A group of Southampton Solent University students have been recognised for their "outstanding technical achievement" at the 2025 Royal Television Society (RTS) Southern Awards.

The recent graduates from the BA (Hons) Television Production and BA (Hons) Post Production for Film and TV courses were given the special award for their final major project, Nothing But Net.

The project was an ambitious live outside broadcast showcasing the National Basketball League (NBL).

Stuart Ray, chair of RTS Southern, said: "RTS judges were incredibly impressed with the work which went into Nothing But Net.

"A project of this scale and complexity is a complicated and stressful task even for a major broadcaster, but to deliver something so accomplished as a student team was worthy of recognition.

"The student team produced a live, five-hour broadcast complete with content absolutely equivalent to any major broadcaster and the judges felt this was extremely worthy of a special award."

The inspiration for the project came from the work the students were doing through Sonar Events, the university's student-led TV and live events society.

The award-winning team - Ben Dewey, Ben Killackey, Sophie Humphrey, Fergus Daly, and Will Statham - regularly covered NBL and WNBL basketball for Team Solent Kestrels Basketball Club.

They challenged themselves to replicate coverage produced by big broadcasters and the British Basketball League, introducing fully featured presentation and analysis, commentary from Basketball England, and producing four feature VTs.

The team overcame the technical challenge of linking two production galleries, situated in separate buildings, through the use of fibre cables and extensive rehearsals.

They further elevated the footage by using the university's new state-of-the-art virtual production stage, and cutting-edge analysis software enabled pundits to provide in-depth analysis directly on the game footage.

Ben Killackey said: "We're incredibly proud that the whole Nothing But Net team has been recognised by such a historic organisation as the RTS.

"Over 50 students across 10 different courses, 15 cameras and two separate galleries came together to produce the live broadcast.

"We're so grateful to everyone who gave up so much of their time to be a part of the crew, as well as all those in the industry who did so much to help support us - this award really is for everyone involved."