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Wisycom solves RF challenges across miles of live action for Gravity Media

When live cycling races and international marathons stretch for miles across cities and countryside, there is no margin for RF failure in live broadcast. As Chief RF Communications Engineer at Gravity Media, Glenn Willems is responsible for ensuring long-range RF communication in some of the most demanding live broadcast environments in the world, so that the events reach viewers without interruption.

These productions often require communications links spanning extraordinary distances, sometimes placing the RF team more than 100 miles away from the action. Throughout the racing season, which runs from February through October, Willems and his team support major cycling events such as the Tour of Italy, Tour of Denmark and numerous international marathons, including those in Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

To meet these challenges, Willems frequently turns to Wisycom, integrating a range of the company’s RF over Fiber and wireless solutions into Gravity Media’s workflows. “The wireless part of the communication is absolutely critical”, he says. “It’s all live television, so our broadcast simply has to work.”

Wisycom solutions often play a role in creative, problem-solving scenarios, such as during the Berlin Marathon, where Willems was tasked with enabling a reporter to conduct live interviews while riding a bike alongside runners. “It was a rather particular request”, he laughs. “We had to find a way to get that wireless microphone signal into our transmission system while everything was moving.”

The solution involved using Wisycom MCR42 camera receivers, integrated directly into the video link system. “If you looked at it, you might realize we weren’t operating like a professional scripted TV or film production team”, Willems admits, “but it worked extremely well. That’s the kind of outside-the-box thinking we often need, and Wisycom made that possible. Thanks to the MCR42’s multiband and multi-compatible capabilities, we were even able to integrate third-party microphones without issue. That flexibility meant we could adapt quickly, which is crucial in live broadcast environments.”

Beyond wide-ranging racing applications, Gravity Media also regularly relies on Wisycom for large-scale and non-traditional infrastructure deployments, utilizing the brand’s MFL RF over Fiber system. “The MFL is a modular system, so you can mix and match and configure it the way you like”, Willems notes.

The Gravity Media team also deployed the MFL system on a major stadium installation, where the TV compound was seven- to eight-hundred meters from the field of play. The system links the OB vans to the field of play via fiber. “Fiber virtually has no losses, which means every fraction of a dB is preserved”, says Willems. “That directly translates into range and stability. For us, every fraction of a dB counts. As long as your connectors are clean, fiber is also plug-and-play. People think it’s black magic, but it’s actually incredibly robust.”

(Photo: Gravity Media/Wisycom)

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