How NEP is helping Norway's trotting industry to race ahead with production innovations By George Bevir Thursday, September 12, 2024 - 14:15
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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
