NEP Australia selects EVS XT4K servers to power Andrews Hubs

The hubs – located in Sydney and Melbourne – will act as central production facilities. They will be used by Fox Sports Australia for the remote production of over 500 events each year taking place in nearly 30 venues around Australia. The XT4K servers will be implemented into the NEP production hubs to provide full replay solutions within this new decentralized IP-based production model.

The XT4K was chosen by NEP Australia because of the IP-focused nature of the overall project. The workflow inside the production hubs will quickly benefit from the server’s built-in native-IP connectivity which enables their implementation into any kind of live production infrastructure. This install means that Fox Sports Australia – when utilizing the production hubs – will have control of nearly 100 live channels being ingested into the hubs for a total of 36 dedicated replay channels. EVS’ live production servers will be put in place alongside Lawo’s VSM broadcast control and monitoring system, Sony video switcher and cameras and NEP’s Grand Central tool for real-time IP and device monitoring.

“We chose to implement EVS’ live production servers inside these unique, state of the art production hubs because of the flexibility they provide an IP-focused live workflow like this,” said Marc Segar, Director of Technology at NEP Australia. “This is a new kind of infrastructure – the scale of which we haven’t seen before – so to have technology from industry leaders like EVS is important to help us deliver the reliability we need in this workflow.”

The network and its two production hubs will be used by Fox Sports Australia to produce the live programming for the likes of the National Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Football League (AFL) and will be fully operational as part of the live production network by March 2018.

“The deployment of this network for live production is a major milestone in the broadcast industry’s adoption of IP-driven infrastructures and EVS is proud to be included alongside the other highly-trusted technology partners becoming a part of it,” said Muriel De Lathouwer, EVS’ CEO. “The benefits of IP within live productions are clear and the inclusion of our latest XT4K servers in this project validates EVS’ IP4Live strategy, which we launched in 2015 to deliver a smart and cost-effective transition from SDI to IP for the industry. As a result of this pioneering approach, our IP-enabled solutions uniquely combine the heritage of our technologies’ industry-leading speed and reliability with the latest advancements in connectivity that give users better operational performance and extended creative capabilities.”

About EVS

EVS provides its customers with reliable and innovative technology to enable the production of live, enriched video programming, allowing them to work more efficiently and boost their revenue streams. Its industry-leading broadcast and media production systems are used by broadcasters, production companies, post-production facilities, film studios, content owners and archive libraries around the globe. It spans four key markets – Sports, Entertainment, News and Media.

Founded in 1994, its innovative Live Slow Motion system revolutionised live broadcasting. Its reliable and integrated tapeless solutions, based around its market-leading XT server range, are now widely used to deliver live productions worldwide. Today, it continues to develop practical innovations, such as its C-Cast second-screen delivery platform, to help customers maximise the value of their media content.

The company is headquartered in Belgium and has offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and North and Latin America. Approximately 500 EVS professionals from 20 offices are selling its branded products in over 100 countries, and provide customer support globally.