German technical services provider Media Broadcast is following the development of 5G Broadcast, but sees a regular deployment in the distant future.
“As a leading service provider, we are taking a very close look at the potential of 5G for the broadcast industry,” Media Broadcast managing director Arnold Stender said at the occasion of upcoming German media conference Medientage München 2019. “5G Broadcast is an exciting topic for the future, but due to technical and regulatory hurdles and a lack of business models, it will probably take many years before the technology can be considered for terrestrial broadcasting of linear TV.”
“On the other hand, we already see a market potential for 5G campus solutions for TV broadcasters and for distributing larger and also temporary events in the medium term. We have therefore decided to add 5G campus solutions to our existing fibre-optic and satellite-based event broadcasting portfolio. We can support our customers from frequency application, frequency and network planning to operation, maintenance and servicing,” explained Stender.
In a live showcase at Medientage München on October 23 and 24, 2019, Media Broadcast will demonstrate 5G-capable solutions for TV production. The company has set up its own mobile communications test network at the trade fair grounds to simulate a future 5G campus network for TV producers. Up to four different cameras, from a professional TV camera to a smartphone, and an outside broadcasting van will be used. The TV signals wil be transmitted to the control room via a commercial 4G/5G base station.
Media Broadcast’s partner for the showcase, Smart Mobile Labs from Munich, will supplement the test run with live metadata with its own sensors and a smartphone app with real-time statistics. Since no local 5G frequencies in the 3.7 to 3.8 GHz range are currently available for test purposes, a 20 MHz carrier at a test frequency of 2.3 GHz in LTE Advanced mode will be used for the demo.
