NEP Platform: Orchestrating Live Production's Next Evolution

PITTSBURGH, PA – March 24, 2026 – In a move that signals a significant strategic shift for one of the industry's largest players, global media services giant NEP Group has launched NEP Platform, a software orchestration system designed to overhaul how media infrastructure and production workflows are managed. The announcement places NEP at the center of the industry’s accelerating transition from hardware-dependent operations to more agile, software-defined environments.

For 40 years, NEP has been the powerhouse behind the world's biggest live sports and entertainment broadcasts, known for its vast inventory of mobile units and production hardware. With the launch of NEP Platform, the company is betting its future not just on trucks and gear, but on the software that controls them. The platform provides a unified interface to deploy, configure, and manage critical production applications from a host of industry-leading vendors, aiming to solve the growing complexity facing media companies.

“Companies are delivering more content, across more markets, to more audiences than ever before, and that requires great agility,” said Martin Stewart, CEO of NEP Group, in the announcement. “Our goal has always been to simplify content production so our customers can easily and securely deliver their content at scale. I’m delighted that NEP Platform offers that long-term solution with the ability to change as our customers do.”

Navigating a Competitive Software Landscape

NEP Platform enters a dynamic and increasingly competitive market. Other major players have already staked claims in the software-defined production space. Grass Valley’s AMPP (Agile Media Processing Platform) has gained traction with its cloud-native, microservices-based approach, while EVS’s MediaCeption offers a robust end-to-end asset management solution, and Imagine Communications’ Selenio Network Processor champions high-density IP processing.

Where NEP aims to differentiate itself is by leveraging its long-standing role as a master integrator. Instead of primarily pushing its own proprietary applications, NEP Platform is positioned as an open ecosystem that brings together a “who’s who” of broadcast technology. The initial partner list includes heavyweights like Sony and its Hawk-Eye Innovations, Grass Valley, Lawo, Calrec, Panasonic, and Bridge Technologies. This strategy allows customers to use the best-of-breed tools they already know—from vision mixers to audio consoles and replay systems—within a single, managed environment.

This “big tent” approach directly addresses a major pain point for broadcasters: vendor lock-in and the integration headaches of multi-vendor environments. By providing a common control and orchestration layer, NEP is making a strategic play to become the essential operating system for the modern production facility, whether that facility is a fixed broadcast center, a mobile unit, or a decentralized hybrid workflow.

The Ecosystem Advantage

The core value proposition of the NEP Platform is choice without chaos. It allows production teams to spin up complex workflows in minutes, selecting their preferred applications from a curated library and deploying them on demand. This fundamentally changes the production paradigm from static, hardware-based setups to dynamic, software-driven configurations tailored to each specific event.

“With this new way of managing infrastructure, customers can transition to software-based solutions that seamlessly operate with existing hardware,” noted Dan Murphy, VP of NEP Platform. “This not only protects our customers’ investments; it positions them to take advantage of future technology.”

This hybrid approach is critical. It acknowledges the reality that a complete, instantaneous switch to the cloud or pure software is not feasible for most media organizations with significant capital invested in existing equipment. By enabling software-based tools to integrate with and augment traditional hardware, the platform provides a practical migration path to the future. Already deployed in NEP’s new “software-first” mobile units in Australia and Norway, the system has been battle-tested in demanding real-world production environments before its wider commercial release.

The Business Case: Efficiency, Security, and Sustainability

Beyond technological novelty, NEP is building a strong business case for its platform around three key pillars: efficiency, security, and sustainability. The system’s ability to automatically allocate and scale computing resources means that production teams only use the power they need, when they need it. This dynamic allocation provides clear data on resource usage, enabling more accurate cost forecasting and a shift away from the fixed costs of idle hardware.

On the security front, NEP emphasizes that the platform is built with resilience in mind. It incorporates continuous vulnerability scanning, robust identity and access controls, and ongoing monitoring to protect customer environments. By validating application versions and configurations at every deployment, it aims to prevent common software-related failures that can take a production off-air.

Furthermore, the platform's efficiency directly contributes to more sustainable production practices. By optimizing computing power, reducing the need for extensive hardware racks, and enabling more remote-friendly workflows that minimize equipment shipping, NEP is aligning its technology with the industry's growing mandate for environmental responsibility. While specific metrics on power savings have not yet been released, the principle of intelligent resource management is a recognized step toward greener broadcasting.

The future of media production will not be a binary choice between hardware and software, but a nuanced integration of both. With the launch of NEP Platform, NEP Group is not just introducing a new product; it is redefining its role in the industry. The company is evolving from primarily a provider of physical assets and services into a technology enabler, offering a foundational software layer upon which the next generation of content creation will be built. The industry will get a closer look at this vision when the platform is showcased at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, an event that will serve as a key barometer for its adoption and impact on the market.