NAB 2023: NEP U.S. Broadcast Services Meets Demand for New Mobile Unit Connected Production Solutions
NEP Group is rolling out three new TFC-equipped, fully IP-capable mobile units within its U.S. fleet as part of its connected production strategy, marking one of the company’s most significant investments in its core broadcast business.
TFC (Total Facility Control) is NEP’s proprietary software platform that connects NEP’s Global Production Ecosystem of facilities, products and services, giving clients more options and flexibility to create and distribute content to audiences anywhere, in any configuration of onsite, remote or hybrid workflows.
Following several months of internal design and development by NEP’s global engineering teams, new mobile unit builds Supershooter 7 and Supershooter 62 were recently completed, while Supershooter CBS received a full IP 2110 infrastructure upgrade. All three remote facilities are now supporting clients nationwide, expanding NEP’s U.S. fleet of TFC-equipped mobile units to nine. NEP created its TFC-driven global production ecosystem to allow for any combination of traditional onsite broadcast support, at one or multiple event venues, with remote or centralized production capabilities managed off-site.
“The capability to tie mobile units together in a large compound using our TFC platform is in high demand, and we have responded by continuing to invest and reinvest in our offerings,” said Glen Levine, President, NEP U.S. Broadcast Services. “This new generation of IP mobile units gives clients more options and more flexibility to bring their content to life. Our teams continue to do an amazing job designing, constructing and expanding our fleet to meet these needs. Our recent wave of mobile unit innovation in launching Supershooter 7 and Supershooter 62, and upgrading Supershooter CBS, builds upon an already deep selection of interchangeable IP-powered facilities.”
NEP is committed to equipping new mobile units with TFC, with additional builds planned throughout the year, including ST7, a support unit for Supershooter 7. This follows a robust 2022, which saw the launches of SRT3 and Supershooter 6, and TFC upgrades to Supershooter 4 and EN1. Supershooter 5, released in May 2021, was the first fully IP mobile unit to be powered by TFC.
Designed to solve the industry’s issues related to IP control, TFC provides an easy-to-use broadcast control and monitoring system to streamline, simplify and speed up the configuration and connection of onsite and remote facilities. Developed internally by NEP software engineers, TFC is technology agnostic, making it compatible with virtually any technology in the broadcast and live event environment.
TFC’s ability to ease configuration reduces the amount of time needed onsite to manage increasingly complex IP-based infrastructure and reduces the risk of human error. It also offers redundancy and built-in safeguarding for all networked flows, which means more secure, stable, and streamlined infrastructure for NEP’s clients.
Three recent graduates of the NEP Broadcast Services Apprenticeship Program are assigned to Supershooter 7, NEP’s latest IP truck: Leah Koepenick, Engineer in Charge, Levi Orsinger, Engineer 2 and Daniel Maney, Engineer 3.