Powering the World Surf League Broadcast in Raglan

When the World Surf League rolls into town, the network carries the whole event. The broadcast going out to a global audience, real-time photo delivery to editors, judging and scoring, crew comms, ticketing on the gate, EFTPOS at the food trucks, the hospitality and retail spaces- all of it sitting on the same on-site network.

The team behind that infrastructure on the ground was The Broadcast Co. Matt and his crew designed and built the entire on-site setup themselves - fibre runs, radio links, access points, the lot, so every part of the event had a connection it could rely on. What they needed from us was a rock-solid feed into the site, eyes on the network the whole way through, and people ready to jump in if anything came up.

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What The Broadcast Co did

Matt and the team rigged the site for a live international event across a working West Coast surf break - not a forgiving environment. They placed the gear, ran the cabling, built the radio links, and designed coverage across the broadcast positions, the media areas, the crowd, the vendors, the gate - everything that needed a connection. By the time the heats started, the on-site network was a tight piece of engineering doing exactly what an event of this scale needs it to do.

You can see what set-up day looked like in our Instagram reel from the walk through.

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What we did

Our job was the connectivity behind it. We delivered the network feed into the site, monitored it continuously through the event, and stayed on standby in case anything came up. That standby piece matters more than it sounds. With a global broadcast going out, EFTPOS running at the vendors, and ticketing processing at the gate, "we'll look at it tomorrow" isn't on the table. We had people ready to respond in minutes, which meant Matt and his crew could stay focused on the event rather than the pipe feeding it.

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Eyes on, the whole way through

A live international event doesn't leave room for delay. Through the ten days, our engineers monitored the connection continuously and stayed in direct contact with Matt's team. No tickets, no queues - just engineers talking to engineers, on the phone or in the group chat, the whole way through.

That's what standby is meant to do. Quiet, present, ready.

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The result

The event ran cleanly from start to finish. The broadcast went out to a global audience, the photo and video teams pushed files in real time, EFTPOS and ticketing ran without a hiccup, and the Kiwi competitors did the country proud on home water.

While we were on site, we had a yarn with Ed Sloane, a freelance photographer who shoots for the World Surf League and Red Bull Surfing. His job is brutal in the best way, capture the moment, then get the file back to his editor before the next heat is over.

"Best wifi I've had on the whole tour."
- Ed Sloane, freelance photographer, World Surf League and Red Bull Surfing

For a photographer pushing big RAW files off the beach in real time, that's not a small compliment. It's a credit to both the on-site build by The Broadcast Co and the connection sitting behind it.

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Why this worked

Two reasons. The Broadcast Co knew exactly what they were doing on the ground - you can feel the difference when an event is built by people who've done it before. And we run our own network. Our own people, our own gear, our own monitoring. No tickets stuck in someone else's queue, no waiting on a vendor in another country.

It's the same reason cafés, retailers, tradies, farmers, event crews and venues across the Waikato keep coming back. One provider, one bill, one number to call. When it matters, that simplicity is everything.

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In short

A world-class event, on a world-class break, broadcast to millions - with Kiwi athletes flying the flag. Built on the ground by The Broadcast Co, and carried to the world on our network.

If you're running an event, a venue, a build, or a business that needs a connection it can lean on, talk to a real person now. When it matters, we'll make sure your network is ready.

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