NEP Group Expands Production Control, Network Operations Center

NEP network operations center
(Image credit: NEP)

PITTSBURGHNEP Group has scaled up its connected solutions infrastructure in the United States with the launch of two new production control rooms in South Florida and tripling the size of its Dallas network operations center.

“Broadcast rights are evolving in creative ways, and more live content is being produced today than ever before,” NEP Connected Solutions President Joshua Liemer said. “With NEP’s Connected Solutions, we’re guiding our customers as they tap into the full ecosystem of NEP media services, supporting their entire content lifecycle from capture to distribution.”

As part of NEP’s Connected Solutions expansion, NEP Production Hub South Florida now features 19 production control rooms (PCRs), following the addition of two new large-scale PCRs.

With these investments, NEP is enhancing its support to production partners across the entire content life cycle—from capture to global distribution—helping broadcasters, rightsholders, streamers, sports leagues and other content owners create, manage and monetize live and recorded content with greater scale, flexibility and reliability, it said.

At the heart of NEP’s Connected Solutions in the U.S. are three geographically diverse production hubs in South Florida, New York and Los Angeles. The NEP Production Hub South Florida build-out included new audio control rooms, a new insert stage and a new executive screening room, NEP said.

This hub is purpose-built to support simultaneous, high-volume productions across sports, news and entertainment. The facility also includes 12 integration pods, 22 voiceover booths, six insert stages, a master control room (MCR) and an on-site engineering network operations center (NOC). Together, these resources provide a robust environment for connected and remote production workflows, NEP said.

In addition to enhancements in South Florida, NEP has also added resources and infrastructure to its New York and Los Angeles hubs to accommodate an expanded production slate throughout the year.

“This recent investment in new facilities and infrastructure across our connected network in the U.S. is about more than adding space,” Liemer said. “It’s about unlocking greater capacity, flexibility and innovation for our partners across the globe. As the demand increases for the capture, delivery and monetization of content, we continue to pride ourselves on bringing the entire value chain to our customers so they are positioned for success in the evolving media landscape.”

NEP’s Dallas Datacenter, an Equinix Tier 4 facility, serves as the crucial network operations center within NEP’s Connected Solutions ecosystem. It has recently tripled in size to accommodate increasing demand for high-volume signal management and backend operations.

The facility now has space for several more operator positions, as well as dedicated areas for monitoring network health and infrastructure. Since launching in 2023, NEP’s Dallas Datacenter has delivered signal acquisition, real-time monitoring and engineering support across a broad range of client productions.

“The expansion of our Dallas Datacenter and network operations is a direct response to the evolving needs of our clients and the scale of modern live production, providing them with a smarter, more connected infrastructure they can grow with,” said Steve Grigely, senior vice president of Technical Operations.

NEP’s recent facility expansions in the U.S. have supported a full slate of productions for clients across sports and entertainment in recent months, including ongoing work with Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), YouTube, Netflix, and NEP’s recent role providing end-to-end support of DAZN’s match center operations for global coverage of the Club World Cup.

More information is available on the company’s website.

CATEGORIES

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.