
NEP Australia Rides IP Tech to Make Andrews Hub, In-Field Facilties Fully 4K Capable NEP Australias Director of Technology Marc Segar says a local demand for 4K content drove the commitment By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, June 28, 2022 - 7:57 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
NEP Australia has been hard at work in recent months, and not just on productions big and small. The company has also embraced 4K in a big way, with all facilities, both those with wheels and those without, now capable of true 4K production.
This is driven by local demand for 4K as there are a couple of broadcasters that are pushing the 4K boundaries which is pretty cool from our perspective, says Marc Segar, NEP Australia, director of technology. And that pushed us to look at upgrading all of our in-the-field and acquisition facilities. So, it means new cameras, new lenses and there's a whole bunch of replay channels that are also upgraded to 4K in a very short timeframe.
Centralized and IP-based production facilities have helped NEP Australia become fully 4K capable.
NEP was given about six months to complete the project and as of June 1, five mobile units as well as the Andrews Hubs have made the leap.
It's not so much in the networking because the networking is scalable so that part is simpler to switch to 4K, explains Segar. And in fact, we were already covering half of our events in 4K and have been doing both HD and 4K since 2018, so it's not alien to us. But being 100% 4K capable at the Hubs is new.
Segar says NEP Australia has developed what it calls the Hybrid Grip Truck which is basically a tender vehicle that carries the cameras, lenses, cable heads, tripods, and other gear.
It also has a small acquisition unit at the front of it with lightweight networking and using cameras that are IP native, he says. This minimizes the hardware required on site, reducing the footprint from two trucks to one truck. It also lowers our cost base, since we only need to move one truck. This has a positive environmental impact as fuel needs are reduced by 50 percent.
Those less-resource heavy vehicles are tied in via fiber to the Andrews Hubs (one in Sydney and one in Melbourne) which is where the core production team produces the show.
They don't experience anything less than they would do if they were in the field, he says. We put them into a centralized facility and give them the same experience that we get on site.
There are still some 1080p sources involved in the productions as Xmo cameras or POV and PTZ cameras have not made the leap to full 4K operations.
I don't really see the point in moving PTZ cameras to 4K, because they need the pretty good lens to be resolved in the right resolution for 4K, adds Segar. And if you actually benchmark them and look at the image from a 1080p PTZ converted to 4K, it's not worth bringing back the bandwidth and dealing with the bandwidth internally for 4K.
Five OB units are 100% 4K from the ground up. The remaining legacy trucks have upgraded connected kits', and the truck operates in 1080P locally with all 4K signals coming back to the hub.
We want the images from the camera back at the Hub, so that's been the compromise to make the Hubs 100 percent 4K, he adds.
NEP Australia's IP25 is the latest truck to hit the road, and it shares a lot of the common network design found in NEP's newly minted Supershooter 6 in the U.S.
They both share common networks, common infrastructure, and common design, says Segar.
A big challenge for true 4K is the impact on replay channel resources, and Segar says NEP Australia offers clients the opportunity to work with either 4K replays or 1080p.
There is a small compromise with 1080p for replays, but generally content is not persistent, or on air long enough as it's moving quickly, he explains. If it's not one of your key match coverage cameras you don't really need to capture it in native 4K.
The COVID pandemic also resulted in NEP building out smaller facilities in Adelaide and Brisbane. EVS operators, for example, can go to either of those offices and use a control surface to tap into hardware located in Sydney or Melbourne.
There's no rack room needed, just a half-rack with a couple of network switches for monitoring, says Segar. The Brisbane facility does have an audio room built into it with an audio panel, speakers for monitoring, and video monitoring.
What's next for NEP Australia? In March of 2023 the plan is to add HDR into the mix, build out a Dolby Atmos control room, and move to Grass Valley production switchers/vision mixers, following their use on a major sports production in the last quarter of 2022.
We'll move to Grass Valley vision mixers because when we upgrade to 4K, we don't lose any resources with them, and that was critical for us, says Segar. We won't offer something to a client that is compromised.
Also look for two more trucks to hit the road in 2023.
There's always going to be a market for the big double-expanding trailers, he adds. That's not going to go away. People still want to be on site, and we are giving them many different solutions.
More from Sports Video Group
16/07/2025
Deltatre Acquires Endeavor Streaming in Major Streaming Industry Move The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025 By Brandon Costa, Direc...
16/07/2025
SVG Regional Sports Production Summit 2025: All Sessions Now Available to Watch ...
15/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: FOX Sports Aims To Capture Chatty Players on the Fi...
15/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: From Live Event Coverage to Studio Shows, MLB Netwo...
15/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: FOX Sports' Francisco Contreras and Tom Lynch o...
15/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star: FOX Sports' Production Is Bigger Than Ever in Steamy...
15/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star: FOX Sports Director Matt Gangl and Producer Pete Machesk...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: ESPN Preps for Home Run Derby Broadcast While Produ...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: ESPN Operations on Supporting Monday's Home Run...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: ESPN's Home Run Derby: Statcast Edition' T...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: ESPN Producer Scott Matthews Goes Inside the Home R...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: ESPN's Phil Orlins on Adding Live Drone AR Smar...
14/07/2025
Sony's New Coach's Headset Was Designed in Collaboration With the NFL Featuring a custom dynamic boom mic, the headset will debut in the fall By Dan Da...
14/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: MLB Network's Marc Caiafa and Tom Guidice on th...
13/07/2025
Live From MLB All-Star 2025: MLB Network Marks Five Straight Years of Onsite MLB...
11/07/2025
Behind the Mic: Amazon Prime Preps for First Season of NBA Action; MSG Networks ...
11/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Suite Studios' Craig Hering on Adapting to Client...
11/07/2025
2025 SVG Content Management Forum Breaks Down AI's Impact, Continued Transit...
11/07/2025
A Journey HOME: University of Nebraska's HuskerVision Goes IP Leaders from the HuskerVision and Lawo share their IP learnings By SVG Staff
Friday, July 1...
11/07/2025
CMSI, Remote Picture Labs, Ace ESPN's Cloud-Based Editing Efforts for Wimble...
11/07/2025
Netflix Enters the Live-Boxing-Production Ring for Round 2 With Historic Taylor-...
10/07/2025
5G for all? What the DFL's use of Easy5G and RefCam could mean for events in...
10/07/2025
Save the Date: PGA TOUR Studios Welcomes SVG Remote Production Summit on Oct 14-...
10/07/2025
Cloud on the Road: How Remote-Production-Service Providers Are Adapting to a New...
10/07/2025
Seattle Kraken's Ryan Schaber on the NHL Team Taking Live Game Productions I...
10/07/2025
FOX Sports Reboots Small Control Room in Los Angeles as Hub for Vertical-First P...
10/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: MSE's Zach Leonsis, ViewLift's Rick Allen Go Deep on Joint...
09/07/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment, ViewLift Unveil Broadcast/Streaming Joint Ven...
09/07/2025
SVG Europe Audio State of Wireless Mics Forum: If we lose the spectrum, it...
09/07/2025
Tech Focus: Athlete Audio - Venues Provide Sound Just for the Players From locker room to field of play, personalized systems help rev up the athletes By Dan D...
08/07/2025
Groundbreaking Gamecocks: Inside University of South Carolina's Four-Control...
08/07/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment's Samantha Brady on the Power of the RSN...
08/07/2025
Live From 2025 FIFA Club World Cup: FIFA, HBS Focus on Tournament Wrap, With an ...
08/07/2025
SVG Rewind: NESN Goes Behind the Scenes of 1975 Red Sox Retro Broadcast NESN is following up the retrocast with a week-long celebration of the Green Monster By...
07/07/2025
1-2 Punch: The Cloud, Generative AI, and the Future of Sports-Content Distributi...
07/07/2025
Tests and decisions: Formula E host broadcaster Aurora on launching new AR graph...
07/07/2025
Building tension: Using new AR graphics for storytelling at the Formula E penult...
07/07/2025
Altitude Sports' Matt Krol on the Success of the RSN's In-Arena Postgame...
07/07/2025
SVG Rewind: Four NFL Clubs Bring Us on Set of Respective Media Day Shoots An in-depth conversation with 49ers Laura Johnson, Ravens Jay O'Brien, Las Vegas R...
07/07/2025
Cosm To Build Fifth Shared Reality Venue in Cleveland as Part of Bedrock's ...
02/07/2025
Progressive realism: Aurora on taking up the broadcast reins for World RX alongs...
02/07/2025
Great speed: New host broadcaster Aurora on getting the World RX 2025 season pro...
02/07/2025
Seat of its pants: Aurora boxes clever and looks ahead for the FIA as new host b...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: EBU, BBC Sport and Sunset Vine talk coverage plans, ...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Women's Super League launches new content series...
02/07/2025
UEFA Women's Euro 2025: Ignite puts fans and players front and centre with t...
02/07/2025
Storytelling in the Live Game Broadcast: ESPN Director Jimmy Platt Breaks Down t...
02/07/2025
CONCACAF's Miguel Angel Garcia on the Gold Cup's Enhanced 2025 Productio...
01/07/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Spyrosoft's Jonathan Witty on Futher Business Exp...
01/07/2025
The NIL Effect: How the Shifting Business of College Athletics Impacts On-Campus...