The pay-TV broadcaster Sky wants to use a new technical feature of the fifth generation of mobile communications, 5G, to try out new journalistic formats for its live broadcasts from the Bundesliga. The premiere of the test run is to take place this Wednesday in the 2nd Bundesliga at the game Fortuna Düsseldorf against VfL Osnabrück, announced Sky Deutschland and Vodafone.

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Marko Aliaksandr / Shutterstock.com

) This focus shows what the new mobile communications standard can do, for whom it makes sense and why scientists are warning about 5G rays.

Guaranteed capacity for additional cameras “We are testing live image transmission with 5G network slicing technology for the first time,” explained Vodafone technical director Gerhard Mack. With network slicing, the provider can provide its customers with a guaranteed capacity in the 5G network for a certain period of time. This is possible with “extremely high reliability”. “The required capacities are even available if again at the same time 50. 000 Fans are in the stadium and everyone pick up their smartphone at halftime to check the scores on the other places with high bandwidths. ”

Sky wants to use the guaranteed bandwidth primarily to use additional mobile cameras in the stadium that are not connected to a fiber optic cable for the transmission of TV signals. “M ith the network slicing we have hopefully found a method with which we can get a fixed bandwidth “, said Alessandro Reitano, who is responsible for the production of the sports programs at Sky Deutschland. “We determine in advance that we need, for example 100 megabits per second for a production. And with these 100 We can produce Mbit carefree. ”

Much closer to the fans However, 5G mobile communications and the use of smartphone cameras will not become the classic football production as it is currently standard Make them superfluous, but complement them perfectly, emphasized Reitano. “The proven broadcast model will continue to exist.” Sky can now look for closeness to the fans in a completely different way by positioning flexible cameras. “We can use it to generate other recordings of the game.”

With a high availability of bandwidth, the broadcaster can try out a new storytelling using the extended camera positions. This gives the audience an even better look behind the scenes. “With this new material, completely new perspectives are possible when using the pre- and post-reporting and we can also address different target groups in the audience.”

In the live TV coverage, cell phone lines have so far only played a subordinate role, as the bandwidth of LTE (4G) was insufficient. In addition, there was no technical procedure to guarantee a fixed bandwidth for the live broadcast in the case of large crowds. At large-scale demonstrations such as the G 000 summit in Hamburg, reporters tried to maintain the live connections using mobile technology that was connected to several SIM cards bundled the capacity of different cellular networks.

(mho)