Gravity Media Assists VERSA Studios With Relocation of Morning Live

Gravity Media has worked with VERSA Studios to help deliver the relocated daytime show Morning Live for BBC Studios – enabling the broadcast from the new VERSA ABC Studio in Manchester.

The show which launched on Monday 21 February at 9.15am from the new roof top studios in the ABC Building, Quay Street, Manchester, features a ‘northern powerhouse of women’ hosts made up of Sam Quek, Kimberley Walsh and Sara Cox who join Kym Marsh and Gethin Jones as permanent members of the presenting line up.

The work for VERSA Studios on the creation of this new studio facility comes about as Gravity Media continues its expansion in Manchester. A move that will mean Gravity Media can offer a wide range of new opportunities, offering support across the broadcast and post-production markets in the North of England.

Gravity Media worked closely with VERSA Studios who won the bid to deliver the show from a brand new studio it has created in the heart of Manchester. The studio boasts a highly technical specification and Gravity was appointed to provide systems integration, technical equipment supply and rental for both the studio and wraparound edit and ingest with ongoing engineering support.

“With such a fast turnaround on the technical specification, we decided the best way to create and deliver this brand new state of the art broadcast studio facility was by way of a one stop shop with Gravity Media as our chosen equipment supplier, systems integrator and engineering support,” says Charlie Ingall, Executive Director VERSA Studios. “We formed a good working relationship with Gravity from our VERSA Studios London operation through equipment rental and are delighted to have expanded to more of a supply partnership with Gravity Media.

Following on from the construction work which VERSA Studios started late last year for the studio and production areas; the dedicated Gravity Media team worked closely with VERSA to turn around the system engineering in just under two months to create the 5 camera studio – with the potential for an 8 camera studio set up in the future.

The wider detailed spec included a build featuring: Calrec Artemis sound desk, Ross Ultrix router, EVS Cerebrum control system, Reidel Comms with Bolero wireless belt packs, EVS XT3 with IP gateway and self-contained Avid Edit.

“The expansion of our existing Gravity Media Manchester Production Center and Rental Operation is a timely and proud moment for the business, and means we are best placed to support with complex live broadcast facilities and production services across the north of England,” says Ed Tischler, MD of Gravity Media, EMEA. “The Gravity Media team have done an extremely impressive job working closely with VERSA Studios to facilitate this studios relocation with all systems integration and full engineering support in such a condensed time frame. We look forward to working closely on more such interview and entertainment formats with our dedicated Gravity Media North team.”