NFL Network has gone live from newly-expanded facilities with the largest Riedel intercom system in the United States. The cable network has undergone a significant upgrade that added a second studio, ten edit bays, and increased its Riedel communication configuration three-fold. The project’s launch coincided with the debut of NFL Network’s eight-game package of regular season games that began on Thanksgiving night.
The Riedel installation consists of three Artist 128-port mainframes and nearly 100 control panels. NFL Network chose Riedel’s Artist digital intercom platform based upon the organisation’s successful history with the manufacturer’s equipment. The Artist 128 represents Riedel’s next generation intercom with increased scalability and flexibility. It was designed to benefit mission-critical applications such as broadcast studios and remote production.
The platform consists of a fibre-based backbone providing a decentralised network infrastructure for production intercom and the distribution of analogue and digital audio. The system is fully redundant, all modules are hot-swappable and extensive on-line, real time system monitoring as well as multiple computer control capability via Riedel’s Director Configuration software allows reliable and rapid repair, so essential to live sports operation.
NFL Network launched on November 4, 2003 to 11.5 million homes, making it the most widely distributed sports network in the history of cable and satellite television. It presently runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and reaches over 41 million subscribers with more than 1,500 hours of original programming.
