NEP SS3 Sets Sail for Hawaii

NEP’s latest production unit, SS3, redefines the concept of the mobile-production truck by making it possible to have all of the equipment easily removed from its 48-ft. trailer and placed in Econoline vans. The reason? To better serve clients like Oceanic Cable in Hawaii, a market where inter-island travel is a constant issue.

“There is an interesting challenge in the Hawaii with multiple-island work,” says NEP Broadcasting CTO George Hoover. “So we have built an integrated truck/flypack that can come out of the truck and work independently of the trailer.”

The trailer itself is currently making the drive from NEP’s facility near Pittsburgh to California, where it setting sail on a freighter for Hawaii. But moving a large production truck can be difficult in Hawaii because boats large enough to transport it from one island to another may run only once or twice a week. By putting the equipment into flypacks and making it possible to transport it in smaller vans, NEP will be able to move the gear via ferry service, which runs much more frequently.

The trailer is laid out like any other single expando from NEP, featuring three tiers of seating in the main production area and a separate video area. When the flypacks come out, the only thing that remains are the consoles on the second and third production benches.

The design goal was to build a flypack that two people could assemble for an event in about four hours and then break it down following the event in less than an hour.

“The flypack can be put together in a classroom for a high school basketball game or in a hotel room or under a tent,” says Hoover of the system’s flexibility.

The main trailer will be used for University of Hawaii events, and high school sports covered by Oceanic Cable will benefit from the flypack configuration. SS3 joins three NEP trucks already in Hawaii: two 53-ft. expandos and a 48-ft. SD straight truck.