Tennis Australia, Gravity Media Efforts at Australian Open Embrace Virtual Advertising With 165 cameras and 1080i, 1080p, and UHD coverage, rightsholders can deliver all the angles By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, January 26, 2023 - 12:28 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
The Australian Open is heading into its Championship weekend, and, for Gravity Media, it's the conclusion of another busy tennis season in Australia: besides the Open, the production-services provider handled the United Cup in Brisbane, Sydney, and Perth and the Adelaide International. This is the ninth year that the company has been the broadcast and technology partner for the happy slam.
In 2005, we provided our first total technical-facility solution for the host broadcast of the Australian Open, says 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.
The production-control room for Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open
Melbourne Park is home to the Open, the first major of the season, and 165 cameras are deployed across the entire precinct, including Sony HDC-3500/4300 cameras and various robotic solutions using Sony P43, Hitachi DKH 200, and Panasonic cameras with Mark Roberts PTZF heads. Receive sites allow 16 roving RF cameras to work anywhere within the venue, and two remote RF robotic cameras deliver broader views of Melbourne.
All audio and video signals are delivered to a central apparatus room connected via 500 meters of fiber to the production facility at Tennis Australia headquarters, providing coverage of the 10 outside courts as well as Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena, and John Cain Arena. Three formats are offered to rightsholders: 1080i, 1080p, and 4K.
We did the whole event in 1080p/50 and the main court coverage in Rod Laver Arena in UHD, says Moorhouse. But many of the unilateral rightsholders onsite still want 1080i program and iso camera splits, so we [converted] 1080p to 1080i for all 165 camera signals.
The robotics-control area for the Australian Open
It's a complex undertaking, Moorhouse points out, adding that successful deployment of a high-quality and reliable infrastructure is testament to the Gravity Media crew: They are extremely talented and hardworking, and I want to thank them, as well as Tennis Australia for once again entrusting us with the delivery of the broadcast and technology undertakings for the Australian Open.
To achieve system connectivity, Gravity Media deploys an IP-based large fly-away system with a level of baseband systems to provide what is effectively a 3,900 3,500 video router. An audio solution integrating Audio Live and Calrec cores allows more than 2,500 audio signals to be routed within the facility.
The production facility has seven production galleries using Kahuna Maverick panels and six audio-control rooms featuring Calrec Artemis consoles. Gravity Media is also deploying 10 Simplylive ViBox vision-mixer systems.
The logging area for the Australian Open
All slow-motion replays, plus archiving and media management, are handled with 25 EVS servers, 52 EVS IPDirectors, 16 EVS XT Access units for real-time transfers and transcoding, three EVS XFiles, and four DBServers, which are SQL servers that host the IPDirector database. During any day's play, Gravity Media delivers 25-45 streams to the 900 Tb of storage onsite, allowing all the action to be accessed by the host and unilateral broadcasters.
For viewers, one of the can't miss it items is the use of augmented-reality graphics in a way that breaks the mold compared with the other three tennis majors.
Tennis Australia use Girraphic as GFX provider, and we also have virtual GFX cameras on the top three courts, says Moorhouse. On Rod Laver Arena, we have Camera 1, the Spidercam, and Camera 44G as virtual cameras; on [Margaret Court] and [John Cain], we have Cam 44G as a virtual camera. These are used for things like break point, weather, player profiles, and more.
There are also virtual-advertising elements on the three main courts, and, according to Moorhouse, the efforts are handled by Australia-based Broadcast Virtual. The results are targeted ads sent to five regions: Australia/New Zealand, Europe/MENA/India, Japan, Asia, and North America and Latin America.
They generate specific targeted adverts for numerous regions in 1080i, 1080p, and UHD, says Moorhouse. That means we have 15 different 1080i PGM feeds, seven different 1080p PGM feeds and three different UHD PGM feeds.
The addition of virtual advertising introduced some timing issues with unilaterals onsite.
That was an additional technical issue we needed to overcome, he explains. For example, ESPN sends their feeds back to Bristol and is cutting their show from Bristol, but the virtual advertisements are added to the program feed, which means those feeds are delayed 1.5 seconds from the camera iso splits [taken] onsite in Melbourne. We have to delay the 30 iso splits by 1.5 seconds so that they are in time with the programming feeds leaving Melbourne.
Ahead of the Main Event In the lead-up to the Australian Open, Gravity Media supported Tennis Australia in providing facilities for the inaugural United Cup mixed-teams tournament, as well as the Adelaide International.
For the United Cup, Gravity Media provided production trucks and facilities in Brisbane, Perth, and Sydney, with 28 cameras and multiple EVS replay and edit-suite facilities at each site, along with the Xeebra replay system for use by teams and players.
Additional bespoke Gravity Media fly-away production systems were implemented in Sydney to draw together coverage from multiple cities to create a complete
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
04/03/2026
Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the governing body for Italy's premier basketball...
04/03/2026
Wrexham AFC co-chairmen Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds will host a first-of-its-kind ...
04/03/2026
The countdown is underway and with just 100 days to go until the world's greatest sporting event begins on Thurs., June 11, FOX Sports, America's Englis...
04/03/2026
No matter where they are in the world, service members and veterans can stream N...
04/03/2026
Telemundo officially releases Somos M s, the anthem for the network's cove...
04/03/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) concluded the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, convening more than 800 industry leaders, technologists, creatives, and execut...
04/03/2026
Smith Entertainment Group transformed how local sports are consumed by creating ...
04/03/2026
The production method, which spans a distance of 36.2 miles, was designed and im...
04/03/2026
Haivision, a global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and...
04/03/2026
When Hugues Meyrath came out of retirement to take the helm as CEO of Quantum, i...
04/03/2026
Last week's launch of Banana Ball Championship League has spurred a significant upgrade of production facilities
The Savannah Bananas, arguably the hottest...
04/03/2026
sldkfjsdlfkjsldkfjsldkjfslkdjfslkdjfsl
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus...
04/03/2026
For many fans, a song's backstory can be just as compelling as the final pro...
04/03/2026
In 2006, Spotify was founded on the belief that technology could bring artists a...
04/03/2026
Spotify is back on the ground for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and we&#...
04/03/2026
Spotify had an energizing week in Sydney, Australia, filled with powerful conver...
04/03/2026
Earlier this year, we launched Directed By, a documentary-style series that pull...
04/03/2026
100 Days to Go: SBS Unveils World Class Team for The Greatest Show on Earth -The...
04/03/2026
KT and Rohde & Schwarz to showcase AI-enhanced radio transmission performance In a joint 6G AI proof-of-concept demonstration, the CMX500 one-box tester from ...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Luxembourg, 3 March 2026 - SES S.A. has today published its 2025 Annual Report, following the announcement of the company's full year financial results for ...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/03/2026
Luxembourg, March 3, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, along with I...
04/03/2026
Wednesday 4 March 2026
Sky Sports unveils plans for 2026 Formula 1 coverage
Sky Sports is preparing for one of the most highly anticipated F1 seasons in recen...
04/03/2026
Back to All News
Bloodhounds' Season 2 Gears Up for April 3 Premiere with ...
04/03/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Ads Suite Expands Capabilities
Business
04 March 2026
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to clipboard
After launching the Netflix Ad...
04/03/2026
Scripps Research welcomes healthcare innovator Joe Kiani to the Board of Directors Kiani brings decades of experience in patient safety and public service.
Mar...
04/03/2026
Nanoparticle vaccine approach takes on a new target: Hepatitis C virus Scripps Research scientists reengineer critical proteins on the surface of HCV, paving th...
03/03/2026
Beyond Sports, a Sony group company, and LIV Golf, the world's golf league, ...
03/03/2026
Ilitch Sports + Entertainment announces the launch of Detroit SportsNet (DSN), a year-round broadcast home for two of Detroit's franchises. With flexible op...
03/03/2026
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media ...
03/03/2026
The PGA of America, NBC Sports and USA Sports extend their media rights agreemen...
03/03/2026
AI device ecosystem company HONOR enters into a strategic technical collaboratio...
03/03/2026
Cleveland's Telos Alliance, pioneers in broadcast technology for 30 years, l...
03/03/2026
The MD 9235 microphone head for wireless handhelds has been a firm favorite with many engineers and artists for its ability to cut through high on-stage levels ...
03/03/2026
Haivision Systems Inc. (Haivision), a global provider of mission-critical, real-...
03/03/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) announces the expansion of its 62,000-square-fo...
03/03/2026
Maroon 5's musical tour in 2025 marked a leap forward in live audio as Monitor Engineer Dave Rupsch utilized Sennheiser's all-digital Spectera wireless ...
03/03/2026
Designed specifically for pro basketball, the renovated space at Gainbridge Fiel...
03/03/2026
As part of the move, former CEO Phillipp Lawo joins the broadcast-tech provider's Supervisory Board
Lawo has announced appointment of Jamie Dunn as chief e...
03/03/2026
A team of legendary announcers and analysts and a classic graphics look will bring the past to life
NBC Sports and Peacock will return to yesteryear for tonigh...
03/03/2026
From April 30 to May 3, Sundance Film Festival: CDMX 2026 will offer a selection of exciting independent cinema.
Mexico City, March 3, 2026 - At a moment of he...
03/03/2026
For many, finding time or headspace to pick up a book can feel out of reach, but...
Tennis Australia, Gravity Media Efforts at Australian Open Embrace Virtual Advertising With 165 cameras and 1080i, 1080p, and UHD coverage, rightsholders can deliver all the angles By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
