Sound guy: NEP's Neville Hooper on innovating and developing audio wherever possible By Paul Mac
Monday, May 17, 2021 - 15:13
Print This Story
Neville Hooper is deputy head of sound at NEP, one of the biggest jobs in broadcast audio. He must ensure top quality delivery of primetime sports for a variety of high-profile network clients with equally high-profile broadcast rights.
Hooper is an active member of SVG Europe and can be spotted getting stuck in at most of our audio events. Moreover, right from his teenage years, Hooper has always been a sound guy.
Bands to broadcasting
Graduating from Solent University having made an early start in bands and touring after finishing school, Hooper says: I did have a choice. One of the bands I was in could have had a bit of success, but I knew it wouldn't have been for long. I also had a look at studying popular music and recording at university, but in the end I took a last minute opportunity to join a new broadcast course. It was one of those happy accidents; I've had a long and happy career.
There was a defining moment during his studies, when Hooper got a chance to ride along on a couple of jobs with a BBC OB unit out of Kendal Avenue. That confirmed it for me. I thought this is what I'd like to do'.
After his studies, Hooper got a job with Global in the UK, which was created from the OB properties of Yorkshire, Anglia, and Thames Television, and subsequently merged with Visions in 2000.
At its heart, great audio engineering is creative and it's nice to see young people coming through from a variety of different fields
He had several roles at Visions, but possibly the biggest thus far came when Visions won the Premier League contract with Sky in 2001, prompting the build of a new truck and the refurbishment of another. Hooper became the main guarantee engineer on that project.
Since then, he has specialised in football coverage, including the Premier League for Sky, and as host broadcaster on a number of Champions League finals.
He notes: I was the lead audio engineer on the Wembley Champions League finals in 2011 and 2013 for Sky and for ITV. I also did host broadcast at the 2006 world cup. We covered the Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund stadiums there.
High pressure situation
Being the host broadcaster for any event is a high-pressure situation, but for Hooper and for NEP, it is an opportunity to push standards further. We like to set the benchmark high, he says. We go to a lot of events where there are other host broadcasters, and we know what we like and what we don't. At Wembley in 2011 our aim was to make ours the best host broadcast we'd ever seen. So, for example, we had spoken idents on every audio source and picture idents on every video source; that was in the days with MADI and so on. Of course, now with things like the JoeCo devices, that's relatively straight forward. Hopefully, we set the standard for future events; we do try and go the extra mile to deliver the best service we can.
When we went from discreet audio routers to embedded routers, that was massive change and cut the amount of cable we needed by half. The next big step is losing the router completely
NEP has a set of carefully crafted core values that guide its services, which Hooper says is part of what makes the NEP worldwide offering so attractive. The same level of service can be expected wherever you go to any of around 100 offices and bases in 21 countries and counting. We see ourselves giving the top end offering, he says. To innovate and develop wherever possible, and practical.
These days, Hooper has less time on the road and delegates more events, collaborating with other senior engineers at NEP. There's myself, Stuart Cruice, and Rob Jackson, says Hooper. Stuart is delivering the Olympics for Discovery, so he will be off to Japan for nine weeks at the beginning of June. We're deploying four trucks to the Euros, and for that I've handed over responsibility to one of the guarantee engineers on that; he's one of our rising stars and has done a brilliant job.
Fostering new talent
Again, NEP puts effort into giving new talent responsibility and the opportunity to grow. According to Hooper, that is one of the things that keeps the craft alive in the face of so much technological upheaval.
At its heart, great audio engineering is creative and it's nice to see young people coming through from a variety of different fields. People who have grown up with the new generation of technologies are coming through and are extremely comfortable with it; but in the end, a microphone is still a microphone and it's still analogue. You cannot forget about first principles. If a mic's buzzing, you need to be able to deal with it.
Interestingly, of all the emerging technologies and recent advances, Hooper sees networking as possibly the most significant shift in recent times, and in particular the move to SMPTE 2110 and NEP's move to using the Dante audio networking protocol.
Everything is moving to a network-based environment. We had a dabble in Dante, and found it to be virtually bomb-proof, so we stuck with it and invested in more and more Dante kit. That paid dividends when it came to post lockdown football, for example. All the commentary on the Premier League for Sky has been done with Dante for a couple of seasons now, and it's worked very well.
It's interesting; I had a discussion recently about how we can move things forward, and I think there are limitations that even now we still accept that we don't have to live with anymore thanks to networking. A broadcast ends up being one big network with everything just sat on it and everyone taking and giving what they need to. That's the Nirvana. When we went from discreet audio routers to embedded rou
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Get Hands-On with Interfaces & Mic Preamp Brands
If youre after a new interface or preamp, then GearExpo UK is the place to be! Well have a whole host of au...
10/06/2026
November 13-14 2026, The Midway, San Francisco
Following their recent rebranding, MONO Music Conference (formerly Music Expo) have officially announced thei...
10/06/2026
Debut instrument free for limited time
deFORM is the debut release from newly founded developer ebbandflow, and it's being offered as a free download fo...
10/06/2026
Alone Australia Season 4: Meet the Cast
10 June, 2026
Media releases
WATCH THE TRAILER
Smash-hit survival series Alone Australia drops its highly anticipa...
10/06/2026
DEADLY THEN, DEADLY NOW, DEADLY ALWAYS: SBS & NITV IGNITE NAIDOC WEEK 2026 WITH ...
10/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF advance laser-based drone defense with THORIS LCS Rohde & Schwarz is showcasing THORIS at ILA 2026: A sovereign, end to end counter...
10/06/2026
MAHLE and Rohde & Schwarz develop application for sensor testing of modern drive...
10/06/2026
Production and Development Funding supports the creation of compelling, commercially viable, artistic and culturally relevant South African screen content. Deve...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
10 Jun 2026
VEON's Banglalink Brings Every World Cup 2026 Match to Football...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
How to watch every ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 match live on Sky Sports
Where is the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 availabl...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
P RLA brings first-ever Beautifully Clean Oral Care'...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
Sky reveals pulse-pounding first teaser trailer for upco...
10/06/2026
Wuppertal June 10, 2026
Riedel Artist at the Heart of the 14th World Live Neurovascular ConferenceAt the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Li...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC
Product
10 June 2026
GlobalSouth KoreaJapan
Link copied to c...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions
Business
10 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
N...
10/06/2026
Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
Sound guy: NEP's Neville Hooper on innovating and developing audio wherever possible By Paul Mac 
