By Rick Price, president, moeBAM! Venue Media Services, and committee chair, SVG Venue Technology Initiative
Scott Nardelli formed an alliance with Bexel in September 2002 in response to a growing need for fiber-optic solutions in the broadcast market. He has been a pioneer and at the forefront of the deployment and integration of optical technology in broadcasting.
Scott Nardelli, Bexel ESS
In 2008, Nardelli joined Bexel as chief business development officer to capitalize on the increasing need for alliances and partnerships. He also retained management responsibility of BBS Fiber Optic Solutions and is responsible for Bexel's rental operations. In 2009, he was named as SVP, sales and business development, and his responsibilities were expanded to include executive management of sales and strategic business initiatives.
Nardelli has been involved in the broadcast-cabling design and installation for more than 100 stadiums, arenas, and entertainment venues. During that time, he has expanded Bexel's breadth and scope to include specialty integration projects, specialty vehicles for broadcast optical equipment, ESU, data storage, and broadcast Internet solutions.
In late 2012, Nardelli took the helm of a new division and is SVP/GM of Bexel Engineered Systems and Solutions (ESS).
Tell us a little about Scott Nardelli. How did you get started?
I've been with Bexel since 2002. Prior to that, I had my own company, Broadcast Fiber Resources. And before that, I was in the telecommunications industry. That's really where I got started in fiber optics. I managed a construction company that built networks for stadiums and arenas as well as office towers, office buildings, campuses, and similar projects.
How I got started with fiber optics in broadcasting was a World Cup skiing event that was going to happen at Breckenridge (Ski Resort in Colorado). This was back in '95 or '96. Breckenridge was a client of ours, and we put in a large, permanent, fiber-optic infrastructure for World Cup skiing for ESPN. It was right around the time of the switch from SD to HD. You know how they say business is 30% preparation, 30% perspiration, and 40% luck? For me, it was rather fortuitous to have knowledge about fiber optics in an industry that was somewhat new to fiber optics: television.
For the first few years, that was what Bexel predominantly did: fiber-optics support for broadcasters. This included everything from temporary installations to fiber-optic equipment to testing and certifying networks and building up fiber-optic cables when there wasn't a lot of the product standards that are available today. We were kind of on the forefront in those early days of being innovative and creative, trying to come up with solutions to temporary applications for fiber optics, specifically for broadcasting.
I assume it was through that work that the need for permanent fiber installs in venues became apparent?
[In the] earlier days at the venues, there wasn't really a standardized specification for what type of fiber should be installed or how many strands should be provided. In addition, there was a lot of confusion about the cost of fiber optics. Everybody thought fiber was expensive, that it was cost-prohibitive. And, specifically, in the broadcast market, it had this reputation of being unreliable.
Over the years, we basically proved that wrong. We proved that optical fiber was reliable, that it was robust, and that it was a cost-effective technology to use. Now we see facilities moving further and further away from copper to all-optical infrastructures. The only downside, really, to the optical infrastructures is the simple fact that it doesn't typically provide power and a lot of the devices that are deployed on the end of the cables require power. SMPTE Hybrid cable solved that issue for the cameras, but it still exists for other equipment.
Last time SVG spoke with you was about a year ago with the launch of the ESS business unit of Bexel that you lead. Tell us about ESS and your vision for it.
ESS was the formalization of Bexel as a systems and solutions provider for permanent installations. Bexel, for a long time, has been known as a rental company. From 2002 through 2008 all the way up until 2012, we did a lot of integration and product sales quietly at Bexel, and we typically did it for specific clients. But it wasn't a formal market initiative for us. In 2012, we decided to capitalize on two things we do really well: one is infrastructure build-outs, and the second is the implementation of technology: building flypacks, building control rooms, building Internet studios, and other special systems. We decided to formalize the initiative, and that is one of the primary drivers behind ESS.
ESS is basically three groups at Bexel: it's the systems and solutions side, which is specialty integration; there is the infrastructure-construction side of it; and then there's what we call expanded services, which is where we work with major event producers to manage the infrastructure - both permanent and temporary - at a facility.
The expanded-services group accesses the best of all that Bexel does and rolls it up into one very large package: if you want to be able to rent equipment from us, build out a control room, use temporary infrastructure, potentially have some permanent infrastructure put in, and then have on-site production services throughout the entire event, that's what the expanded-services side of ESS offers.
What percentage of business for the Bexel ESS division is sports/entertainment venues?
Sports/entertainment venues are probably 70% of what we do on the infrastructure side of business, and the balance is more diverse (educational, hospitals, and corporate). The systems and solutions side of our business now represents approximately 50%
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By Rick Price, president, moeBAM! Venue Media Services, and committee chair, SVG Venue Technology Initiative
