The new 5G cellular standard has been rolled out since 2019. Now it was used for the first time in a live switch in a German television program.
For the first time, a live switch with professional broadcast technology was broadcast on German television via the new “5G Standalone” mobile network.
As part of a themed day on 5G at n-tv, TV cameras in Düsseldorf broadcast the images of live interviews over the completely independent 5G network from Vodafone to RTL’s broadcasting center on Friday morning.
In the live TV coverage, cell phone routes have so far only played a subordinate role, as the bandwidth of LTE (4G) was not reliably sufficient for this. In addition, there was no technical procedure to guarantee a fixed bandwidth for the live broadcast in the case of large crowds. At large demonstrations such as the G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017, reporters tried to maintain the live connections with the help of mobile technology that bundled the capacity of various cellular networks.
The technology premiere in North Rhine-Westphalia took place in the 5G standalone network. In this variant of the fifth generation of mobile communications, 4G and 5G are not used mixed. In the antenna and core network, it is completely based on an independent 5G infrastructure. Vodafone recently launched 5G Standalone commercially as the first provider in Germany and thus made it usable for private and industrial customers. The process will also be offered by the other three 5G providers (Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and 1 & 1) in the foreseeable future.
Telefónica with its O2 brand was already broadcasting a handball Bundesliga game over its 5G network at the beginning of December, using smartphones – without network slicing, which was not critical at the time, after all, there were hardly any spectators in the hall. In the future, network slicing – so to speak, the cutting out of spectrum in order to reserve it for corporate customers – will, however, be necessary in order to guarantee media customers a service even in front of full seats and the corresponding network needs of viewers.
In sports reporting, the pay TV broadcaster Sky is currently experimenting with 5G technology in order to try out new journalistic formats for its live broadcasts from the Bundesliga. Sky wants to use the guaranteed bandwidth in the 5G network primarily to use additional mobile cameras in the stadium that are not connected to a fiber optic cable for the transmission of TV signals.
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
