Sky Sport and O2 in 5G first with live stream of Handball Bundesliga game
Credit: Sky Deutschland
Sky Sport in Germany will show the Handball Bundesliga game between SG Flensburg-Handewitt and Füchse Berlin on 10 November via O2’s high-end 5G network, making it the first live broadcast in Europe via a pure 5G network. In addition to the TV broadcast, the game will also be streamed for free for all fans on skysport.de and the Sky Sport YouTube channel.
Alessandro Reitano, senior vice president sport production at Sky Deutschland, said: “After the successful first live broadcast last year, we are once again showing the potential of using 5G in live sport with another end-to-end production. Together with our partner O2, we bring the handball action very close to the TV viewer in previously unattainable 5G transmission quality and allow fans to immerse themselves particularly deeply in the live events in the hall.”
Four 5G smartphones and four professional 5G broadcast cameras will ensure a completely new gaming experience: the high-capacity network from O2 transmits all scenes using the latest 5G technology in conjunction with the wireless transmission technology from Sky from the Flens Arena.
As a result, viewers will experience live handball in higher quality and from many additional perspectives. Fans will be closer to the action than ever before and, via the pure 5G network, the exclusive recordings reach viewers in real time from the home of SG Flensburg-Handewitt near the Danish border.
5G Summit AR, the augmented reality app of start-up Eyecandylab, will provide additional information about the game, for example about the roster or background information about the players. The app is available for Android and iOS.
With this broadcast, Sky and O2 are showing what could become the standard of TV in the future. Using the latest 5G technology in production and transmission as well as cloud-supported production processes, broadcasters will be able to send viewers content directly from the edge of the field with significantly reduced effort.
Smooth 5G transmission is made possible by LiveU’s IP video technology along with the Vizrt production solution, so that fans can watch the game in high quality and almost completely without delay on skysport.de.
The live broadcast of the game will be free to all viewers on 10 November 2021 from 18:45 via stream on skysport.de, in the Sky Sport app and on the Sky Sport YouTube channel. Sky subscribers can also watch the match live with Sky Q on Sky Sport 2.