Professor Justin Lewis, co-director Media Cymru and director of the Centre for Creative Economy, Cardiff University, highlights ways in which the lessons learned in Paris are driving future innovation
By Contributor
Published: September 10, 2024 Updated: September 11, 2024
Professor Justin Lewis, co-director Media Cymru and director of the Centre for Creative Economy, Cardiff University, highlights ways in which the lessons learned in Paris are driving future innovation
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
The Paralympics that have just taken place in Paris showcased how 14,000 athletes from all over the world are expanding the limits of human possibility. But this groundbreaking event isn't confined to sport; production companies in Wales are innovating in the ways they tell stories and use technology, working to make production processes fully accessible. Whether it's through the use of green-screen technology, AI, ground-breaking production techniques or brand-new ways of engaging production talent, Cardiff's Capital Region is increasingly becoming a hub for exciting new practices in the media sector.
Professor Justin Lewis, co-director Media Cymru and director of the Centre for Creative Economy, Cardiff University One such company pioneering change in their field is Whisper - one of the world's leading sports production companies with award-winning coverage of events including F1, NFL, 2002 UEFA Women's Cup, UEFA Euro 2024 and Wimbledon. At their base in Tramshed Tech in Cardiff, a hub for their Paris 2024 Paralympics coverage, they are developing one of the world's first fully accessible production studios - driving a new raft of innovations which have revolutionised how we followed this year's Paralympic games in Paris.
Whisper were the lynchpin for Channel 4's Paralympics coverage with more than 1,300 hours of content produced from the brand new Cymru Broadcast Centre across 16 livestreams. The facility itself was a rare set-up in live sports broadcasting, encompassing fully accessible production suites and galleries with a changing spaces toilet, wide walkways, ramps, power-assisted doors and accessible signage. Simultaneously, in a first for broadcasting, the coverage saw the first deaf sports presenter to anchor
coverage live from Paris.
The Cymru Broadcast Centre development also embodies the sector's ambition of attracting diverse talent to teams behind the camera. Media Cymru and Channel 4 therefore co-funded research and development around accessibility in live production in conjunction with The Ability People, acting as a case study for other technical facilities to use as best practice and to share learning.
Media Cymru, also based in the Cardiff Capital Region, is one of UK Research and Innovation's (UKRI) most significant investments for the creative industries in the UK.
Led by Cardiff University, Media Cymru is a 22-partner consortium of production companies, broadcasters and higher education institutions (HEIs) aiming to turn Cardiff Capital Region into a global hub for media innovation supporting green, global and fair growth. Just as Whisper are combining media innovation with advances in inclusion and accessibility, Media Cymru supports media innovations that create both social and economic value.
Through dedicated funding calls designed to super-charge innovation, research and development in Wales, Media Cymru is funding projects that are creating long-lasting ripple effects on the Welsh economy while tackling social issues head on: funding
products and experiences addressing the lack of DDN (deaf, disabled and/or neurodivergent talent) in the sector, in using technology to address mental health challenges, devising new and creative ways to shoot and edit to reduce a production's carbon footprint and championing new and improved practices in all forms of storytelling.
Media Cymru's research shows that these efforts really are working: the Welsh creative industries are UK leaders in research & development (R&D) effectiveness, with every £1 in R&D support generating over three times that in private R&D spending, beating previous leaders Japan and Finland (and 136 per cent more than the rest of the UK).
Innovation WORKS - and more to the point, provides work for others. One new full-time job is created in the creative industries for every £9,000 of additional R&D spending, generating an additional £36,000 of total gross value added. This investment in R&D has helped sustain the prodigious growth of the Cardiff Capital Region's media and creative sectors over the last decade - with the region's recent media sector growth rates significantly outperforming the rest of the UK. But this is not growth at any cost: Media Cymru embraces innovations that improve inclusivity and quality of life, while making media production cleaner and greener.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
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...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
Professor Justin Lewis, co-director Media Cymru and director of the Centre for Creative Economy, Cardiff University, highlights ways in which the lessons learned in Paris are driving future innovation
