Ainger and Hallman come on board as NEP Connect reveals 2019 venue expansion

NEP Connect (formerly SIS Live) has announced that it fibred close to 100 new venues over the course of 2019. This brings the reach of its Anylive Fibre Network up to 240 venues, encompassing football, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, horseracing, entertainment venues, broadcasters, telcos and national stadia.

“With some key new appointments towards the end of the year — we welcomed Chris Ainger as head of technical sales and Jeff Hallman as global network solutions architect — we are poised to build further on the growth we have already seen in 2019 throughout 2020,” said David Meynell, managing director, NEP Connect. “We will continue to provide innovative fibre and satellite connectivity solutions to the industry and are looking forward to expanding our Anylive network into more international venues and client facilities as the forthcoming year progresses.”

NEP Connect used the Anylive network and satellite communications to support a number of high-profile women’s events throughout 2019, including the women’s global football championship held in Paris earlier in the year; the women’s England-Australia cricket series; and Liverpool’s record-breaking global netball tournament. It also won the contract to provide satellite capacity for all matches in the DELO Women’s EHF Champions League up until the end of the current season.

Other high-profile projects last year included: providing fibre network broadcast HD connectivity services for Guinness PRO14 rugby coverage; centralised production for Dancing on Ice; and bespoke production solutions and fibre connectivity to ITV Studios Entertainment for the year’s biggest reality show, Love Island. It also celebrated a decade of broadcasting the Tour de France with Vsquared for ITV4.