Creative Technology (CT), who have been working for GSMA at Mobile World Congress for the last 6 years were so pleased to be back at the in-person event for 2022 which welcomed over 61,000 attendees to Fira Barcelona from February 28 – March 3. CT delivered a multitude of services to GSMA to support Mobile World Live TV (MWLTV) – the online communications hub for the global mobile industry which provides a continuous stream of news and information to delegates for the entirety of the event.
Following a cancelled event in 2020 due to the pandemic, Creative Technology continued to support GSMA via an off-site setup which enabled the creation of content to continue in preparation for the 2021 event. With the pandemic still creating challenges for live events, the 2021 show was run as remote production, with reduced crew and simplified technical deployment in Barcelona, with production managed by CT in the company’s very own remote production suites based in their offices in London, Gatwick.
The 2022 event saw an expansion of the services delivered in 2021, with additional cameras and studios in Barcelona, while still utilising the same remote production workflow.
Client expectations in 2022 required a different approach to be taken and led to the decision to repeat the remote production workflow which worked successfully in 2021. Solid comms and IP links between the sites allowed for seamless communications and remote control and administration of various hardware. This allowed CT to position key engineering, production, and operating roles in London, while the onsite studios had a much lighter crew to cover video and audio engineering, and production requirements. This led to over 50% of the crew and a large amount of the kit not having to travel out to Barcelona which not only resulted in cost saving on flights, hotels, and trucking, while also contributing to the company’s environmental and sustainability efforts.
With 34 offices across 18 countries, Creative Technology are well-equipped to deliver the same high-quality services and equipment to events all over world. CT London and Spain were proud to work closely as one team on MWC 2022 and provide the very best solutions to the GSMA for MWLTV. Utilising the remote production facilities in the UK in conjunction with local audio and lighting equipment, and operators for the studio in Spain enabled a streamlined delivery.
A combination of NEP services were identified as the best solutions to meet the client’s brief, with Mediabank and CT both working together as one team to facilitate the required content workflow for GSMA.
“Mediabank allowed for content to be uploaded by editors in London and Barcelona for the production team located across various locations to review, comment on, and approve before being published by Mediabank and sent to CT in London, Gatwick. This Made for an effective way of dealing with a large volume of content and had a hugely positive impact on workflow and made the whole process a lot more efficient. VideoXLinks were instrumental to bring signals to and from Barcelona in a way that allowed us to keep the cameras all in sync and frame accurate. Due to the large number of feeds being sent back and forth, having a system that could keep these feeds in sync and of high quality was hugely important.” – Chris Greetham-Ellis, Senior Project Manager at Creative Technology.
