Live from the Rugby World Cup: Group effort as NEP moves tournament production operation around Japan By Fergal Ringrose, Editorial Director, Europe
Saturday, October 5, 2019 - 02:01
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NEP team with Tokyo Stadium in the background: (L/R) Siddhartha Tyagi, NEP Broadcast Solutions Singapore, technical manager; Saeed Izadi, NEP Broadcast Solutions Singapore, president; Donald Begg, NEP Major Events, director of technology; Dougie Fletcher, NEP Broadcast Services UK, corporate resource manager
NEP is on the road around Japan supporting the Rugby World Cup production operation on behalf of host broadcaster IGBS and its client World Rugby.
NEP Major Events has coordinated a large team, driven by NEP Singapore and NEP UK teams with flypacks, moving around between the 12 match venues supporting four rugby TV production crews on behalf of IGBS, a joint venture between HBS and IMG Media.
SVG had the opportunity to sit down in the International Broadcast Centre at Tokyo Stadium to discuss this operation with Donald Begg, NEP Major Events, director of technology; Dougie Fletcher, NEP Broadcast Services UK, corporate resource manager; Saeed Izadi, NEP Broadcast Solutions Singapore, president; and Siddhartha Tyagi, NEP Broadcast Solutions Singapore, technical manager.
Dougie Fletcher: There are 12 venues but from our point of view we had to split it up, so there aren't 12 kits. There are eight core kits - routers, mixers, audio desks - and eight and a half prime kits, with cameras, lenses and EVS. We have four extras' kits, which is an additional four cameras and an additional EVS that we move around separately to cover the bigger games.
There are no big trucks in this country I believe; flypacks were the only option. Saeed's team supplied four identical SDI kits and the UK team supplied four IP kits. The extra system, from the UK, is a baseband system.
And then we have eight tech teams. So it's been quite a jigsaw trying to move all these pieces around. It's a challenge! The Sapporo venue was only for the first weekend, so we're now down to 11 venues.
There are NEP people in each tech team, supplemented by freelancers. There are four teams from NEP Singapore and four from the UK. This was the ideal opportunity to bring the UK and Singapore together.
Donald Begg: If you looked at the Winter Olympics we had about 12 different NEP divisions all coming together on the Eurosport operation. At the Super Bowl this year we had teams from the UK and Bexel coming together. We can take advantage of being a group, bringing the kit and the people we need to bring - and use local where practically possible.
Saeed Izadi: Additionally I think this is one of our core values at NEP. We're one team. This is where the practicality of that core value comes into play, with divisions coming together for larger events. And if you look across the verticals within the NEP Group - be it our broadcast facilities business or specialised cameras or RF or Mediabank, AR/VR, connectivity - it's where that core value comes together.
Dougie Fletcher: There are no big trucks in this country I believe; flypacks were the only option. Saeed's team supplied four identical SDI kits and the UK team supplied four IP kits. The extra system, from the UK, is a baseband system.
It's a jigsaw where there's kit moving literally every day - and this is why the kits had to be identical, so that when we bring in that prime kit we know exactly how it's going to get plugged up. There isn't a lot of time for changes.
Donald Begg: We're still very much in a transition phase, which is dictated largely by equipment lifecycles. Most of our CCUs and EVS are still SDI interfacing. Our vision switches are already IP, we've progressed with those. The core IP system is a Grass Valley UCP platform along with Arista switches.
Actually the four IP systems here are the same as Wimbledon. We did Wimbledon this year and brought it back to base and divided it into four pre-configured, and then sent them on our way.
So the amount of movement and the number of venues for Rugby World Cup causes a level of complexity here in Japan which is a major challenge? Dougie Fletcher: Yes, in the Olympics scenario kit will go into a venue and it might move once. This system moves every day, whether core, prime or extra - or the tech teams. From that complexity point of view, this certainly feels bigger than the Olympics. It's a complex logistical manouevre.
The extras kits come into play for certain games. Every game is minimum 23 camera coverage. We then have this kit that travels independently, and that will go to let's say the England or Australia game, which takes it up to 28 camera coverage.
Siddharta Tyagi: We have two kits of GVG 86 and two kits of Sony 4300s, and the UK kits are all 4300s. The challenge we have is to create multiple formats out of one vision desk. Setting up the vision desk itself was complex, and then educating the operators was also a challenge.
We did it successfully but we have to keep a close watch during the match. When you follow, it's not only the source; you need to follow the graphics and the wipes and every DPM as well.
How does this event embody the big production trends out there - or does it? Because of the geography and culture of Japan, should this be viewed as a one-off event? Dougie Fletcher: I think what it will do is enable the NEP Singapore and UK teams to work more closely together, because we've gone through an understanding of workflows and work processes. There were issues to be ironed out, and that has all come together.
Saeed Izadi: Major events are complex in format, but also complex in number of items of equipment. Then you multiply that by eight or nine kits, and suddenly you require a huge
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Live from the Rugby World Cup: Group effort as NEP moves tournament production operation around Japan By Fergal Ringrose, Editorial Director, Europe 
