Gemstone Media has covered some of the best football matchups in The American Conference on ESPN. This season we’ve traveled to the University of Alabama-Birmingham, East Carolina University, UNC-Charlotte, and the University of South Florida–with at least 9 games to go! Here are some of our favorite behind the broadcast shots so far.
Connections. In the world of video production, whether it involves executives seeking new business, or a pro being hired for an upcoming shoot, the next business opportunity revolves around connections—who you know.
George Birnbaum, Gemstone’s CEO & Founder, tells how our most recent live production came together:
Three weeks ago I received a call from an old friend in the business. His daughter, who I’ve known since birth, now works for USA Diving. Could I speak with her? Of course!
In her words, “Uncle George, we need help with live streaming in metro Los Angeles for a 9-day junior diving championship in two weeks. If anyone would be able to assist, it would be you!”
Challenge set!
I reached out to another friend in the business, whom I have not worked with in almost 10 years, recalling his core production work in Southern California includes swimming and diving. I explained to him the hurdle—or platform, as it were—and he countered, asking if I wanted to collaborate on this project, mainly because he was stretched with staff on another swimming event during this time.
My answer? “Absolutely!”
His company, Takeitlive.com would be our LA “boots on the ground” handling camera positioning and operations, streaming encoder configuration and operation, along with intercoms and audio sends.
We also worked with another company—actually a Interventional Radiology Doctor—who built an application that provided live scoring graphics for each of the 600 divers, ranking them accordingly. This was sent to Gemstone via internet and married to each of the cameras, to match what board each diver was competing on at that time.
The convergence of live cameras, audio, and graphics were done remotely, here at Gemstone in Jacksonville, along with insertion of event schedules, welcome messages, and sponsorship videos—all streaming live on the USA Diving YouTube channel.
Challenge accomplished!
THANK YOU for your time and dedication during this event. You made USA Diving look good! We hope we can continue to count on your assistance in future competitions.
With warm regards and thanks,
Gerry Dunn
Director of Strategic Initiatives
The Champions League of American Wrestling (CLAW) recently held its inaugural draft at Harrah’s Atlantic City, and Gemstone Media shared all the energy and emotion in our live broadcast of the event.
For this production streamed on FloWrestling, YouTube, and X, Gemstone videographers and an engineer captured the live video in Atlantic City, and transmitted it to our headquarters in Jacksonville, where the director orchestrated the camera switching, graphics, pre-recorded elements, and audio mix with an on-site crew.
“Gemstone was up for the challenge to cover CLAW’s inaugural draft. With it being a remote broadcast, there had to be constant communication between Atlantic City and Jacksonville. With our crew arriving a day early on site, this helped prepare us for the following night,” recalled Tristan Morhous, Director & Production Supervisor.
“Working with the in-house crew in correlation with the CLAW reps, we were able to accomplish a great broadcast, loaded with visuals and information for the spectators.”
CLAW promises “high-level wrestling but with more action and excitement.” The first CLAW season begins in October.
Read more about Gemstone Media and our scope of operations here, and click for more under the Services tab above.
For Immediate Release:
The CSX Hazardous Materials Team has chosen Gemstone Media for their Contractor of the Year award. CSX officials praised the company for outstanding performance in developing a national training program for first responders. Gemstone was chosen from among dozens of companies, system-wide, providing services to the railroad.
This is not only for first responders in the CSX service area, thousands of responders in the west have taken the training online. It’s making difference across the country and for other railroads.
The program, “Emergency Response to Railroad Incidents” is an interactive program for use in classrooms or online and is accompanied by a Course Manual with valuable information to keep fire-fighters and the public safe should a derailment or hazardous material release occur
Gemstone’s Executive Producer, Ray Hays, was also singled out for CSX Field Manager’s Award for his creative and diligent work with the instructional design, script and production management of the program.
Meanwhile, the training program was also just chosen for top honors in two different categories in the Association of Visual and Interactive Arts’ Communicator awards. The program was cited for Excellence in Education, and in Safety programs.
For more information contact Ray Hays
Ray@GemstoneMediaInc.com
904-354-1500
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Gemstone Media produced 96 ESPN+ broadcasts for Jacksonville University from August 2024 through May 2025! We are honored to have played our part in this non-stop athletic season, we are delighted by its success, and we are proud to share these reflections.
Rick Canter, JU Associate Vice President/Deputy Athletics Director:
“The hard work and dedication you all brought to our games this year was nothing short of tremendous. To see how far our quality production has come from my first year to now is amazing.
“I want to thank the entire Gemstone team for simply caring so much. I can’t tell you how many times I received a text talking about how our production was much better than our competitors’. We appreciate your constant support of our department, and I look forward to continuing our work together.”
George Birnbaum, Gemstone Media CEO & Founder:
“Our Tristan Morhous and Ryan Smolka were the backbone of this effort, taking JU ESPN presentations to a new level of sports entertainment excellence!
“And we appreciate the constant support from JU to ensure that we put on high quality, engaging broadcasts to represent the university proudly.”
Tristan Morhous, Gemstone Media Director & Production Supervisor:
“I cannot tell you how many times we have had parents, fans, students, come up to us to tell us how appreciative they are for what we are doing.
“The growth of the student workers has been something to be proud of as well. A lot of the students stuck it out till the very end of the season, which showed their commitment to the program.”
Reece Fishback, JU Assistant Director of Events & Operations:
“From all of us at JU, we greatly appreciate your team’s hard work and dedication this past year to help put on some of, if not the best, quality productions in the ASUN conference that even rival some Power 4 productions.
“We look forward to building upon our partnership and continuing to put out great broadcasts for our JU community. Looking forward to 2025-2026!”
Read more about Gemstone Media and our scope of operations here, and click for more under the Services tab above.
Gemstone Media produced the broadcast for the 2025 American Men’s Golf Championship, from opening tee to sudden-death playoff!
Here are reflections from Maria Trivelpiece, Director of Video Communications and Reporter for the American Athletic Conference:
“Working the Men’s Golf Championship with Gemstone was fantastic. There was great coverage of the event throughout the course before, during and after play was going on. The ability to add multiple camera elements were great, and I think that the event was covered well making it a great experience for student-athletes.
“As a reporter, the communication between myself and the producer was great as well and was happy to be a part of the event.”
From the studio to the sidelines, Gemstone Media produced several...
It’s “revolutionizing the game…delivering an immersive, game-changing experience for viewers,”...
Gemstone Media, Inc. produced the 2024 American Baseball Championship tournament...
For its college football championship pre-game coverage, The American Athletic...
Learn about Gemstone Media and our scope of operations here, and click for more under the Services tab above.
Take a look inside Gemstone Media’s MPU-1 Mobile Production Unit.
With our MPU-1, Portable Production System, and Fly Pack, we can produce your event from anywhere, and broadcast it everywhere!
Gemstone Media is a versatile production company designed to help you tell and amplify your story.
A testimonial received from Michael Kelly, University of South Florida Vice President for Athletics:
Michael Kelly
“Gemstone Media Inc. has been an invaluable partner in elevating USF Athletics’ 21 programs through top-tier production quality and innovative storytelling while also inspiring the next generation of broadcasters through our student intern program.
“Their expertise and commitment to excellence—across more than 180 broadcasts annually, the most in the American Athletic Conference—have strengthened our brand and showcased our student-athletes in a way that inspires Bulls fans everywhere.”
Read more about Gemstone Media and our scope of operations here, and click for more under the Services tab above.
How about that historic walk-off grand slam by Alex Lodise, winning the Florida State vs. University of Florida baseball game for the Seminoles on March 25?
Gemstone Media’s crew captured it. And get this: the game almost wasn’t televised!
We received the request the evening before the opening pitch: “Could you broadcast the UF/FSU game on ESPN+ and ACCNX?”
Immediately, Gemstone began gearing up. “While we did not have access to cameras everywhere we wanted, which added to the challenge, we got the game on the air and provided a solution to the last-minute need,” declared George Birnbaum, Gemstone Media CEO & Founder.
“The client was thrilled, especially with what we could pull off on under 24 hours’ notice. And what a finish! We’re ready to do it again, with even more lead time.”
Need a production company for sports, corporate communications, long-form programming? Whether you have a year to plan, or the pitch timer is ticking, call on Gemstone Media to step up to the plate!
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