LOS ANGELES—The teams that take the field for the big collegiate and professional sporting events that Fox Sports covers throughout the year make sure they have a game plan, it is no different for the Fox Sports production team when its pregame and studio shows go to remote locations to cover them. Key at any venue is internet connection, which Fox Sports prepares for with Cradlepoint’s cloud-managed COR series routers.
“Fifteen to 20 years ago, internet connectivity at a remote site was not a necessity to have a successful show,” said Raul Ramirez, director of IT broadcast operations at Fox Sports. “Now it’s the first question I get when I walk into a TV broadcast compound: ‘When is the internet coming up?’”
Locations for pregame or studio shows are usually chosen for aesthetics, not necessarily infrastructure. But rather than be beholden to what may be available through the location or what can be purchased through a local ISP, Cradlepoint COR series routers are part of a portable communications case Fox Sports uses that can accommodate various WAN links through one device. These systems provide constant connectivity for the production team’s networking needs.
“When we show up at an event, it can take an entire day to bring up wired internet,” Ramirez said. “Now we just take the portable communication case, connected by Cradlepoint, and we are able to bring up the network while we continue unloading and setting up equipment.”
Using 4G LTE-based internet access via the Cradlepoint routers provides a sense of confidence to the production crew that it will have reliable connectivity before, during and after the broadcast.
