Future transformation: BT Media & Broadcast on 5G realising its potential

Aiming to help broadcasters when live sport is remote and hard to connect, a a live showcase of the Pitlochry Highland Games was broadcast at IBC 2022 as part of a project that aims to demonstrate the portability and flexibility of a private 5G ‘network in a box’

By John Ellerton, BT Media and Broadcast head of futures.

2022 was the year that the promise of 5G for broadcast production was finally realised. A series of successful trials and tests proved that fast, low-latency and reliable wireless connectivity is available for broadcast production, and is commercially viable.

Concepts proved

The key to the year’s 5G success stories was the development of non-public networks (NPN) for use in stadiums and public venues.

In May, a bespoke NPN at the StoneX Stadium – home to Saracens Rugby Club – enabled a number of pitchside television cameras to be used for BT Sport’s live match coverage. It showed that fixed cameras in any venue could be made wireless, opening up a wide range of filming locations and angles from around the stadium, and giving production teams new creative ways to get closer to the action and delight their viewers.

Next up was the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Another venue, another bespoke NPN, and a much bigger crowd.

This time, multiple, synchronised cameras were all made wireless for Games-related programming from the centre of Birmingham. The two camera feeds were transported seamlessly over 5G, and then over the internet to BBC Broadcasting House and The One Show gallery. There they were mixed into the programme for true remote production, over 5G. It showed exactly how a wide range of high-quality content could be delivered over guaranteed bandwidth, even among large crowds of people.

5G was in action again in September; this time outside a major venue. The IBC Accelerator, a consortium of innovative partners from across the broadcast industry, showed that 5G broadcast was possible from remote locations without major fibre connectivity.

Broadcasts of the Pitlochry Highland Games, a Māori festival in New Zealand, the National Ploughing competitions in Ireland, and the Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya demonstrated how a 5G ‘network in a box’ could be easily transported to wherever the action is.

Small and relatively lightweight compared to traditional radio-camera systems, this suitcase-sized network kit can be connected to any IP-capable path to get pictures back to the studio. In these cases, Starlink Low-Earth Orbit satellite, coupled with public 4G and 5G, provided ultra-fast speeds, low latency, guaranteed bandwidth and quality of service, without installing costly fixed infrastructure.

Use cases take shape

5G was shown to offer a far higher level of performance than 4G coverage, while the non-public network offered a level of resilience that public networks cannot provide. Whole new ways of presenting creative and cost-effective sports coverage opened up.

But this is just the beginning. A 5G NPN is just the first step in an ongoing evolution for broadcasters, sports clubs and production companies alike.

The use cases for 5G are now beginning to take shape. Using just a single 5G network, and a single spectrum licence, sports venues and producers can connect multiple cameras, in addition to audio, monitoring and user equipment, communications, data transmission and control comms.

For example, in venues where cameras can roam within a controlled and specified area, multi-camera live shots are possible. That can create all kinds of interesting angles for the on-pitch action, but also allows for remote camera control and communications, and allows pictures to be sent out and returned from the gallery on the same data path.

What’s more it can give rise to a much more seamless level of coverage both inside and outside the venue, to the extent that broadcasters can hop between their bespoke private network and a public 5G network to bridge any gaps in coverage. For crowded sporting events, with thousands of fans using mobile devices on public networks, the possibility of this kind of smooth transition is invaluable.

Flexibility and choice

Then there’s the non-venue sporting events like horse racing, sailing and even golf. These and other remote sports with a much wider range can get the creative production treatment thanks to 5G capabilities, and an invitation into the nation’s living rooms. One racing organisation is even considering using sensors under their thoroughbreds’ saddles to improve horse tracking over a reliable 5G NPN with no loss in connectivity making commentary much easier.

Because blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sports are typically latency dependent, creating networks with the absolute minimum amount of lag has been the priority. 5G delivers that. But there are plenty of live events – like music festivals and others outside the sporting arena – where flexibility and physical range of the equipment may be a greater advantage than latency. A 5G network allows broadcasters to flip between a public and non-public network and so optimise their output.

As for the future, the possibilities are even greater. 5G connectivity is just one element in building unique solutions for a fast-transforming broadcast industry. The internet of things (IoT) and Edge Computing, among others, can provide the foundations of a fully digitally-enabled stadium in which visitors can use the network of their choice alongside the bandwidth reserved for broadcast.

There’s even the possibility of virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) being available alongside public displays at sporting fixtures, which literally adds a new dimension to the live viewing experience.

New way of working

These are just the start of conversations being held within the industry and beyond, and there are surely more to come as more people in the ecosystem come together to discuss what they want and what is now possible.

What has become clear in 2022 is that it’s not just the technology that will transform sporting coverage. Robustly architected 5G has proved that it fits into sports broadcasting production workflows for less power-intensive, more flexible and more sustainable operations. It is a significant step forward.

But it’s the way that different providers come together to create specific broadcast solutions for individual locations and one-off events that is proving truly transformative.

The idea of working with a single provider offering a single product has become rather old-fashioned. A collaborative, innovative and design-led approach is the way forward.