TINY TECH MAKES FOR BIG INNOVATION AT NEP AUSTRALIA
The groundbreaking, IP-based Andrews Hubs – built by NEP Australia – enable remote production across the continent. But their success relies upon flexible SFPs from Riedel
hile many other industries found the jump to IP- centric systems
hub – using only a limited number of freelancers at the local venue. NEP’s Andrews Hubs claim to be the most technically advanced broadcast facilities in the world. Its control centres accommodate up to six simultaneous events, connecting with 29 sporting venues through NEP’s high-bandwidth network. There are two hubs – one in Sydney, the other in Melbourne. They are built on the SMPTE 2110 suite of standards, which established the protocols for sending media over an IP network. “It’s a pure-IP environment,” explains Marc Segar, director of technology for NEP Australia. “It’s a mass-centralised production facility, born out of asking: ‘How can we be more efficient with our staff, more cost-effective for our clients, and make our product better?’” SMALL, BUT MIGHTY Sports often lead the charge when it comes to higher resolutions and better image quality. People are still content to watch SD at home for a lot of programming, but watching sports in anything other than HD makes fans pretty cranky. Being able to
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a natural progression, the need to transport huge amounts of data in the form of video files – with very low latency and absolute reliability – meant broadcasters approached IP with caution. If you are given a multimillion-dollar contract for a major global sports event, you can’t afford to take risks on new tech. But, improvements in technology, the establishment of new standards, and collaboration between content makers, broadcasters and vendors has led to the replacement of legacy SDI systems. IP-based workflows underpin new ways of thinking about how to make content. In 2016, broadcast systems integrator NEP Australia partnered with Fox Sports to create novel methods of sports production in the country. Australia has a lot of open space between cities – and major sports venues. Creating a new, all-IP infrastructure meant that, rather than flying crews back and forth across the continent, shows could be produced entirely from a central
integrate UHD into their environment easily is essential for NEP. “The move from HD to UHD could have been pretty scary,” says Segar. “We are an all-IP facility, based around a 100G infrastructure, so the transition was not huge in terms of networking. But, creating signals for monitor walls and other equipment in the studio could have been a significant challenge.” To help tie the video system together, NEP is using Riedel’s MediorNet IP video network hardware. This enables UHD production capabilities, including IP video routing, multiviewing and IP
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