IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Projects to showcase 5G and new live production technology learnings
5G is a major theme of this year’s IBC’s 2021 Accelerator Media Innovation Programme with three 5G-focused projects demonstrating the results of their hands-on experiments and evaluation over the last six months via IBC Digital.
Ahead of two major global sporting events in 2022, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the Winter Olympics in Beijing, an IBC Accelerator project entitled 5G for Remote Production in Live Sports and led by Al Jazeera Media Networks, has been putting current 5G capabilities for live sports content production to the test, including the development of compelling fan engagement experiences via a dedicated app, trialling new contribution technologies and assessing new live remote production workflow architectures at the FIFA Arab Cup currently taking place in Doha, Qatar.
The team comprises broadcasters and FIFA rights holders as Champions, including Al Jazeera, BBC Sport, beIN Sports, BT Sport, Fox Sports, OBS, Ooredoo and SuperSport. Participating vendors involved are Aviwest, Evertz, Grass Valley, Mobile Viewpoint, Microsoft, NativeWaves, Net Insight, Taswer and TVU Networks plus academic partners Doha College and Evolution Sports. The session will showcase on IBC Digital in January 2022.
The 5G Location-Based Extended Reality Project explores the role of 5G in location-based eXtended realities (LBXR). This Accelerator has focused on examining 5G’s low latency and provision of edge computing as critical aspects required for immersive, ultra-responsive interactivity and the technical feasibility of multi-user, multi-location XR gaming. The group utilised the esports/games market as an ideal template for 5G use cases for XR formats, due to requirements for low latency, high bandwidth and serious computing power.
The project’s proof of concept explored this with two XR formats, using both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The AR workstream harnessed Hado, a virtual yet hybrid dodge ball game developed to be the world’s first physical esport with a remote gameplay. The second workstream focused on Nanoclash, the title virtual reality IP at Park Playground, which demonstrated 5G via multi-player, multi-location between Belgium and Vodafone’s 5G Hub in The Netherlands.
The project is championed by Telenet/Liberty Global, Park Playground, Hado, Digital Domain, Twickenham Studios, Vodafone, ESL/Weavr, with Participants Huawei, Net Insight, Noitom, ProMod Esports and QuarkXR. The session is set to showcase on IBC Digital on Wednesday 15 December 2021 at 15:00 GMT and then will be made available on demand.
5G & Innovation in Live Workflows explores innovation across four core areas that will be key to technology powered production in future. This Accelerator has been assessing the potential of private 5G networks (also known as NPNs or non-public networks), multi-access edge computing, multi-cloud deployments, and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The aims and proof of concept to follow, promises to point the way towards open workflows, where productions can connect from anywhere and run their processes how they want and where they want. The project is championed by a stellar team of world-leading broadcasters including Al Jazeera, BBC, beIN Sports, BT Sport, EBU, Fox Sports, ITV, OBS, RTÈ, RTL, TV2, ViacomCBS, Vodafone and Yle. Participants are Evertz, Grass Valley, Huawei, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Net Insight, Nulink, Singular.Live, University of Strathclyde and Zixi. The session is available on demand on IBC Digital.
“Collaborative innovation is at the core of IBC’s Accelerator Programme, as seen by over 100 organisations that have been involved in eight project challenges, that are all highly relevant to today’s media sector,” said Mark Smith, innovation lead and advisor to IBC. “IBC Digital viewers will see some compelling discussions with project Champions and Participants about these challenges, the specific barriers faced and lessons learnt through the Accelerator programme, including their PoC demonstrations that all underline the ‘learning by doing’ ethos of this acclaimed IBC programme.”