Miri X510 Bonding Router Enables Remote Production for Lowell TeleMedia Center
Published: October 5, 2025
By: Adam McCune, Executive Director, Lowell TeleMedia Center
Lowell TeleMedia Center (LTC) is the public and government access TV station and community media hub for Lowell, Massachusetts. Our mission is to empower, connect, and inform residents, businesses, and organizations in the city, while amplifying Lowell’s voicearound the world.
On-site coverage of local events is a key component of our community engagement, but has historically required significant resources. For past event productions we brought multiple computers and switchers on-site along with cameras, tripods and furniture. Since we don’t have a production van or truck, this required us to rent a U-Haul to get the gear to the event and secure it overnight. We also needed multiple staff members present for switching, running cameras and gathering ENG-style footage.
I wanted to implement a remote production (REMI) workflow to reduce our footprint at festivals and other events, with switching and graphics done back at our facility. Robust internet connectivity is essential for any remote production workflow. The link at the event site must be fast enough to carry multiple raw camera feeds back to the production studio, and resilient enough to keep working flawlessly even in crowded areas prone to cellular congestion. Past productions used Lowell’s iNet infrastructure, but the drop location was in a building over 300 feet from where we set up. A more portable solution would give us more versatility.
Testing 1-2-3
I chose the X510 dual-cellular bonding router from Miri Technologies to provide the critical internet connectivity between the event site and the studio. After seeing it at the NAB Show, we took advantage of Miri’s “Try Before You Buy” program to test it in actual festival locations in Lowell. After a week of successful trials, we ordered our own X510.
The Lowell African Festival in June was the perfect opportunity for our first REMI production. Prior to festival day, our equipment and facilities manager Steve Manock and I drove to the event site at Sampas Pavillion, located along the Merrimack River. We parked right next to the stage and were able to test everything in our setup at the site from the back of a Subaru Forester.
Show Time
The day of the African Festival, I was able to set up all of the equipment in only an hour. The Miri X510 router was configured with two Miri NetConnect+ SIM cards for dual-cellular connectivity using the X510’s built-in 4G and 5G modems. The X510 combined the two cellular connections into one robust link using built-in Speedify bonding technology. Bonding the two cellular pathways boosted performance while providing resilience to overcome any 4G or 5G congestion or disruptions.
Three cameras were powered by PoE from an Ubiquiti 2.5G network switch. They delivered live NDI HX feeds to a laptop running vMix software running on a laptop, which we used as a sort of time sync. 720p H.264 SRT streams from vMix were sent to the studio approximately ten miles away over the Miri-powered internet connection. In the studio, Steve served as technical director and was responsible for mixing the feeds and adding graphics for output on our TV channel and online stream.
Operational Benefits and New Opportunities
Our REMI production workflow for the African Festival was a huge success, with the X510 providing the required internet connectivity flawlessly. We broadcast for seven hours, and we had no issues with our feeds from the event. Our only disruption was a few seconds because of a power interruption at our facility, nothing to do with the remote end.
I am enthusiastic about the benefits the remote production workflow enables. It will work from anywhere we can get a cellular signal, and the bonding helps avoid ‘drop-outs’ because of crowds. And since we don’t need as much gear on site, we no longer need the U-Haul. The new workflow also allows us to use these events more for community outreach. With staff less tied up operationally, we can have a person greeting visitors and talking about LTC. It’s fun to see people’s reactions when we explain what LTC is doing at these events, and this workflow frees us up more to do so.
I am thrilled with the results of our first REMI effort. The X510 and the Miri team made it simple and easy, and it was really awesome to see this workflow actually happen.
Originally published in TV Tech’s “Guide to Remote Production”, September 2025
