MCR Broadcast Engineer

EMG/Gravity delivers an unparalleled range of media services and solutions to clients worldwide: 30 offices, more than 100 outside broadcast trucks and flypacks and 40 studios across the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Australia, offering market-leading broadcast, technology, production, and post-production solutions across many of the world’s most-watched live events and entertainment programmes and working with the world’s most renowned sports rights holders, production houses and broadcasters.

The group’s acknowledged broadcast technology and production partnerships across major sports including UEFA EUROs, Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, Champions League and Premiership football, Formula E, the Bathurst 1000, the ATP Tour, Australian Open, US Open and French Open, Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Tour Down Under, NBC Sports and College Sports across the US, the World Aquatics Championships, the Melbourne Cup, the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

The Role

Part of the EMG / Gravity Media technology team at the new cutting edge broadcast facility in Westworks, White City. Working within a small team of engineers who are responsible for the BAU support and technical workflows within the facility. You must have accountability and work well within a team. You will be able to communicate clearly, both written and verbal to technical colleagues and to non-technical partners.

Our MCR supports a wide range of clients producing programmes for broadcasters in the UK and around the world, including World Feed production for ATP Media and Formula E, and bespoke broadcasts for clients including BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and TNT Sports.

We are an all-IP facility and remote production is our speciality. Engineers are the first point of technical contact for the galleries within the facility and remote OBs. We are looking for someone who works well within a team, is accountable for their work and has excellent verbal and written communication skills for both technical colleagues and non-technical partners.

• Primary support and operational duties for the MCR, Internet Delivery Network (IDN), Global Media Network (GMN), Special Events Network (SEN) and cloud platforms.
• Being the first point of technical contact for production teams in galleries and at outside broadcasts. Undertaking pre-event checks and configuration of broadcast encoders and decoders.
• Proactive Monitoring and switching live services (lines in and lines out). Evaluating signal quality and platform stability at both an IP and HD-SDI level.
• Satellite downlinking and line-up to EBU standards.
• Planning and managing maintenance of systems and workflows in an efficient manner; considering the impact and risk to our clients as well as completing routine maintenance and regular system checks.
• Routing and switching of feeds, based on the internal booking systems to production control rooms, multi-function rooms, voice-over booths & live transmission suites.
• Escalating issues to stakeholders and communicating with vendor support as required.
• Proactively supporting all media operations and other technical departments within EMG / Gravity Media. Supporting and mentoring junior members of the technical teams.

To enable you to perform this role, you should be able to demonstrate the following as a minimum:

• A clear understanding of the fundamentals of MCR workflows and technology
• Experience of TCP/IP networking infrastructure and multi-VLAN networks
• Line up of incoming video, audio and communication circuits from both the client and third-party broadcast production facilities
• Liaising with third party circuit suppliers, as well as with internal stakeholders
• Knowledge and experience of IP-based video routing and SMPTE-2110 standards
• Be pro-active and able to identify potential issues before they occur
• Work at high levels of technical complexity, under programme and/or operational pressures
• Accept and work to internal business processes including rules and procedures that concern email communication, ticketing, auditing, documentation and change processes
• Ability to work both alone and as part of a team, and to remain calm under pressure
• Have a positive, enthusiastic manner with an ability to react tactfully and sympathetically to requests from all stakeholders
• Capable of delegating and distributing tasks to others in the engineering team
• Ability to prioritise workload and meet tight deadlines

We are open to applicants with varying levels of expertise

This job description details the key elements of the role and is not an exhaustive list of all duties. Job roles evolve over time and job holders may be required to complete additional tasks in line with business needs.