Broadcasters have been using bonded cellular in ENG (Electronic News Gathering) and roaming camera applications for many years – it is a tested and trusted technology. It’s difficult to find a bonded cellular systems vendor who has not introduced systems which leverage the increased bandwidth and reduced latency advantages of 5G. It may come as a surprise to some then, that the benefits we already see from 5G, are only a fraction of the potential it has.

The last four years has seen an adoption of remote production, especially for sports, at an astonishing pace. We all know that without the pandemic the industry would have moved much more slowly. The current model typically sees an IP contribution network within a stadium that is a combination of wired and wireless devices hitting local encoders. Backhaul is via a dedicated leased lines and maybe even by the public internet, to a remote production facility. Deploying the stadium network requires significant effort though, so the idea that a combination of a very high bandwidth, ultra low latency private 5G network, and encoders running as software in local MEC resource, could replace much of the on site contribution infrastructure seems worth discussion.

Download this Essential Guide now. It has been written for technologists, broadcast engineers, their managers, and anybody looking to understand the evolution and disruptive potential of 5G technology for broadcast contribution.