The Tribune

A BAHAMIAN production house has sealed an agreement giving them preferred access to a multi-million-dollar 4K Outside Broadcast (OB) Truck to record major events.

The MoVi Group, the sound, lighting and stage, and film production house, revealed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with MultVideo of Brazil. The deal will enable the company to provide global coverage of major events taking place in the Bahamas, such as the IAAF World Relays and recent FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

The 4K broadcast truck will provide quality on demand, and at vastly reduced cost to event managers, thereby making it an asset for the Bahamas as its local accessibility will help attract overseas event planners considering the Bahamas for conferences and events. Its presence will also end the need to import/export OB Trucks at huge cost, along with related logistics issues, to provide broadcast coverage for events of global interest. It will offer full production and 4K quality broadcast services for international and local onshore events.

Burton Wallace, MoVi's senior principal, said negotiations began in 2016, and the MOU was eventually signed in December 2017 with the principal of MultiVideo, Sergio Mattoso.

"This is a first for the Bahamas," he said. "MoVi now has unobstructed access to the OB Truck and its related assets, which are housed in Florida. The first assignment was last month, when a full Bahamian MoVi team manned the OB Truck to provide select global coverage of the Bahamas Basketball Federation national team in games against the Dominican Republic and Canada, as a part of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas qualifiers games."

Mr Wallace said there will be dozens of opportunities each year to use the MoVi OB.

"MoVi already has the technical expertise, as we are regularly engaged by every incoming major event that uses broadcast equipment and needs professional, well-trained, technically-skilled people," he added. It was a natural progression for us to eventually have our own broadcast unit here to save people time and money.

"Having assets easily accessible at this level also makes the Bahamas a more attractive proposition for event and destination management companies. I saw the need a long time ago. I just never knew how to satisfy it. One of my mentors taught me business is simple - it's just a solution to a problem, with a price tag attached to it. "Being on the perimeter of all these events that we support, we see all this equipment and people being imported all the time, and I realised it would be such a great business opportunity if these things could already be here," Mr Wallace added.

"When we talk to the people driving these events, they say the same thing: 'If you guys had this here we'd be calling you all the time' because they hate having to ship equipment for the job. They'd like to be able to come here, do their thing, and leave without all the extra hassle to worry about, so that was the spark.

"After getting connected with Sergio, who is from Brazil, we spoke about business opportunities. I did the research on his company and liked what I saw, and also we got on really well. We made the decision to do business together whilst both working on an IDB conference," Mr Wallace continued.

What impressed me about him was his support for us, The MoVi Group. This guy has over 600 people on staff - he's exceptionally successful - and he's like: 'Burton, I want to support you and your company. All of my staff coming to the Bahamas for the IDB conference will be branded in MoVi shirts. We're there to represent yours.'

"Meeting and working with Sergio, who owns several successful media companies, has given me a source for services that is just phenomenal. It has greatly increased the footprint of what we can put on the table now for clients, and literally all it takes is a phone call. This business alliance has also opened the door for extensive training opportunities for Bahamians in the tech communications field. For instance, I'm working with BTVI because I want to ensure their studies are in keeping with the tech needs of the day. Also, I'm thinking of MoVi Internships for UB students. We now have the capability to produce world-class communication technicians at all levels. The opportunities are many."