As the broadcast production industry continues its shift towards hybrid workflows, NEP Australia has launched a new outside broadcast (OB) facility built entirely around this hybrid environment, with software being used for all video and audio processing.
NEP Australia’s newest OB introduces an intelligent technical design for major event productions across leagues including the NRL, AFL and NBL, and is a significant departure from traditional OB infrastructure. Named HG 31, the truck houses just three racks of IT and networking equipment, handling all video and audio processing, routing and monitoring.
Rather than relying on conventional onboard production infrastructure, all production operations are managed remotely through NEP’s connected hub ecosystem, including the NEP Andrews Hubs in Melbourne and Sydney, and NEP’s Production Hub in Auckland.
HG 31 supplements traditional hardware control surfaces with software-driven touchscreens, enabling agile workflows onsite synchronised with a full hardware-based mixing board or audio console in remote production control rooms. Production and engineering teams can move between software and physical interfaces as workflows evolve, making it one of the most flexible OB units ever designed.
This combination of a compact, lightweight, software-driven OB unit working in tandem with an offsite production facility marks an industry first for top-tier live productions. The approach further advances NEP’s strategy of delivering flexible, scalable and software-defined media solutions that adapt to the evolving needs of broadcasters and rightsholders.
“This marks another milestone for NEP in the global development of our software solutions, giving broadcasters the flexibility to scale production processes and configurations up or down as needed, all within a single, easy-to-use platform,” said Dan Murphy, VP of NEP Platform, who is leading NEP Group’s software platform development globally.
“NEP has a proud tradition of combining the best-in-class technology available to deliver the right solutions for our customers. The evolving world of software processing expands this capability, and we’re excited to give customers more freedom to choose the right tools for each production and adapt even more quickly as requirements change.”
NEP’s development of software-led broadcast solutions began nearly a decade ago with the creation of TFC, NEP’s all-in-one broadcast control, orchestration, and infrastructure platform. Designed to manage the complexity of IP workflows, TFC brings hardware and software systems together into a single control environment for live production teams.
Today, TFC powers live productions across more than 120 NEP facilities and OBs worldwide and is available industrywide for rightsholders, leagues, federations, news organisations, and streamers to deploy within their own operations.
