NEP Australia, the country’s leading provider of outside broadcast and studio solutions, has delivered the world’s first live-to-air, uncompressed high definition (HD) remote production using SMPTE 2110* in conjunction with FOX SPORTS, Australia’s leading sports broadcaster.

Last night’s FOX SPORTS broadcast of the Hyundai A-League match between Brisbane and Perth held at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium was produced and directed 920 kms away in Eveleigh (Sydney) using NEP’s new permanent centralised production facility, The Andrews Hub.

Live uncompressed HD signals from 10 Sony HDC 4300 4K/HD cameras at the venue – including high frame rate cameras – were sent to Sydney via NEP’s new countrywide Distributed Production Network (DPN), with a fully redundant network at 50Gbs.

A comprehensive HD video conferencing system enabled the ‘split’ production environment in which all program production staff – including the director, vision switcher, audio director, graphics and replay operators – were based at the Andrews Hub Sydney control room.

The final program was then delivered to FOX SPORTS via IP for broadcast.

NEP Australia’s Director of Technology, Marc Segar, said: “This is a milestone for the broadcasting industry and ushers in a completely new way of bringing live television to air.

“Never before has a broadcaster received a program ready to put to air via uncompressed video and SMPTE 2110 transmitted over such a long distance in a 100 per cent internet protocol (IP) facility.

“Last night’s event proves that broadcast technical professionals can now work across many locations using modern communication tools to maintain a team approach – regardless of distance.  

“We thank our FOX SPORTS colleagues for sharing our vision of the future of live event broadcasting and look forward to delivering their tier-one ball sports in this way from now on.”

FOX SPORTS Australia’s Head of Technology, Steve Edwards, said: “Our partners at NEP have done a great job not only in building these world class, state of the art, all-IP facilities, but also in working with our production and technical teams to enable the next generation of sports broadcast production.

“Their willingness to embrace the newest IP technologies and emerging IP broadcast standards has been the key to success so far.”

Last night’s Hyundai A-League match marks the start of NEP’s plans to cover up to seven concurrent events from its centralised Andrews Hubs at Sydney (Eveleigh) and Melbourne (Southbank), beginning in early February 2018 with the start of the AFL and NRL seasons.

*Note to editors

The SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers®) ST 2110 Professional Media Over Managed IP Networks suite of standards forms part of the movement toward one common internet protocol (IP)-based mechanism for the professional media industries. More at https://www.smpte.org/st-2110

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About NEP Australia

NEP is Australia’s largest and most experienced outside broadcast and studio facilities company, providing broadcast infrastructure for major sport and studio productions across the country and internationally. NEP facilitates more than 2,000 hours of Australian broadcast television each year, including live sport (NRL, AFL, Cricket, MotoGP, Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix), popular series and drama (My Kitchen Rules, The Voice, Family Feud, The Chase, Australian Ninja Warrior) and live entertainment and event programs (Dancing with the Stars, The Footy Show and the annual Logie awards). The company is also internationally recognised for its technical expertise in host broadcasting and major events, managing complex projects including the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit, and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. NEP Australia is wholly owned by NEP Group Inc. More information at  https://www.nepgroup.com.au/    https://www.nepgroup.com/