By: Erin Yudt
Created in April 1994 in Barcelona, MediaPro is a multimedia communications company involved in movie and television production. The company holds branch offices in Madrid, Seville, Girona, Lisbon, Madeira, Budapest, Miami, Buenos Aires, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Rio de Janeiro, Porto, Qatar, Amsterdam and Tenerife. Chinese private equity firm Orient Hontai Capital, founded in 2015, has controlled MediaPro since 2018.
The sun shines down on the rooftop of MediaPro Barcelona. Its state-of-the-art technology allows for the company to be one of the leading audiovisual broadcasters in Europe and all of the world. “We are doing so many things that others are not,” Miguel, operations manager at MediaPro Barcelona said. “We are the best in Europe, if not the continent.”
According to their website, MediaPro is currently the largest urban production centre in Europe with more than 50,000 m² of facilities. The site has five large studios with a total of 2,385 m². The company has a total of 87 studios in Europe, Latin America, and the United States, producing seven channels worldwide and operating 15. With operations worldwide through its 53 offices distributed across 31 countries on 4 continents, its 7,113 employees design, produce and distribute audiovisual and multi-channel projects throughout the world using its state-of -the-art technology, innovating the international audiovisual field.
Through Overon, a subgroup of MediaPro responsible for deploying broadcast services, the company has 25 fly-away teams, allowing for fast news coverage. Camera operators are also trained in drone services. The audiovisual drone services division is licensed by the Spanish Air Safety Association (AESA) to carry out live recordings for news reports and broadcasts. The division consists of a team of six drones piloted by 15 camera operators. The company also has 64 satellite antennas, 40 mobile stations, 30 transponders and four telecommunications ports in Madrid, Barcelona, Miami and Bogota, serving more than 80 telemarketers.
A look into one of the several control rooms at MediaPro Barcelona.
MediaPro’s innovative technology has expanded beyond the broadcast market. In 2013, MediaPro created new equipment for a hospital clinic in Barcelona. The company designed and constructed six technical control rooms with HD and 3D technology, for the production and management of broadcast signals that allows the monitoring of streaming interventions from anywhere in the world. Not only does MediaPro use this technology, they create it. In their OB Unit Factory, design, construction and maintenance occurs for all their outside broadcasting facilities, as well as building and adapting units for other operators.
With this technology, MediaPro has procured more than 50 films in their studios including Oscar and Golden Globe winning 2011 movie “Midnight in Paris” directed by Woody Allen. In fact, 38% of television premieres and debuts are produced by MediaPro.
Not only does MediaPro produce audiovisual content for cinema and television, the company creates museum and exhibition projects as well. Their most recent project was in 2022. “Mirador torre Glories” in Barcelona offers a double observatory, looking at the city of Glories with a new perspective. Advertising is another aspect to MediaPro, filming and producing multiplatorm commercials in studio.
MediaPro is a prominent player on the global stage in sports rights management, commercializing on large competitions like LeLiga, the Belgian league, the Chinese league and FIFA World Cup 2022 for Spain, reaching a potential audience of two and a half billion in 176 counties with 58 official partners.
But how is MediaPro different from any other audiovisual company?
“We are the only company that uses hologram technology,” Miguel, operations manager at MediaPro Barcelona, said. “We use it so guests, like fútbol players can be interviewed in the stadium, but look like they are in the studio. We are the only ones doing this.”
On-camera journalists can look at several moveable screens placed throughout the studio to see the interview subject and gauge their placement. Ear pieces are also used for the studio director to communicate with the journalist. The hologram technology gives the viewer “more to look at.”
“The hologram breaks up the normal off-site interview,” Miguel said. “There is more to look at and watch for the viewer… It is more interesting.”
Similarly, MediaPro utilizes their own generated backgrounds on green screens for television and cinema.
The operations board for the green screen allows for easy changes to MediaPro created templates.
“We create our own templates… our own engineering, so people can be at places like the airport without being at the airport,” Miguel said. “Whether for tv or movie, we adapt to create a full experience and world, not just what the camera frame can see, so you can move the camera and still be in the airport and not see the green screen.”
Operations manager at MediaPro Barcelona Miguel demonstrates how to use the green screen and shows a template of snowy day outside a church.
MeidaPro also offers real-time graphics and play automation for television.
“We do real time player tracking for fútbol, so viewers can track players while watching the game,” Migeul said. “We also have in-house equipment at stadiums, so we can really focus on the quality of the production… yes there is still setup time, but we have the space we need and are not fighting with other productions.”
MediaPro hopes to continue to “grow and expand” in the future. MediaPro Barcelona is currently preparing and transforming their largest studio for coverage on Spain’s local elections, which is set to take place on May 28.
A current look at the set being constructed for live coverage of the local elections.