NEP Connect (formerly SIS LIVE), the leader in critical broadcast connectivity, has provided satellite and Anylive® fibre solutions to major UK broadcast clients to enable global coverage of a host of top-flight women’s sports events, including major tournaments and global championships for football, cricket and netball.

NEP Connect provided satellite capacity for a host broadcaster of the women’s global football championship held in Paris earlier in the year. NEP’s IBC operation took feeds from the HBS, both 1080p50 and UHD, recording them as well as routing them to both the broadcasters HQ Los Angeles and the studio set-up based out of NEP UK’s UHD OB truck, Aurora,overlooking the Eiffel Tower at Cafe de l'Homme. NEP also provided standards conversion for the circuits that went directly to transmission at Pico, both in 1080p and UHD, as well as return circuits. Circuits travelled directly to and from LA where the main EVS operation was located, as well as a route via the IBC to allow local switching and redundancy.

The women’s England-Australia cricket tournament utilised NEP Connect’s Anylive network that connects 18 UK cricket venues. The Anylive network connects 240+ of the UK’s leading entertainment and sports venues and stadiums, broadcasters, network operators, channel aggregators and major switching centres.  Coverage of a global netball competition held in Liverpool was also facilitated by NEP’s Anylive® fibre network, providing robust connectivity from the venue from 12th – 21st July.

NEP Connect has also won the contract to provide satellite capacity for all matches in the DELO Women’s EHF Champions League organised by EHF Marketing from September 2019 to May 2020. NEP Connect’s Network Operations Centre (NOC) based in MediaCityUK will provide satellite service management and proactive service monitoring for these matches.

In addition, NEP has supported 26 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) events around the globe in 2019, having worked closely with them for a number of years.

David Meynell, Managing Director, NEP Connect, said, “It has arguably been the best year yet for mainstream coverage of professional women’s sports, not only significantly raising the profile and perception of these high-level women’s competitions, but also providing fantastic entertainment. NEP Connect is proud to have played a part in bringing coverage of these sports to the screen and we look forward to covering more of these events in the future.”