Custom Consoles Completes Project For Gravity Media

Custom Consoles has announced the completion of control room desks and MediaWall monitor display supports for Gravity Media's new production facility located in the WestWorks building adjacent to BBC Television Centre at White City, London.

Occupying 50,000 square feet of the 290,000 square foot building, the facility includes live studios, production control galleries and editing suites.

Designed to handle on-site and distributed remote production workflows, the new facility is based around a fully fledged ST 2110 IP media fabric with a dedicated master control room, remote production breakout MCR, eight dedicated production control rooms with dedicated audio control rooms, multiple off-tube commentary booths, two studios with lighting and vision control facilities, fast turnround and craft edit, flexidesk production spaces, media management and client desking.

"This expansion of our Production Centre in White City, London, based in the Westworks building, is a hugely exciting moment for the whole global Gravity Media team," commented Ed Tischler, Managing Director of Gravity Media. "It enables us to build a truly future-focused facility in which to nurture our talent and attract the very best in next-generation media, innovation, technology and engineering experts. All with the aim of providing the most advanced solutions for all our clients across Sports, Film and TV and Live Event formats."

"We are very pleased to have been selected by Gravity Media as a partner in this project which looks set to be one of Britain’s largest and most advanced facilities," said Gary Fuller, Sales Manager of Custom Consoles. "Our role was to provide technical furniture for six production control galleries as well as sound control rooms, EVS areas, the MCR and multi-use areas. All but one of the desks are from our Modular-R series, supplemented by seven MediaWalls ranging in width from nearly 2 metres to over 5 metres."

Largest of the Module-R desks are the Production Control Room 3 and 4 front desks, each spanning 5.7 metres with a four mix/effects vision mixer integrated across three of its 11 bays. Also 11-bays in width, the EVS-suite front desk is designed for use by up to five operators, it includes dual layer mounts for 32 inch and 21 inch monitor displays. The MCR desk is a 10-bay-wide unit, also configured for use by up to five operators. Each bay is equipped with a 6U high 70 degree sloping equipment pod and a computer monitor support. The EVS rear desk is an eight-bay four-operator unit version of the EVR front desk with similarly styled 4U equipment pods dual layer monitor display mounts.

The Broadcast Operations Control desk comprises eight bays in width with a 6U high equipment pod above each bay. Production Control Rooms 5 and 6 are each equipped with a seven-bay desk. A vision mixer is integrated into bays 4 and 5.

The Flexible Control Room 1 desk is of similar design to PCR 5 and 6 but five bays in width with 4U high equipment pods over bays 1-2 and 4-5.

Of unusual design is the Video Control Room desk, comprising 11 bays in line with a 15U high equipment pod above each bay. Each pod is surmounted by a 21 inch video monitor leaving space for a 30 inch monitor bridging pods 1 and 2.

The Sound Control Room desk is a tailored-design 2.3 metre wide structure with a wing-shaped worktop supported on its left side by a 13U equipment pod. The latter is supplemented by a 6U high vertical-front equipment pod mounted towards the right of the desk.

The project also included MediaWall monitor displays mounts for the MCR, PCR 3, PCR 4 and BOC (5.2 metres wide supporting a 2 high x 4 wide grid of 55 inch monitors plus left and right side loudspeakers). 4.2 metre wide variants supporting 2 high x 3 wide 55 inch monitors were commissioned for PCR5 and PCR 6. The EVS control room is equipped with a 2 metre wide MediaWall supporting two 55 inch monitors, one above the other, again with side-mounted loudspeakers. A 1.9 metre wide unit was provided for the Sound Control Room, supporting two 43 inch video monitors side-by-side plus a lower-mid 24 inch display and side-mounted loudspeakers. FCR 1 incorporates a 2.65 metre wide MediaWall supporting two 55 inch side-by-side video monitors and wide-mounted loudspeakers.

Custom Consoles Module-R desks are designed to offer the greatest possible freedom of choice in terms of desk size, configuration and facilities. Unlike one-piece control room furniture, Module-R desks can be expanded or reconfigured at any time during their working life. Auxiliary pods of various sizes for broadcast industry standard 19 inch rack-mounting equipment can be specified for Module-R desks at the time of installation or added later. Individual elements such as desktops can be replaced easily if required for operational or aesthetic reasons. Customers can select from a wide range of IT-friendly options including single, double or triple width base units, 15, 30, 45 or 90 degree angled corner units or curved desk sections to follow any radius.

Custom Consoles' MediaWall allows flat-screen monitor displays of practically any width to be constructed from standard horizontal and vertical support elements. MediaWall can be used as a fully self-supporting structure or coupled directly to the studio wall. Individual screens can be positioned so that the edges meet exactly to form a continuous horizontal display limited only by the boundary of the monitor panel itself. All wiring is fully concealed and can enter or leave the structure at any desired point. MediaWall is available in any specified element widths.

www.customconsoles.co.uk