Live From PyeongChang: NEP’s Glen Levine Discusses NEP’s Super Week, Commitment to Games

From Super Bowl LII straight to the Olympics, the vendor supports NBC, other clients

What began as a Super Week for NEP will end just the same. The company’s NCPVIII production truck is in PyeongChang, South Korea, to play a key role in NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Feb. 9.

Glen Levine says NEP’s philosophy is to make sure clients’ needs are met.

“It’s been a great week for NEP, and now we are here supporting multiple clients,” says Glen Levine, president, U.S., NEP. “We expect to have a very successful Olympics as we have in the past, and we are proud to support NBC and all of our clients here.”

From a truck perspective, NEP has three onsite. NCPVIII will handle the Opening Ceremony and then move to the Hockey I venue. The truck will also play a role as a support truck for the NBC’s unilateral cameras for the Closing Ceremony (the production team for which will cut the show from Control Room X in the IBC). And two other units, Iridium and Zinc, are on hand for NBC’s coverage of figure skating (at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio those trucks handled gymnastics for NBC).

One challenge for NEP was the overlap of the end of the NFL and college-football seasons and the shipping dates for trucks that needed to be in South Korea. It takes about 16 days for the trucks to sail from the U.S. to South Korea, and one step NEP took to ensure that process went smoothly was to fly in drivers from the U.S.

NEP’s Zinc truck is alongside Iridium for NBC’s skating coverage.

“They drove the trucks on and off the ships so there was no chance of damage,” says Levine.

This is also Bexel’s first Olympics as part of the NEP family. The broadcast-services company has historically played various roles at the Olympics, and that continues here in PyeongChang.

“The merger has been great,” notes Levine. “Bexel has a very similar culture to us, and the transition was pretty seamless. There is a positive energy at Bexel now that they are part of NEP.”

He points out that NEP’s relationship with NBC at the Olympics began in 1988. Although NEP has grown tremendously in 30 years, one thing remains the same: a close relationship with the client.

“It’s all about the people, and the people that work for us represent the customer, and the customers respect them,” says Levine. “We try to make sure it’s truly a partnership. We have a small-company feel with big-company resources.”

NEP has approximately 60 production-team members onsite, working in various roles with the clients.

For more of our coverage from the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, including interviews, videos, podcasts, and more, visit our SportsTech Live Blog.