Hot Shots 2026: Sam Chilton

Sam Chilton has been curious about technology since building electronic devices at primary school in Cornwall. After learning to code as a teenager, Sam studied for a BSc in Film and Broadcast Engineering at the University of Surrey, where his experience with a student TV society led him to build bespoke boxes at base for outside broadcast projects.

Carrying over this solutions-based mindset into his professional career, Sam became a network engineering specialising in ST 2110 and control systems. His design and implementation of the host control network for the Wimbledon Tennis Championship involved thousands of devices operated by more than 100 switches.

After almost five years with the NEP Group, working on broadcasts from the Premier League and UEFA Champions League to the Olympics and The Traitors, Sam’s ushering in the next phase of sports production with Aurora.

Here, he has built the workflows, infrastructure and methodology to deliver more than 300 games for the Women’s Super League. He has been instrumental in partnering with Apple and Neutral Wireless to integrate iPhone coverage into broadcasts using private 5G – believed to be a world-first.

“It was a significantly complex project, but Sam jumped straight in and tied the whole thing together,” says Aurora head of technical production Emily Merron.

“Outside of WSL, Sam has put countless hours into helping to upskill the rest of the team. His patience and genuine interest have had a wide-ranging impact at Aurora, and few of us at the company can say we haven’t learned something useful from a five-minute chat with Sam. He’s very quickly become an integral part of the team.”