NEP, Casablanca providing DSNG for TV Bandeirantes and others

A little under two years since announcing its partnership, NEP’s collaboration with Casablanca Online is reaching its highest profile yet with OB production and transmission delivery at the World Cup, which takes place in Brazil through until 13 July.

As part of its agreement, signed in October 2013, NEP developed a new HD OB truck specifically designed for the Brazilian market, and is continuing to provide maintenance, engineering training and account management support. This OB vehicle is a 12 metre, single-expansion trailer that supports up to 20 HD cameras and includes three EVS HD video servers to enable tapeless digital recording workflows. The core set-up also includes a 48-fader Calrec Artemis Beam digital audio console, including 5.1 capability.

A further OB van is also presently on the ground in Brazil for the World Cup, with NEP and Casablanca providing a range of production and uplink services for clients including Brazilian sports cable network TV Bandeirantes. On a related note, the partners also provided services for TV Globo during the World Cup draw held last year.

NEP UK MD Steve Jenkins comments: “Casablanca have good strong relationships with a number of the major broadcasters, providing SNG uplinks and more, so it has proven to be a good way of finding access to the market. Through this joint approach, in addition to providing the new vehicle, we are able to provide additional facilities they can take to the clients they are supporting, which include the likes of Bandsports and TV Globo.”

While NEP has garnered important new contacts and connections, Casablanca has gained confidence. “We have supported Casablanca to become more independent,” says Jenkins. “They [already had] a great asset base and good knowledge and contacts. But by providing initial training assets and so forth, we have allowed them to become more self-sufficient and approach [fresh] clients about offering services.”

Although Jenkins admits that he would be “keen to see more work [in the country], obviously,” the partnership is now based on “good trust and respect”, and has undoubtedly furnished NEP with vital local knowledge in preparing for Brazil 2014. “We were aware that we had to travel a bit earlier [than might usually be the case], to get all our gear there on time and so forth,” he notes, adding: “That kind of knowledge is one of the great advantages of having a local partner that doesn’t assume we necessarily know the market back to front.”