New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Telecast Fiber Systems’ equipment to support transmission of all production signals between the network’s new 44,000sq ft HD production center in Watertown, MA, with Boston studio facilities at Fenway Park and TD Banknorth Garden, and an uplink facility in Needham, MA.
The Telecast Viper I, Viper II and Adder modular fiber-optic systems are being employed to leverage 14mi of a leased fiber network from RCN. This will allow the all-sports network to send communications between its headquarters, sports venues and uplink facility; perform monitoring; and move actual audio and video signals from Red Sox baseball and Boston Bruins hockey games to production facilities in Watertown.
With its Viper II systems, NESN puts three uncompressed HD feeds and a combination of analog and Ethernet feeds, as well as L-band satellite return monitoring feeds, on redundant RCN fibers. This four-channel and eight-channel optical multiplexing (CWDM) capacity enables the network to use fewer cross-town fibers for its transmissions, with room for additional channels or signals in the future.
Post-game shows and other programming from the linked venues can be controlled from the Watertown facility, with sources coming directly into the network’s new control room. Because the HD signal remains uncompressed from capture through production and is compressed only at the satellite uplink, NESN is able to maintain high-quality images.
For more information, visit www.telecast-fiber.com.
