Two representative deployments. Both are illustrative composites of real-world
deployment patterns — label shown on-site under each title.
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Case Study 1 — Regional Sports Network Retires the Truck for 60 Games a Season
Representative deployment — an illustrative composite of real deployment patterns.
Situation
A regional sports network produces ~60 live away-game broadcasts a season across
college basketball, baseball, and football — mid-size arenas and stadiums, many
with no usable house circuit for contribution. Every game meant either an SNG
truck roll or a rented venue circuit, and the aging truck was due for replacement.
The old-way cost
- Truck-served games (40/yr): $6,200 average all-in per game (truck day, operator,
fuel, $300–$600/hr space segment) → $248,000/year - Venue-circuit games (20/yr): $7,500 average per event → $150,000/year
- Pending capex: SNG truck replacement quoted at $520,000
- Setup: 90+ minutes per game; two extra crew per truck game
- Status-quo run rate: ~$398,000/year + a half-million-dollar truck decision
The solution
West Networks built two identical REMO field kits, flight-cased and on-air-ready:
- 2× Peplink HD4 MBX
— quad 5G, one modem per carrier (four carriers, pre-activated pooled SIMs) - 2× Starlink Enterprise Kit
— the crowd-proof path for packed arenas - SpeedFusion
bonding with WAN smoothing on the program and comms streams; hot failover across
all five paths per kit - Per-application steering: contribution feeds duplicated across the two healthiest
paths; crew Wi-Fi rides the remainder
Hardware + service, both kits: ~$41,000 one-time + ~$3,000/yr SpeedFusion +
~$15,000/yr data (60 games × ~$250).
Results
- On-air from arrival in 12 minutes average (previous truck line-up: 90+ min)
- 60 games produced REMO-style; on-site crew cut from 9 to 4 per game
- 147 carrier degradation events across the season logged by SpeedFusion — zero
visible on air (hot failover + smoothing absorbed all of them) - Aggregate uplink per site: 140–280 Mbps measured; program feeds ran 2× 4K HEVC
- Year-one connectivity spend: ~$59,000 vs ~$398,000 → $339,000 saved (85%)
- The $520,000 truck replacement was cancelled; the remaining truck was re-tasked
to the two mandated-satellite events on the calendar - Payback on the full two-kit investment: inside the first 7 games
Pull-quote for site: “We stopped budgeting connectivity per game. The kit is
just… part of the camera package now.” — Director of Engineering (composite)
Talk to West Networks → ·
Shop the REMO Field Kit →
Case Study 2 — Live Production Company Wins the Festival Circuit With a Bonded Site Core
Representative deployment — an illustrative composite of real deployment patterns.
Situation
A 25-person live production company streams music festivals, corporate keynotes,
and esports events — 30+ shows a year in fields, convention centers, and arenas.
Festival sites had no infrastructure at all; convention centers had circuits
priced like ransom. Twice in one season a single rented circuit browned out during
a headline set, and a client walked.
The old-way cost
- Convention-center circuits: $9,000–$14,000 per event week × 14 events →
~$160,000/year - Greenfield festival sites: temporary microwave or fiber spur, $18,000–$30,000
per site × 6 sites → ~$140,000/year - Two on-air failures in one season → one lost client worth ~$220,000/year
- Status-quo run rate: ~$300,000/year rented, plus reputational bleeding
The solution
One master-control-grade site core plus a smaller secondary kit:
- Peplink Balance 580X
— site core bonding 8× 5G modems + 2× Starlink + the venue circuit when one
exists (eleven possible paths; the venue circuit demoted from “the connection”
to “one more path”) - 2× Starlink Enterprise Kit
for greenfield sites and crowd immunity - 1× Peplink MAX Transit Pro
run-and-gun kit for B-stage and roving streams - SpeedFusion
with per-application steering: program streams smoothed and duplicated; artist/
sponsor/production Wi-Fi tiered behind them
Total investment: ~$34,000 one-time + ~$2,500/yr service + data.
Results
- First festival deployment: case-to-streaming in 22 minutes on a site with
zero infrastructure — 5G ×8 + dual Starlink delivered 1.1 Gbps down / 310 Mbps up
aggregate - 30 events produced in year one; zero on-air connectivity incidents
- Venue-circuit line item eliminated at 11 of 14 indoor events (kept where the
house circuit was cheap — and bonded it as an extra path) - Year-one connectivity spend: ~$52,000 vs ~$300,000 → $248,000 saved (83%)
- Payback: under 3 events
- Sales impact: “connectivity included, bonded, SLA-backed” became a line on every
bid — the company reports it as a differentiator in 4 of its last 5 wins
Pull-quote for site: “The venue quoted us $12k for the week. We plugged their
circuit in as path number eleven and smiled.” — Owner (composite)