As Sun Life Stadium Undergoes Renovation, Nemal Focuses on Postgame Needs

As Sun Life Stadium continues to modernize, the 27-year-old venue tapped Nemal to design, install, and test a field-side interconnect system to facilitate postgame interviews. Nemal provided HD-SDI and data connectivity between the playing field, broadcast-truck area, and telecom-equipment room for the Miami Dolphins’ home.

According to Danny Ritts, who leads Nemal’s design team, the local affiliates of the major NFL broadcasters previously transmitted postgame interviews to the broadcasters via satellite. During the renovation, however, the satellite-truck dock was removed, requiring a temporary system for transmission of postgame interviews.

“We needed to put together something for this season and next season, because the updates [are expected] to go on for a while, potentially the whole two years,” says Ritts. “The whole idea here was to put together an installation that would survive renovation: in other words, a remote box on the field.”

The weatherproof, field-side system comprises 10 HD-SDI video channels using Nemal BC1057 video snake cable and 12 channels of single-mode fiber using Nemal TAC12B as well as Cat 6 data cable. A second, mirror-image system was installed in the truck dock. Both systems are future-proofed to accommodate both today’s needs and any that may arise throughout the renovation, which is scheduled to be completed in 2016.

“[We] overbuilt the boxes,” says Ritts. “They’re all–stainless-steel enclosures with about three times the amount of necessary space in them because I expect, as the renovation takes place, that everybody and their brother is going to start jumping into that box.”

Nemal designed the system to meet the needs of each of the broadcast and cable networks that regularly cover events at Sun Life Stadium, working with them to complete the installation prior to the start of football season. And Nemal, located in nearby North Miami, will be just a phone call away throughout the renovation.

“If something happens to it, we’re in rapid response,” says Ritts. “In other words, if, during the renovation, something awful happens, and something gets damaged or torn out, within 24 hours, we will be over there fixing it.”