Ryder Cup 2023: NEP Connect delivers all the action from Rome to the world
NEP Connect is once again on site at the Ryder Cup, with the company’s European Tour-dedicated NEP 58 dual antenna uplink truck in place at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.
The truck will be transmitting a number of feeds including the backup world feed, and the featured match with the main world feed delivered by fibre into the NEP Connect NOC in MediaCity, Salford, UK.
From the NOC, NEP Connect is uplinking the main world feed and the featured match feed for the European broadcasters and also sending these to Sydney via the NEP Connect Anylive fibre network for transmission to Asiasat 5 satellite for the Asian Broadcasters.
NEP 58 is manned by NEP Connect lead broadcast and communications engineer Alan Costello (pictured), a dedicated golf engineer who has been working on coverage of the sport since 2004.
“We have always put the dual antenna truck on site,” said NEP Connect international sales director Helen Jeffrey, who has been working with European Tour Productions for nearly 23 years; this is her 11th Ryder Cup.
She explains that this is the second Ryder Cup in Europe with fibre at the course.
“Previously we would transmit the main and back up world feed directly from the site. By putting the fibre in, the main world feed goes on the fibre and then to our NOC at MediaCityUK where we uplink to the satellite. While this adds an extra path, it does add additional diversity and far more content to be sent out from site without additional cost.
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“Four years ago in France, we had the same truck and engineer on site, again providing backup to the fibre, not only because it was the first on fibre – but European Tour Productions would never go for a Ryder Cup without considerable diversity in place for it’s biggest and most prestigious biennial event.
“We’re very proud to be supporting European Tour Productions with delivering the Ryder Cup to millions in over 50 countries around the world.”