NEP Group, the leading worldwide technical production partner supporting premier producers of live sports and entertainment, is proud to announce that several members of their team worldwide have won prestigious industry awards as 2020 comes to a close. Their CT Middle East team won Project of the Year at the AV Awards 2020 for their work on the Al Wasl Dome Inauguration; Sean Mehmet, Solutions Architect for NEP UK, won Young Talent of the Year, Broadcast at the 2020 Broadcast Tech Innovation Awards; and their Broadcast Sports International (BSI) team won an IABM BaM Awards® 2020 in the Connect category for their Mini Tx UHD.  

In addition to these prestigious awards, two NEP staff members have been recognized as “someone to watch” by major industry publications. Glen Levine, President, NEP U.S. Broadcast Services, was listed on TV Technology's 'The Watch List' 2020, and Peter Bruggink, CTO, NEP The Netherlands, was listed on TVBEurope’s 2021 Watch List.

“I am so proud of our whole team and their accomplishments,” says NEP’s CEO Brian Sullivan. “It’s wonderful to see so many of them receive industry recognition for their innovation, hard work and talent. Truly well-deserved.”

Project of the Year: AV Awards 2020

Creative Technology Middle East (CTME), an NEP Live Events company, were proud to take home the award for the Events and Entertainment Project of the Year for their work on the Al Wasl Dome Inauguration at this year’s AV Awards 2020.

The high-profile dignitaries and royalty who attended the Inauguration event were treated to a stunning bespoke projection mapping and immersive audio experience which showcased the UAE’s history and innovations, many of which will be on show at Expo 2020.

CTME provided 360-degree immersive projection on the 67.5m tall, 135m diameter dome, accompanied by an audio system. Additionally, they installed 252 Christie D4K40-RGB laser projectors which are housed in 42 bespoke projector pods around the inside perimeter of the award-winning Al Wasl dome. Each pod has two channels of triple-stacked projectors and has been designed to protect against the climate ensuring the equipment is kept cool. Due to the scale and quantity of the 84 video channels, CTME used 16 disguise gx2 servers for the generative content playout.

Andrew Reardon, Managing Director of Creative Technology Middle East, commented, “Firstly, congratulations to all shortlisted nominees and award winners, the line-up was fantastic as always. I would like to thank everyone who was involved in this project and our incredible team for turning this event around so quickly. I would also like to extend my gratitude and thanks to all the contractors involved and of course, our client Expo for trusting in our ability to create extraordinary event experiences. I am extremely proud of our team and this fantastic achievement.”

Young Talent of the Year, Broadcast: Broadcast Tech Innovation Awards

Sean Mehmet, Solutions Architect for NEP UK, took the award for Young Talent of the Year, Broadcasting at this year’s Broadcast Tech Innovation Awards. The awards celebrate some of the most exceptional tech work produced in the broadcast industry in the past year and the outstanding individuals and teams behind it.

Sean joined NEP in 2017 in the role of Media Systems Engineer. He made a name for himself as an edit and ingest expert and worked on projects such as Winter Olympics and FIIFA World Cup. He quickly proved his ability and was promoted to Solutions Architect in the NEP Media Solutions team in early 2019. Sean has since proved indispensable working on many different projects and is a leading member of the team that designed and developed NEP’s centralized production platform in the UK.

In addition, Sean has been at the core of NEP’s response to COVID-19. Working collaboratively with cross functional teams around the globe, Sean has orchestrated the build of a SRT-based streaming platform that has and continues to be used by a variety of high profile productions across the world.

Sean’s dedication and willingness to take on new aspects of broadcast engineering make him a fantastic member of the team and his ongoing appetite for research and learning means he is one of our most valued and trusted team members for all things new and innovative.

Malcolm Cowan, Head of Technology Media Solutions for NEP UK, said of Sean, "I joined Media Solutions a year ago and Sean ensured I was quickly brought up to speed with all aspects of the projects we were working on. He is a great font of knowledge and his ability to come up with working solutions to sometimes the most difficult problems is only superseded by his willingness to go the extra mile to get the best outcome for colleagues and projects. Earlier this year I became his line manager and count myself lucky to have such a talented individual working with me. He is a true asset to the company."

Connect Award Winner: The IABM BaM Awards® 2020

Broadcast Sports International (BSI), an NEP Broadcast Services company, won an IABM BaM Awards® 2020 in the Connect category for their Mini Tx UHD. The Mini Tx UHD, developed fully in-house by BSI, is the world’s smallest, low-latency, UHD wireless transmitter in the world.

Reacting to the win, Dean Coughlan, Director of Engineering & Technical Operations for BSI, said, "A few years ago, BSI took on the challenge of developing the world's smallest broadcast-quality UHD transmitter, and my team of engineers and manufacturers rose to that challenge. They have created an amazing product optimized for delivering live entertainment and sporting events. This dedicated, innovative team truly deserved this honor, and I couldn't be more proud. Our whole team at BSI would like to thank The IABM for this recognition."

Measuring just 85mm long by 56 mm wide and 28mm deep, BSI’s Mini Tx UHD can transmit in two entirely different frequency bands (e.g., 2GHz & 7GHz) via its software-defined radio, offering complete on-site spectrum flexibility without the need for changeable radio modules. But, even with its compact size, the Mini Tx UHD includes all the features expected from a traditional wireless video transmitter, and more, with pre-distortion, GPS, WiFi and a 3-axis accelerometer as standard and a dual UHF receiver to add robustness and flexibility to the camera control.

When selecting the Mini Tx UHD as the winner, the panel of judges said, “This is a huge enabler for both sports and reality TV due to the places it can be utilized, particularly when worn on the body and will unlock new camera angles and views connecting consumers to the content they are watching in more compelling ways. Provides a solution to low latency efficient UHD links for wireless cameras in an increasingly important area of live production.”

To learn more about the Mini Tx UHD, visit https://www.nepgroup.com/tech-blog/developing-the-mini-tx.