fans won't miss a moment of the action, from the exciting early-round matches to the finals. 

The technical set up on site involved the Gravity Media team setting up five production control rooms for the host linear courts production with four associated audio control rooms, one PCR & ACR for domestic production, one multi-transmission control room for international, 14 ViBox production desks for outer court production and two associated Audio Control Rooms. 

In addition to this, the team deployed a full EVS VIA server and infrastructure, with over 30 Servers, 15+ XTAs and 20+ IP Directors as well as three online Avid Symphony Edits,  seven “Lite” Media Composers Edits and 2 After Effects stations plus three voice-over booths and three announce booths. All in all over 170 cameras were deployed by Gravity clients.

Embracing the latest technological advancements, this year's broadcast of the US Open Tennis Championship featured state-of-the-art technical innovations including Ashe produced in UHD with Dolby Atmos and full EVS Via Server rollout and associated upgrade to XHub Via and Xsquare VIA Suite of tools. 

The coverage from the 2023 US Open Tennis Championship also used Gravity Media’s Specialty Cameras. 

Introducing a range of cutting-edge technological innovations, promising an even more immersive and engaging experience for viewers, the team deployed NetCams across three course, three “Towel Cams” – mini PTZ cameras on Ashe, 11 MRMC AFC 100’s, 32 “Special Cams” around the grounds and on the courts, RF Gimbal Cameras and 10 RF Cameras capturing site wide coverage. 

“Gravity Media is proud to be a part of this iconic sporting event for yet another year, showcasing the world's best tennis players as they compete for glory on the grand stage,” explained John Williams, Gravity Media’s director – media services & facilities. “We are truly dedicated to capturing the essence of this tournament and bringing it to the homes of millions of fans, making it an unforgettable experience for all. This year's US Open offers a platform to showcase the versatility and depth of our services, demonstrating the remarkable synergy that unfolds when we unite as a team.”

“The US Open provides an excellent opportunity to highlight the flexibility and depth of our services, and how we can really make the magic happen when we all join forces and come together,” added Ed Tischler, Gravity Media’s managing director. “As a premier global provider of sophisticated live broadcast facilities, the annual US Open presents an exceptional occasion for us to harness our collective expertise and resources to capture, shape, and produce compelling content that ignites passion and exhilaration. The outstanding coverage thus far reflects the dedication and teamwork of every crew member who has collaborated seamlessly to bolster the unilateral facilities. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has played a vital role in this endeavor.”

LONDON—Global production services and live video transmission company The Switch provided international connectivity and transmission for the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, supporting IMG Studios in the UK and the main international rightsholders, including ESPN, Tennis Channel and Stats Perform.

The Switch installed a dedicated private dark fiber ring into the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) in Wimbledon to deliver tournament feeds to IMG Studios at Stockley Park, West London, where all the production for coverage of the competition is handled. This dedicated network delivers 100-200Gb capacity, ensuring every live feed from every court at Wimbledon is delivered to fans seamlessly. The flexible fiber network ensured redundancy and allowed capacity to be spun up and down as needed, according to the company.

"Wimbledon is one of the most prestigious live events in tennis, and it was critical fans could enjoy every second of the action uninterrupted,” said George Lopez, Senior Vice President of Operations for The Switch. “This project brought together The Switch's long-standing heritage supporting major Grand Slams with our knowledge and expertise in delivering high-value sports content, which meant the main broadcast partners and rightsholders could rely on us to deliver bigger and better coverage. We're proud to play a central role in bringing this much-loved tournament to more fans than ever worldwide."

For Wimbledon, The Switch built its largest stadium Point of Presence (POP) to date, carrying all feeds from all 18 courts at Wimbledon, plus behind-the-scenes content and beauty shots.

Mobile production company Gravity Media has signed a long-term contract with ATP Media, the media arm of the ATP Tour, to deliver global coverage of over 60 of the ATP Tour’s world-renowned tennis tournaments including the ATP Masters 1000s, ATP 500s, ATP 250s and the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.  

The companies term the new deal as “the beginning of a new and exciting next chapter” to “deliver a new approach to the production of tennis across the world.” As part of this new approach, ATP Media has worked closely with Gravity Media on the specification of the  galleries and working areas for ATP Media Studios, which will be based at Gravity Media’s brand-new  Production Centre in London, White City which opened earlier this year.  

The 50,000 square foot ATP Media Studios is part of the newly commissioned Gravity Media facility housed  in The Westworks precinct, and features production, post-production and live studio capabilities coupled with best-in-class technology  to support both on-premise and distributed remote production workflows. 

Gravity Media’s state-of-the-art facility is based around a fully-fledged 2110 IP media fabric. ATP Media Studios will comprise two large production and sound control rooms for the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments,  two medium production and sound control rooms for the ATP 500s and a dedicated area to produce the 38 ATP 250 events as well as seven flexible control rooms, six craft edit suites, six voiceover booths, a vision  control room, EVS room as well as a dedicated office space, broadcast operations centre and media management facilities. 

To deliver new production outcomes for ATP Media, the partnership with Gravity Media also involves building  an innovative and bespoke outside broadcast truck solution which is integrated natively with ATP Media  Studios. This solution allows ATP Media to ensure the migration of broadcast feeds from onsite to ATP  Media Studios at Gravity Media’s Production Centre in London (White City)—beginning initially with remote  world feed management through to remoting replay operators, vision control and media management, and  then scaling to fully remote court production.  

At each ATP Masters 1000 tournament, ATP Media is also introducing new camera positions and increasing  the number of both on-court and off-court cameras, and will access specialist, robotic and on-court camera  technologies designed and developed by Gravity Media’s specialist camera team to enhance the overall  viewer experience.  

As part of the new agreement, Gravity Media and ATP Media will deploy Sony HDC series camera channels, EVS XT Via servers and Calrec audio core and consoles worldwide and at ATP Media Studios at the Gravity Media Production Centre in London. Further technology upgrades will also be rolled out as part of this new partnership with ATP Media and  Gravity Media committed to further enhancing television production values.  

ATP Media and Gravity Media said the new production solutions are designed to promote a greener and environmentally sustainable approach to coverage of the ATP Tour—an approach  that significantly the companies said increases efficiencies and reduces production freight and logistics undertakings.

The first tournament under the new agreement goes live from ATP Media Studios at the Gravity Media  Production Centre in London in June. 

“It is an extremely proud moment for me and the wider team, as we announce our long term production  partnership, delivering ATP Media’s global broadcast and creative technology innovation solutions—building  on an already long-standing relationship, said John Newton, Gravity Media’s CEO and Founder. “Ensuring we will deliver the most advanced remote broadcast solutions across the ATP Media assets as  well as from our brand-new media hub, Production Centre London means we are poised to lead the way in  the future of tennis broadcasts. 

“This contract will ensure the most environmentally sustainable approaches are embraced, whilst ensuring  we can provide more roles to the broadcast industry welcoming and encouraging a new generation of talent  to come on board with both Gravity Media and ATP Media,” Newton added. 

“Gravity Media has been an important strategic partner for ATP Media over an extended period of time and so when Gravity Media stepped up to the plate with its bid under our very detailed and transparent tender  process, we were naturally delighted, said ATP Media CEO Mark Webster.  "ATP Media has been acutely aware that, to ensure it continues to be at the forefront of live and non-live  sports content production, it needs to continually re-invest in its production capabilities. 

"With the unfortunate  Covid-19 pandemic, such re-investment naturally had to be put on hold, but the tender process addressed  that and this innovative and wide ranging deal with Gravity Media, an organization ATP Media has implicity trusted for many years, will now turbo-charge our production and take ATP Tour tennis to the next level for  its fans,” Webster added. 

MELBOURNE, Australia—Gravity Media, a global provider of live creative production and media services, is partnering with Tennis Australia, the governing body for tennis in the country, to provide the technology to deliver the Australian Open to viewers. This is Gravity Media’s ninth year as the broadcast and technology solutions partner for Tennis Australia—which organizes and manages the Australian Open in Melbourne, the first of four Grand Slam events for the sport—and its 19th year as the host broadcast technical provider for the entire event.

“In 2005 we provided our first total technical facility solution for the host broadcast of the Australian Open.," Kevin Moorhouse, Advisor, Gravity Media. “Our role and the requirements for Tennis Australia have evolved dramatically over the past 19 years and this year’s event is the biggest and most complex operation we have undertaken.

“We are creating and managing 1080i, 1080P and ultra high definition coverage across multiple courts and the entire precinct, and ensuring the delivery of these multiple signals to the host broadcast along with unilateral feed requirements for Tennis Australia’s broadcast partners.

“It is a complex procedure and undertaking. It is a testament to our crew on this job, all of whom are extremely talented and hardworking, that once again Gravity Media is able to deliver such a high quality and stable solution for our client Tennis Australia. I thank our crew. I also thank Tennis Australia for once again entrusting us with the delivery of the broadcast and technology undertakings for the Australian Open.”

Technical Details
Across the entire precinct, there are 165 cameras including Sony HDC 3500/4300 channels along with various robotics solutions using Sony P43, Hitachi DKH 200 and Panasonic robotic cameras with Mark Roberts PTZF heads. The entire precinct is covered with receive sites allowing 16 roving RF cameras to work anywhere within the venue plus two remote RF robotic cameras delivering broader views of Melbourne.

The production facilities are housed at Tennis Australia’s headquarters, which are connected via 500 meters of fiber to the central apparatus room. The production facilities consist of seven production galleries using Kahuna Maverick panels and six audio control rooms using Calrec Artemis audio consoles. Gravity Media is also utilizing 10 x ViBox vision mixer systems to provide coverage on the 10 outside courts.

To achieve system connectivity, Gravity Media is using an IP-based large “fly away” system with a level of base band systems to provide a system that is effectively a 3900 x 3500 video router. An integrated audio solution between Audio Live and Calrec cores deliver the ability to route over 2,500 audio signals within the facility.

All slo-motion replays plus archiving and media management is achieved using 25 x EVS servers, 52 x EVS IPDs, 16 x XT Access, 3 x X Files plus 4 x DB Servers. During any day’s play, Gravity Media is delivering 25-45 streams to the 900 TB of storage on site which allows all the action to be accessed by the host and unilateral broadcasters.

In the lead up to The Australian Open, Gravity Media supported Tennis Australia in providing facilities for the United Cup mixed teams tournament in its inaugural year, as well as the Adelaide International.

The United Cup—held in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney—saw Gravity Media provide in each city outside broadcast production trucks and facilities accessing 28 cameras and multiple EVS replay and edit suit facilities, along with the Xeebra replay system for use by teams and players in the United Cup.

Across the event, additional bespoke Gravity Media “fly away” production systems were implemented in Sydney to draw together coverage from multiple cities to create a completely integrated and produced “world feed” for delivery across multiple broadcast and subscription platforms in international markets.

The Adelaide International accessed one of Gravity Media’s HD production trucks and the company’s specialized “fly away” production solutions coupled with 27 cameras across multiple courts to deliver bespoke coverage feeds for Tennis Australia and its domestic and international broadcast partners.

GLASGOW—Gravity Media has announced that the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has named it host broadcast partner for the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals, which are currently taking place in Glasgow. 

This is the second year in a row Gravity Media has been named as host broadcaster following the success of the Finals event in Prague in 2021.

Previously known as the Fed Cup, the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals is the women’s World Cup of Tennis and the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport. This year’s Finals event runs from Tuesday 8th to Sunday 13th November at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow where the Gravity Media team is currently on-site.

Over the course of this week’s event, Gravity Media has deployed two of their state-of-the-art rigid trucks, with 24 cameras capturing the action across both courts using Gravity Media’s innovative specialty camera solution, NetCam. Gravity Media’s NetCam is a dual UHD camera platform which uniquely offers full remote shading and racking, enabling it to be mounted quickly and easily to any net to capture all the elements of the games.

A joint team from Gravity Media’s UK and France bases have joined forces to support and deliver this production, the company said. 

Working alongside the ITF, Gravity Media has created a hybrid approach for this production, with the world feed being cut on-site for over 40 broadcasters in 196 territories, which is a record amount of broadcast coverage in Billie Jean King Cup history. Meanwhile, the additional commentary is being added alongside editorial content remotely at Gravity Media’s Production Centre in Chiswick, London for rightsholders.

“The Gravity Media team have an unprecedented understanding of the unique event format of the Billie Jean King Cup as well as tennis and large major events in general,” explained Brooke Hockley, broadcast manager at ITF. “The team and their knowledge have fulfilled both what the ITF want to showcase from the event and broadcaster’s needs. It’s been wonderful to work with such an experienced team who utilise a complete end-to-end solution, from the technical side and production to the editorial deliverables with fast turnarounds, bringing to life all the things required to bring the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge Finals to as many fans across the world as possible.”

BRISTOL, Conn.—ESPN is reporting that its U.S. Open coverage of what may have been the last pro tennis match in the remarkable career of Serena Williams was also the most-watched tennis telecast in ESPN’s 43-year history.  

An average of 4.6 million viewers (P2+) tuned in for the telecast of the the U.S. Open from Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York as Williams lost to Ajla Tomljanovich of Australia 7-5, 6-7, 6-1. 

The previous record of 3.9 million was for the 2012 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Championship, when Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray. 

The Primetime telecast on ESPN on Friday Sept. 2 was also the most viewed telecast of the day for broadcast and cable networks in total viewers and all key male and person demos.  Serena’s match averaged 4.8 million viewers from 7:15 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. ET and peaked with 6.9 million viewers in the 10:15 p.m. quarter-hour.

Through the first five days of the U.S. Open, an average of 1.1. million viewers tuned in to ESPN networks, up +101% versus 2021. These are the most-viewed first five days of the U.S. Open on record on ESPN networks, ESPN reported. 

On ESPN+, U.S. Open coverage has to date delivered 622,000 unique viewers and 58.6 million minutes, up +65% and +72% versus 2021 through Day 5.

ESPN also reported that:  

• On day four, ESPN2’s primetime coverage of the Williams sisters’ doubles match was the third most-viewed Third Round telecast ever on ESPN networks. The match averaged 2.2 million viewers
• On day three, Williams’ second-round victory over Anett Kontaveit averaged 3.6 million viewers and peaked with five million. The entire prime-time telecast averaged 2.3 million, up 289% from last year and is No. 10 on the list of ESPN’s most-watched U.S. Open telecasts of all time.
• That night, ESPN led all networks – broadcast or cable – in delivering both men and adults in the demo groups 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54. The network placed second for households and P2+.
• That day’s entire 12.5 hours of matches averaged 1.4 million people, the largest for any ESPN U.S. Open early round (Rounds 1-3) telecast.
• On opening day, Monday, Aug. 29, was ESPN’s most-watched opening-day and opening day prime-time U.S. Open telecast ever. The evening doubleheader averaged 7 million, up 279% from 2021 and 40% higher than the previous high in 2019.  The first match in that window, Williams defeating Danka Kovinic in the first round, averaged 2.7 million fans.
• The audience that day for the entire 12 hours of coverage was ESPN’s largest for a U.S. Open opening day, an average of 843,000 viewers.

LONDON—NEP UK has inked a deal to extend its broadcast services partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis Club supporting broadcast delivery of the Wimbledon Championship for four years, the company said.

Having provided host coverage of the tennis championship since 2014, NEP worked with Wimbledon Broadcast Services this year to broadcast every match across all 18 courts for the first time. The coverage included center court shots in UHD High Dynamic Range (HDR).

Eleven of the courts at Wimbledon were crewed by camera operators and seven used a hybrid of operators and NEP’s Tr-Ace system. Coverage of this year’s event, June 27-July 10, was the first time the event has been held over 14 days with Middle Sunday now a permanent feature in the schedule. Broadcast coverage was provided by NEP UK using fully redundant IP technology, NEP said.

NEP UK also provided both host and unilateral coverage to the BBC and other broadcasters for Wimbledon, it said.

Working closely with the All England Club, NEP UK deployed more than 100 camera positions and 40 EVS servers to record and replay every ball played, producing coverage of every court. The feeds were then distributed by NEP to all RHB onsite, and passed to IMG, EBU and other rights-holding broadcasters around the world, it said.

Sony 3500 cameras were used to capture all of the action live in UHD from the courts. All courts were delivered in 1080 SDR 709 with center court also available in UHD HDR 2020 to deliver the optimum broadcast quality experience for fans at home. NEP’s Venus and Ceres units were used on Center and No.1 Court.

Fletcher Group’s Tr-ACE system ensured that the robotic camera heads can track all the action on the court. The Tr-ACE system uses a mixture of image recognition and LIDAR technologies to track players, which enables one operator to control all of the cameras as well as mix the show at the same time, it said.

With Tr-ACE technology, an operator simply taps the person of interest on the screen and then select whether a wide, mid or close-up shot of the player is desirable. Once done, pan, tilt, zoom and focus functions are all automatic, it said.

NEP sister company Creative Technology was onsite during the event running full audio RF operations. Staff used talkback, in-ear monitors and radio mic coverage across the 14-acre site to ensure smooth production. Creative Technology also ran the screens operating across Wimbledon, including all scoreboards on court and around the campus and screens for the Queue and The Hill, it said.

“NEP UK are all incredibly proud of our long and successful partnership with the All England Club in delivering The Championships," said Simon Moorhead, managing director of NEP UK Broadcast Services, NEP UK. "This is one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world—[one] that has the eyes of the world watching. Our partnership completely transcends the pure provision of technical broadcast equipment and services. It is about our proven, collective understanding and collaboration in the pursuit of quality in all parts of the process, and our absolute commitment to provide a rock-solid operation, with agility and flexibility, whilst continuously innovating and improving,” 

More information is available on the company’s website. 

NEW YORK—Arthur Ashe Stadium has been the home of the US Open tennis tournament since 1997, but some new features present new challenges and opportunities for ESPN, which heads into its second year of broadcasting the event. ESPN’s Scott Guglielmino, senior vice president of programming, and Jamie Reynolds, vice president of production, spoke recently with media during a conference call on these and other elements of the upcoming production.

Arthur Ashe Stadium

One of the major renovations for this year’s tournament is a roof that has been constructed on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Reynolds told the press that cameras are currently being installed and audio technicians have been testing what effect the roof has had, but the question remains how it will be when the stadium is full of 20,000 fans, which is something Reynolds simply described as “baited anticipation.”

Beyond the technical aspects, the roof could play a part in the program scheduling for ESPN, removing stretches where rain/inclement weather cancels all matches and having center court play available after a short delay. However, the timing it takes to close and open the roof could extend delays for shorter storms. It is something Guglielmino and Reynolds said they will test and figure out.

The roof isn’t the only thing new to the stadium for the production team to consider. A new grandstand has been added, which Reynolds said ESPN was part of the designing process. “If you look at their new house, you look at the National Tennis Center, what Danny Zausner, his group, the USTA have done, we’ve adopted a mindset that this is their party, this is their coming out, where it’s all about the venue this year,” said Reynolds. “So everything from our perspective, our capturing the event, both as host broadcaster and domestic carrier, is designed to feature that.”

To do so ESPN is bringing back a host of technologies that it used in its first year of covering the tournament. Features like SpiderCam and RailCam are returning; there will be a 70-foot crane in the southwest corner of the stadium; Steadicams will have a presence; and freeD 360 replay technology will also return, as ESPN is in its second year of a three year deal with the company.

Reynolds also talked briefly on the new Louis Armstrong Stadium that is being constructed for 2018, and how they are preparing for that. “We look at ourselves a little bit like general contractors in partnership with the USTA and the tennis center specifically to really figure out how we’re going to get fiber connectivity, can we build some recessed positions for cameras in advance, can we prewire for future protected camera positions at the venue… Coming in with what we think we ought to be prepared for three years, four years, five years from now, we don’t have to go in and retrofit the venue. Like the current grandstand, it will be a future-proof project.”

Outside of production, the question of how digital viewing could affect TV numbers was also raised, especially after the recent example of the Olympics. “Our view is and always has been that it is something that’s complementary to the overall audience,” explained Guglielmino. “I certainly don’t expect, especially coming off of the year we had last year—ratings up on television as well as digital—I don’t expect a scenario whereby the digital piece is going to harm TV numbers.” Dave Nagle, media contact for ESPN, also said that with digital viewing ESPN raised its number of younger viewers and total audience in 2015, with the total watch number four times as the year before.

The 2016 US Open tennis tournament will begin Aug. 29 and run through Sept. 11.