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 ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia backs audience-led filmmaking with new insight-driven initiativ...
02/07/2026
Screen Australia refines guidelines for Narrative Content Development and Docume...
02/07/2026
Maxon Autograph: Introduction to working with Tables
Simon Ubsdell July 1, 2026
0 Comments
An overview of Autograph's ridiculously powerful tables...
02/07/2026
Boston Conservatory's Soir e Breaks Records to Fund Student Scholarships The event achieved 127 percent of its fundraising goal in an evening celebrating ...
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 
