Chances are 80-90% that the sporting events you watch on TV – including all the Chicago sports teams — are captured and telecast by NEP, North America’s biggest operator of mobile and television studios.
Now Pittsburgh-based NEP has upped the percentage of its TV sports and entertainment event coverage with the acquisition of Chicago’s long-established Corplex, whose Lake Bluff facility will serve as NEP’s regional hub for its Midwest operations.
In the undisclosed deal to be concluded around Dec. 17, NEP will acquire Corplex’s mobile studio fleet of three HD trucks — Chromium, Iridium and Platinum — and three production support vehicles, according to Corplex president Scott West.
The Corplex purchase comes eight months after NEP bought Trio Video, whose four HD mobile units telecast all of Chicago sports teams to the tune of 300 games a year, plus virtually all of the biggest music concerts throughout the world.
Over the next six months, NEP’s two local companies will be integrated in Corplex’s 15,000-sq. ft. building in Lake Bluff. Trio Video, which has been located in a Bucktown facility, may also retain a small city office.
“We have plenty of room and parking space for trucks to consolidate both groups,” says Corplex president Scott West, who will oversee the consolidation of the two companies’ assets.
Corplex will retain its brand name and the two companies will continue to remain wholly separate from a client perspective.
Corplex currently employs 25 full-time staffers and five freelancers on a seasonal basis. Of these, Corplex’ engineering and support staff will join NEP’s Mobile Unit.
Corplex’s key executives — West, Carter Ruehrdanz, CEO/founder, Dave Greany, VP/operations and engineering, and Joe Scionti, VP/sales — will assume significant roles, but not necessarily the same titles, within the NEP Mobile Unit division, according to both NEP and Corplex.
“We’ve worked together with NEP for many years and have always had a great synergistic relationship,” says West.
“As part of NEP, we’ll be able to offer our clients access to the largest pool of resources in the industry, including some of the leading technology experts and engineers in the mobile broadcasting field,” West adds.
Carter Ruehrdanz founded Corplex in 1985 “and since then it’s been through many transformations,” says West, who has been with the company for 15 years. “We started as a sales and engineering company, moved into used and new equipment, migrated to duplication, post facilities and TV mobile trucks.”
Calling the sale “an end of an era for us,” West says, “we’re proud of what we’ve done and now we’re excited about being part of an international outreach and look forward to the new opportunities ahead.”
Negotiations with NEP had been in the works for several months before the purchase agreement was recently reached. West says Corplex’ business has been excellent and the company recently refinanced most of its debt and was looking to expand. “So we came into this from a position of strength.”
NEP is majority-owned by New York-based American Securities, a private equity firm, and NEP management.
