GERMAN SOCCER 5G KICKOFF The German Football League executed a 5G live broadcast test from Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena during the 2023 German Supercup in partnership with Viaplay, Sportcast and TVU Networks. TVU live video transmitters harnessed the Deutsche Telekom 5G network to enable Viaplay crew to roam from locker rooms to the pitch, capturing new viewing angles which were mixed into the production even with 75,000 spectators (and their phones) in close proximity. WATCH ME! DFL teams up
Having all links available from 5G down added to network slicing allows customers to have greater bandwidth more of the time, but this doesn’t mean customers are going to abandon lower frequencies. “We experience this ourselves. For example, walking down the street with excellent coverage, only for the signal to drop off on the next block perhaps because of greater congestion or gaps between towers,” explains McEwen. For this reason, he believes live event producers will always need carrier aggregation. “Even on a high-speed SA network, there will be dead zones.” SCALING UP One big question surrounds the commercial model. Broadcasters desire a similar just-in-time flexibility of satellite where they can book an uplink for a few hours at a moment’s notice. Carriers are keener on larger volumes of business, such as the year-round frequency slicing that an autonomous car company might pay. “What remains to be seen is exactly how the economics are going to work,” Pisarski says. “What is the price of slicing versus satellite, and therefore what is the advantage? In both private 5G and slicing during the coronation, the economics came out less than satellite, but I will say it’s still early.” Alessandro Reitano, SVP of sports production at Sky Deutschland, urges broadcasters to keep highlighting the technical and financial advantages of 5G as a transport layer. “There’s still too much dependency on traditional transport mechanisms. This needs to change to fully allow the use of shortened and far more flexible workflows. We see demand growing from broadcasters who want to use 5G and IP-bonding at major events to drive more extensive and diverse coverage.” A holistic integration of wireless cameras over a dedicated 5G network will do more than enhance the overall efficiency of live broadcasts; it will form the foundation of the interconnected broadcast
with TVU to drive innovation with 5G
virtualised in the cloud and much more accessible,” explains Pisarski. Countries are starting to set aside some frequency for private use, managed by the spectrum owner which is usually the government. The process differs from being almost as simple as filling out a web form in some parts of the globe to hassles of red tape. Slicing, on the other hand, is arranged by the carrier in partnership with a broadcaster and dedicates a portion of the in-air frequency and a portion of the whole virtual network for just the time and place required. “Broadcasters are excited about slicing since a guaranteed slice of bandwidth is very appealing when you’re going to be in a specific site for remote broadcast,” says Pisarski. “Media companies will likely prefer to provision slices with specific service level requirements (SLRs) for individual events spanning hours or days.”
@feedzinesocial
Powered by FlippingBook