National Mobile Television (NMT) will have exclusive access to and responsibility for twin 53-foot HD-ready edit and transmission mobile units owned by Keslow Television's Location Solutions, the companies announced.
Keslow Television vice president and general manager Jim Palmer described the trucks, LS-1 and LS-2, as "nontraditional" mobile units because they are multistandard, multiformat edit facilities that can serve as complete broadcast centers.
"Our clients will now be able to look to the NMT-Location Solutions relationship as a 'one-stop solution' to manage large events, as opposed to, say, engaging NMT for just the production end and a company like ours to provide the added facilities of a broadcast center," Palmer said. "Previously, a large event might have required three or four mobile units, all handling different functions. Now, in some cases, we can bring in just two mobile units, but actually be giving clients more services."
"This partnership allows us to offer an extremely wide range of services now that we were not able to offer in-house previously," said Jerry Gepner, president of NMT.
The agreement between the two mobile companies grew out of a meeting that occurred shortly after NAB 2002.
Both parties immediately realized the potential benefits to be gained not only by each other, but also by each company's customers.
"The Location Solution trucks are not only digital but also HD-ready, so we can easily marry them to any of our digital or HD facilities," Gepner said. "Also, particularly in the entertainment industry, on-site or supplemental editing capabilities are often required. Having the Location Solutions trucks in our inventory solves the whole challenge of having to fly these services in, house them off-site somewhere or use traditional edit houses. We can deliver full-service facilities, easily and quickly on-site."
The Location Solutions brand will remain as a separate entity because of the brand recognition that Location Solutions has achieved on its own, Gepner said.
NMT currently provides facilities and services for more than 6,000 events annually for clients including major broadcast and cable networks and independent producers.
