Gravity Media, the world’s leading media and broadcast company is proud to share that the Production Centre White City has gone live with newly awarded client Formula E, the world’s first all-electric motorsport which began racing in 2014, kicking off with the remote broadcast support live from the ABB Formula E World Championship Series 9.
Now in its ninth season, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will race in Hyderabad this Saturday, the first time the series has visited India with the race airing live in the UK on Channel 4 and Eurosport from 9am GMT. Formula E is unique in world motorsport for racing on street circuits created on public roads in the heart of world cities to encourage the adoption of EV vehicles. Hyderabad will be the 27th world city to host a Formula E race, the 104th in the history of the series.
Gravity Media is thrilled to welcome Formula E as their first anchor client, having signed a multi-year deal to partner with the championship, and house the Formula E team in their new facility based in the heart of media land in White City, London.
The next-generation Production Centre housed in The Westworks building is a creative and technology-leading media hub made up of production, post-production, and live studios. The 50,000-square-foot facility features best-in-class technology to support both on-premise and distributed remote production workflows.
Gravity Media’s brand new state-of-the-art facility is based around a fully-fledged 2110 IP media fabric with dedicated master control rooms, six dedicated production control rooms with dedicated audio control rooms, seven flexi control rooms, multiple off-tube commentary booths, two studios, lighting and vision control facilities, fast turnaround and craft edit, flexi desk production spaces, media management and client desking.
As part of The Westworks building set-up Gravity Media’s location means the teams can enjoy the breadth of restaurants, bars, and cafes locally including Soho House White City located minutes from the new space, as well as an outdoor terrace area, and other communal areas. Open plan workspace, modern floors overlooking central gardens and terraces will all be available for use; all within easy access to the centre of London.
The Gravity Media talented team worked closely as the technical broadcast partner with Formula E and Aurora Media Worldwide responsible for the delivery live on location beginning with the first Formula E race of the season in Mexico ensuring 86 services and video feeds were delivered back to the Production Centre in White City.
Two bespoke Gravity Media technical pods were built especially for Formula E. One of the pods has been engineered to house the MCR and all of the Technical IP backbone and the other pod houses the Audio and Comms core as well as the trackside Audio Supervisor.
Gravity Media’s Speciality Camera team were also deployed with a total of 50 cameras at the Mexico race, including twenty six Sony line cameras and twenty four Gravity Media Minicams used for track and team garage shots to ensure the most engaging driver experience coverage to at home viewers.
The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is set to race in 11 iconic world cities this season, where the Gravity Media team will continue to capture the astonishing track coverage where twenty four cameras will be set up across the street circuits from Jakarta, Berlin, Monaco to Sao Paulo, Cape Town, and Hyderabad. The live program will then be cut remotely at Gravity Media’s Production Centre in White City.
This year sees eleven teams and 22 drivers, new teams including Maserati and McLaren in Formula E for the first time, new race locations and a new GEN3 car all further ensuring the most exciting season of electric car racing.
As well as the innovative approach to broadcast production for TV viewers around the world, this season also saw Formula E and the FIA introduce the fastest, lightest, most powerful, and efficient electric race car ever built – the GEN3.
Capable of a 200mph (322kph) top speed, the GEN3 is 53kg lighter than the previous Gen2 model with a smaller chassis optimised for street racing. An additional front powertrain adds 250kW to the 350kW at the rear, more than doubling the regenerative capacity of the previous car to 600kW, with more than 40% of the energy used in-race regenerated from braking.
Gravity Media began 2022 with a commitment to dramatically reduce its carbon emissions and become the sector leaders for environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). The year was started by being officially awarded an ISO accreditation, certified for the ISO14001 and ISO45001 ensuring Gravity Media committed to a framework so as to reduce its environmental impact. The awarding of both standards recognises that Gravity Media is committed to a healthier and happier working environment as well as ensuring they have a strong commitment to improved greener environmental responsibilities.
Fast forward to 2023 and Gravity Media has also uniquely designed a solution enabling Formula E to reduce the number of jumbo jets used to transport their event internationally decreasing the number of planes needed to transport the kit in, ensuring a more environmentally positive approach, further improving the carbon footprint and green credentials surrounding the electric race season.
The advancement in technology and improved broadcast solutions working with Gravity Media is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to changes for the 2023 Formula E season. Each Formula E race will now be run over laps as opposed to a time period, while “Attack Charge” periods — which will allow each car to receive a temporary boost in energy — will also be introduced at select races later in the season.
The kick off race of the season in Mexico was broadcast to over 40 broadcasters and platforms including Channel 4, Eurosport, Fox Sports, CBS, ProSieben and Mediaset.
Ed Tischler Gravity Media’s Managing Director of EMEA says:
“We are thrilled to announce that we have won this contract, welcoming the Formula E team to our new home as our first in house anchor client. Using our next-generation brand new Gravity Media Production Centre in White City ensures Formula E’s broadcast media needs can be solved in-house through our cutting-edge media and technology solutions. Our new Production Centre located in the heart of White City in The Westworks building will house our growing team of creative and innovative media specialists. With our strong technical pedigree and well-established experience of complex live, fast turnaround and postproduction workflows – the powerful network of connected Gravity Media remote Production Centres, coupled with expertise delivering turnkey solutions will continue to offer productions a unique range of options and flexibility. We look forward to a great year of races!”
Aarti Dabas, Chief Media Officer, Formula E, says of the partnership and joining Gravity Media’s Production Centre White City:
“At Formula E, as the world’s first net zero carbon sport since inception, we are constantly challenging ourselves to show how delivering world-class sports entertainment and maintaining industry-leading sustainable practices can co-exist without compromise. Our technology and broadcast team have worked closely with Gravity Media and Aurora Media Worldwide to help us achieve this. The London-based facility and new approach to presenting Formula E coverage helps us stay true to our vision of accelerating human progress and encouraging the adoption of EV transportation while entertaining millions of viewers around the world.”
You can watch the 2023 Formula E championship races live on Channel and Eurosport – and follow the news here.
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