How NEP is helping Norway's trotting industry to race ahead with production innovations By George Bevir
Thursday, September 12, 2024 - 14:15
Print This Story
Trotting in Norway is a major industry. With hundreds of racing events and thousands of races every year, the sport has a dedicated audience, many of whom place bets that generate millions of Norwegian kroner annually. Norsk Rikstoto is the company tasked with overseeing horse racing betting and is responsible for delivering coverage to fans.
Supported by NEP Norway, a company that originated as a department within Norsk Rikstoto, the two organisations have worked together to share racing action with viewers - and developed several innovations over the years that are now part of the broader NEP Group.
As well as racing from Norway, Norsk Rikstoto broadcasts races from other territories, including Australia, France, and a bit closer to home, Sweden.
Each day, our afternoon coverage begins from one of the Norwegian tracks. Sometimes even during lunchtime, says Frode Martnes, executive producer at Norsk Rikstoto.
The daily broadcast we service [for the Norwegian races] is between three to five hours, depending on how many races are taking place. And that leads us into the night shift, where we might go back to Australia again, or to the US, depending on the time zone and races available. Due to the regulations in Norway, we deliver the TV pictures for everything you can bet on in Norway.
Norsk Rikstoto's journey to controlling its broadcast operations dates back 25 years when they created their own TV channel, Rikstoto Direkte.
We look after the distribution of the daily competitions along with our betting menu from early in the morning to late in the evening, says Martnes.
The next step in this evolution is Norsk Rikstoto's new OTT platform, expected to launch in early 2026. Martnes acknowledges that they may be a little behind in terms of on-demand offerings, but he emphasises the shift towards direct-to-consumer services.
Frode Martnes, executive producer at Norsk Rikstoto
We realised that we were some years behind, but we're looking forward to our new OTT platform hopefully launching in Q1 2026, he says.
What we lack with today's distribution of a linear channel is that our on-demand offering disappears. So the upsides of having an OTT platform are an important priority for us as a company in terms of attracting tomorrow's customers.
Close relationship
NEP Norway's close relationship with Norsk Rikstoto dates back to its origins as an internal department before it was sold to Mediatec and then to NEP.
It was back in 2015 that we started doing remote production [for Rikstoto] over IP, explains Terje R ijen-Hammer, director of sales at NEP Norway.
And in response to a recent RFP from Norsk Rikstoto, NEP Norway built on that relationship when it developed a connected production ecosystem, modernising the entire setup with new fibre lines and using NEP's Total Facility Control (TFC) system for both production and signal transport.
This year, NEP Norway and Norsk Rikstoto also launched a new connected production ecosystem to support Norsk Rikstoto's operation.
The system includes a Production Control Room (PCR) in the Oslo Broadcast Centre and an OB truck, with all racing venues throughout Norway connected by fibre and routed to the PCR.
This setup supports in the region of 430 productions each year, broadcasting races in real-time with low-latency transmission (one frame of delay from the arena to the broadcast centre)-an essential feature for sports betting, provided by a JPEG XS contribution network from the arena to the broadcast centre delivered by NEP.
NEP's media asset management platform, Mediabank, also plays a crucial role in the system, facilitating both live streaming and archiving. Since 2008, Mediabank has been used to manage Norsk Rikstoto's branded TV channel, Rikstoto Direkte, and has archived over 50,000 races, all tagged with relevant metadata for future access.
Mediabank's role dates back to 2008, when physical storage space for tapes became an issue. We understood we needed to digitise this, so we began utilising Mediabank, and we still use it for trotting, says Rojien-Hammer. It's been a lot of amazing innovation together with this client, where we need to solve issues with solutions that are then used across the globe.
According to R ijen-Hammer, the feedback on the new system has been positive, particularly the choice to partner with a single company that could manage everything from glass to glass -from the cameras in the arena to the broadcast center.
Remote production
Eirik Nakken, NEP Norway's director of technology, highlights the strong relationship developed with Norsk Rikstoto. NEP provides the technical setup, from cameras in the arena to distribution.
It's all remote production, says Nakken. All the arenas are equipped with fixed installed equipment, which means that the crew just shows up in the arena and then starts using the equipment. We only travel OB units when it's a larger production where we add more cameras.
Nakken explains the complexity of the production, which includes full TV production for the main channel and multiple OTT feeds for specific horses or tracks. NEP is also responsible for the playout of the linear TV channel, the OTT channels, and encoding and origin services.
We've had very close cooperation with Lawo on the audio part, Nakken adds. With so many feeds, the audio mixes have been a challenge, but NEP's use of Lawo's crystal panels has helped streamline the process.
Eirik Nakken, NEP Norway's director of technology
NEP is also developing an HTML5 graphics package based on betting data and sports data from Norsk Rikstoto, further enhancing the
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
How NEP is helping Norway's trotting industry to race ahead with production innovations By George Bevir 
