ATP Media, the media arm of the ATP Tour, and Gravity Media, have confirmed they have signed a new long-term partnership following ATP Media’s thorough tender process in 2022.
The partnership delivers the 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.
This new deal marks the beginning of a new and exciting next chapter in this partnership, with ATP Media and the production company working together 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 next-generation ATP Media Studios, as part of the newly commissioned Gravity Media facility housed in The Westworks precinct, is a creative and technology-leading media hub, with the 50,000-square-foot facility featuring 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.
The new agreement will see Gravity Media and ATP Media work with leading partners in the industry including Sony HDC series camera channels, EVS XT Via servers and Calrec audio core and consoles to be deployed around the world 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.
Along with a commitment to expanding coverage of the ATP Tour, the new long-term partnership of ATP Media and Gravity Media is designed to create and deliver new production solutions for the coverage that will ensure a greener and environmentally sustainable approach to coverage of the ATP Tour – an approach that significantly increases efficiencies and reduces production freight and logistics undertakings.
ATP Media has also held a long term ambition to provide opportunities for those wanting to grow a career in broadcast and production, and Gravity Media has committed to implementing this by providing such opportunities and continuing to nurture those committed to playing a leading role in the dynamic and changing broadcast and production landscape through a variety of different job opportunities.
The first tournament under the new agreement goes live from ATP Media Studios at the Gravity Media Production Centre in London in June.
John Newton & Mark Webster
John Newton, Gravity Media’s CEO and founder, said: “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.
“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.”
Mark Webster, ATP Media CEO, said of the appointment: “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.
“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 pandemnic, 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 organisation 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,” he added.