MEDIAPRO keeps pushing further in its commitment to the investment in new technologies with the incorporation of Visyon, a company specialized in innovation services. This alliance reinforces its leadership in the production of immersive audiovisual content. Thus, MEDIAPRO consolidates as one of the most important audiovisual service providers in the world, as demonstrated by the outstanding advances in Virtual Reality (VR) that the Group's Innovation Department has made in 2018.
Visyon was founded in 2012 and has been pioneering immersive technology solutions such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR). The company currently employs 70 full-time staff, mostly at the main Barcelona headquarters, and has offices in Madrid, London, Dubai, as well as presence in Milan, Eindhoven, San Francisco and New York.
Having developed over 400 projects since its creation, Visyon is already the market leader in Spain and one of the most experienced Extended Reality (XR) companies in the world, working across multiple industry sectors, such as Sports, Entertainment, Business Solutions, Retail, Education and Healthcare.
MEDIAPRO and Visyon have been working together since 2014, developing innovative content solutions for major sports and entertainment clients, such as the production of the world's first live VR telecast of a football competition, for the Arabian Gulf League, which has won the Sports Initiative of the Year award at the ASBU BroadcastPro Awards 2018. Visyon has also been awarded the Gold Award for Best Use of Technology at the Global Media Awards, the Social Impact of the Year at the VR Awards and the DRUM MOMA Award, amongst others.
As an innovation partner of "The Wall Street Journal", Visyon has developed many different projects over the years, including AR apps, VR websites as well as a market data visualization tool for Magic Leap, among others. For RTVE, the Barcelona company took care of the 360 and VR live broadcasting of the 2019 Goya Awards ceremony, and has filmed and post-produced several classical theater plays for RTVE's VR app, such as "The Misanthrope" by Molière, "The Kitchen" by Arnold Wesker and "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Rostand, within the framework of the International Classical Theater Festival of Almagro.
Visyon has collaborated with Nike in the creation and activation of an interactive experience where a treadmill is transformed into an arcade game where a virtual version of the user in pixel art is the main character. This campaign was executed simultaneously in Russia, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Visyon also partners up with the World Bank Group to seize the potential of emerging technologies to raise awareness and create training programs in matters related to social issues, such as those affecting developing countries, as well as climate change, diversity and integration, among others. Other Visyon's clients include Samsung, SEAT, Iberdrola, Google, Red Bull and Damm.
The two companies are already working together on the development of new business models for broadcasting of immersive sports and entertainment, leading the evolution of the eSports industry and exploring multiple formats and use cases through the potential of 5G connectivity.
Faithful to its innovative spirit and a firm commitment to the training of new talent, THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO has launched its first Masters in Screenwriting. Joining forces with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid’s Faculty of Information Sciences, the course will provide students with training tailored to the current and future reality of audiovisual production.
The program will be a certified Master's degree endorsed by the UCM, which, thanks to THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO’s expertise and creative talents, offers students the possibility of gaining work experience in productions the Studio is currently developing all over the world, ensuring quality training tailored to the current audiovisual panorama both in Spain as well as abroad.
THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO’s commitment to seeking out the best talent means that supporting creative minds wherever they might be, is essential. As such, the company has always been convinced that this first edition of the Masters should provide a place for 1 scholarship student.
The presentation of this first edition of THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO Masters in Screenwriting took place last Tuesday at the Casa del Lector (Matadero Madrid) and was presided over by Juan Ruiz de Gauna, General Manager of MEDIAPRO; Jorge Clemente, Dean of the UCM Faculty of Information Sciences and co-director of the Masters and Irene Ortega, Director of the Masters.
After the presentation, an expert panel was set up titled "We seek out talent", where the importance of the screenwriting in the different areas of production was analyzed. Panel experts included showman and communicator Gran Wyoming; filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa; showrunners Diego San José and Iván Escobar; THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO artistic director Luis San Narciso, Javier Méndez, Chief Content Office of the MEDIAPRO Group; Javier Pons, Head of TV at THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO; Cristina López, director of "Las que faltaban", and Jorge Clemente, Dean of the UCM Faculty of Information Sciences and co-director of the Masters.
The MEDIAPRO Group, one of the most important fiction factories internationally, takes up the mantle from Globomedia which identified and trained Spain’s most outstanding series creators for over 13 years through its Screenwriting Masters. Now, with the recent creation of THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, and its impressive team of creative minds and directors, supporting grassroots talent and providing new creators eager to break into screenwriting was an essential next step. Talent is what allows to narrate the best stories with the broadest possible reach and quality training is essential to this process.
The line-up of lecturers is another of the strengths of THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO Masters in Screenwriting. The goal was to source the best talent with the capacity to educate others from within THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO as well as from other production companies beyond the scope of the Studio. Professionals who will be sharing their knowledge with students include names like Ran Tellem (Homeland), Daniel Burman (Lost Embrace), Maikol Sánchez Romero (El Intermedio), Fernando León de Aranoa (A Perfect Day), Iván Escobar (Locked Up), Fernando González Molina (Palm Trees in the Snow), Diego San José (Vota Juan) and Marc Cistaré (Victim Nº 8), among others. David Muñoz (The Devil’s Backbone), Nacho Cabana (Matadero), Rubén Ontiveros (Homo zapping) and Beatriz Setuain, director of Imagina International Sales, will act as tutors for program modules.
The program will run for 35 weeks, from October 3rd, 2019 to June 26th, 2020 during which time participants will be guaranteed a month’s work experience and training in Group productions. The Masters will consist of 5 modules and places are limited (up to 25 students). The Masters will be given at the Casa del Lector (Matadero Madrid) and THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO headquarters.
For the time being, this first edition of the Masters in Screenwriting will only be given in Madrid. However, for the 2020/2021 academic year, work is already underway to ensure the degree can also be taken in Barcelona.
For further information: https://masterdeguion.themediaprostudio.com
MEDIAPRO, in collaboration with In Digital, has been awarded the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) service contract for the Super League Greece (football premiere division) and to improve the Greek Football Federation's (HFF) digital environment for the next five years.
The chosen VAR solution is in line with the model MEDIAPRO is providing in Spain and Portugal. The service, which will get underway this coming 2019-2020 league championship season, will be centralized at HFF headquarters in Athens with fibre optic connection to all Super League stadiums. In addition, the contract contemplates the use of mobile VAR units to cover matches being played on the Greek islands.
MEDIAPRO will also provide training and certification for Greek referees and VAR operators during the months of May, June and July 2019. The Greek company In Digital has set up a digital environment based on an App where referees and members of the federation can review and check video arbitration decisions as they take place during the competition.
Greek Cup Final 2019
MEDIAPRO provided its VAR service for the final of the Greek Cup, organized by the HFF last Saturday at the Olympic Stadium in Athens (OAKA) and which saw PAOK teams of Thessaloniki and Athens AEK facing off. The game was the first in the history of Greek football to use VAR, in addition to being the preliminary test for the service that MEDIAPRO will provide to the Greek league from this coming 2019-2020 season.
During this match, the MEDIAPRO Group used a mobile VAR unit coordinated by a team of six professionals from Medialuso together with members of the Greek crew who regularly work for MEDIAPRO in the Super League Greece football match production.
The MEDIAPRO Group is currently the official provider of VAR technology for official league competitions in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Chile and United Arab Emirates and provides services to CONMENBOL, CAF and FIBA.
JWP, documentary production company specialized in narrative documentaries and series and THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, Barcelona based audiovisual giant, have reached an agreement for the next three years. The agreement with British director Justin Webster and producer Sumpta Ayuso, responsible for JWP, will involve the development of a minimum of 6 projects.
This deal strengthens the relationship between Webster and THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO on the heels of their recent joint project "Six Dreams", a documentary series that provides an unprecedented look at Spanish football’s first division through the eyes of six professionals on and off the playing field.
"Six Dreams", directed by Webster, recently won two Emmy Awards at the Daytime Emmy Awards Ceremony for Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish and Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design. Co-produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, JWP and LaLiga for Amazon Prime Video, a second installment of the documentary series is already underway.
After more than a decade dedicated to non-fiction and driven by a passion for narrating true stories and doing it well, Webster has directed multi-award-winning documentaries including "Gabo: The Creation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez", "I Will Be Murdered", "Muerte en León”, "El fin de ETA", "The Madrid Connection" and "FC Barcelona Confidential ".
Javier Méndez, Chief Content Officer for MEDIAPRO, said, "Justin and Sumpta cover a need in the content market. We’re currently witnessing the golden age of television drama series, but Justin fills a niche in the growing demand for non-fiction narrative productions, with real stories told through the characters themselves, if you like, fiction, but without the fiction".
According to Justin Webster "the agreement opens up a wealth of possibilities for two reasons: on the one hand it will facilitate the development of new projects, a luxury given that development is essential in creating quality; and on the other hand, both JWP and Mediapro have considerable international experience". The director added "the projects will have to be very ambitious and international and most certainly they’ll have to non-fiction narratives because that's what we do-"
The agreement with Justin Webster is another in a string of alliances forged by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO in recent times to expand the creation, production and distribution of global content both in Spain as well as internationally. The British director joins creative talents including Paolo Sorrentino, Woody Allen, Isabel Coixet, Ran Tellem, Oliver Stone, Daniel Burman, Fernando León de Aranoa, Iván Escobar, Javier Fesser, Patricio Guzmán, Borja Cobeaga, Diego San José, Marc Cistaré, Manuel Huerga, Ernesto Daranas, Gastón Duprat, Mariano Cohn, Laura Belloo, Marc Vigil, Fernando González Molina, Javier Olivares and Ruth García.
For MEDIAPRO, the ten simultaneous matchups taking place in the penultimate round of LaLiga has required logistic coverage and meant a technical challenge that is considerably greater than that of a round where games are played throughout the weekend. To face this challenge, MEDIAPRO turned to the work of 1,000 professionals and the simultaneous deployment of ten mobile units, backed by technical support from Overon, at the different fields in order to broadcast all the signals and carry out all of the production at the same time.
Furthermore, the uniform timetable, established to protect the results of teams in the middle of a battle to remain on top, with dropping a division or participating in European competitions at stake, has required a technical effort from MEDIAPRO, in charge of production and distribution of each of the matchups, which was focused on activating 20 complementary signals and 8 additional channels to deliver the signals at the same time to customers both in Spain and around the globe.
The Barcelona production center also took on 30 additional commentators in both English and Spanish and double the number of graphics stations required for a normal round. The multifutból signal, distributed to all national and international customers as well as public venues, switched between the signals received from each of the different stadiums, delivering a single signal with commentary in English and Spanish, featuring the best images from each matchup in order to follow the highlights of the round without having to change the channel.
The unified timetable also meant a technological challenge with regard to VAR, developed by MEDIAPRO, which has implemented all of the necessary additional resources in order for the round to run smoothly, without any setbacks, to the satisfaction of the institutions.
MEDIAPRO has once more successfully overcome a technical challenge, in this case that demanded by a round with a uniform timetable, proving themselves to be a reference in the audiovisual production of sporting events at the international level, also participating in the production of 16 national football competitions around the world, including top-league competitions, in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Kenya, Angola, Slovenia, Serbia, Colombia, Bolivia and Mexico. The MEDIAPRO Group’s teams also produce events for the UEFA Champions League, FIFA Confederations Cup, FIBA, EuroLeague, FIFA World Cup, The Arab Games, Africa Cup of Nations and Formula 1.
Fortnite is back on LVP (MEDIAPRO Group). A year on from the broadcast of the YouTube Battle Royale at the ninth edition of Gamergy, Fortnite returns to LVP with the Fortnite World Cup, the Battle Royale Epic Games World Championships.
The Fortnite World Cup is a competition open to everyone which features both individual and duo qualifying tournaments. All players who’ve accumulated a set number of points earn the right to take part in the qualifying stages which will be played over a weekend with the semi-finals on the Saturday and the finals on the Sunday. The best players at the end of weekly qualifying will earn a spot in the final stages of the World Championships which will take place in New York on July 26th, 27th and 28th.
LVP will be broadcasting all the remaining qualifying games of the Fortnite World Cup, both in the individual and duo formats from May 18th to June 16th, as well as the competition finals to be played in New York in the last week of July.
A special broadcast with particular emphasis on the best Spanish Fortnite players. Every week, LVP will feature 10 players or ten duo teams, who they’ll be following over the weekend qualifying phases in a special program “Llamada al Mundial”. The 4-hour program will be shown every Saturday and Sunday from 18:00 in the second LVP channel on Twitch. In addition, LVP has also created an official web-site which will complement the show.
The program will also feature some of the sector’s most famous commentators as well as content creators linked to the Epic Games’ video-game.
Two Spaniards have already earnt spots in the final
The Fortnite World Cup qualifying stages kicked off in April and two Spanish players have already booked their spots in the finals to be played in New York. Ramón “Prisi0n3ro” Mateu, who is a member of Team Queso, one of Spain’s best Fortnite teams and Diego “DiegoGB” Gómez, part of the S2V Esports team, both Superliga Orange clubs in other games. Both of the them earnt their berths in the grand final in the USA in the first Fortnite World Cup qualifying weekend on April 14th and 15th.
