A number of European broadcasters are working together to showcase how this year’s Eurovision Song Contest can be delivered to viewers’ 5G phones.
Italian broadcaster RAI, ORS/ORF in Austria, France Télévisions, and Germany’s SWR/ARD have joined forces to look at how live content can be successfully delivered to mass audiences via 5G.
The 5G Broadcast test transmissions consist of live content produced by Rai in Turin, encoded by Ateme at EBU HQ in Geneva and distributed to SWR in Stuttgart, France Télévisions in Paris, and ORS in Vienna.
In each city, transmitters from Rohde & Schwarz are delivering the signal over-the-air to test smartphones supplied by Qualcomm Technologies.
The 5G Broadcast solution is built on the 3GPP Rel-16 feature-set, operating in a Receive-Only Mode (ROM), Free-To-Air (FTA) and without the need for a SIM card (SIM-free reception). The 5G Broadcast dedicated mode will be demonstrated with a standalone broadcast infrastructure operating within the UHF band, said the EBU.
Antonio Arcidiacono, EBU director of technology and innovation, said: “5G Broadcast offers big opportunities to the whole media value chain and there’s no better way to showcase this technology than at the EBU’s flagship event – the Eurovision Song Contest. With its flexibility, free-to-air reception, compatibility with existing broadcast networks and seamless integration with 5G devices, it represents an important step in building truly hybrid networks for the benefit and safety of global media consumers.”
