Sky Deutschland has used LiveU’s LU-Smart app to live stream a handball match over the Telefónica-O2 5G network.
The live broadcast took place at the Flens-Arena in Flensburg, Germany, where Telefónica installed a dedicated 5G network to live stream a first-league handball match.
LiveU’s IP video technology delivered the live video content with next to no delay when distributed on Sky’s online platform skysport.de.
Supported by netorium, LiveU’s longstanding partner in Germany, Sky was able to capture the live action on the handball court and simultaneously transmit the live feed. The broadcaster deployed several smartphones equipped with LiveU’s proprietary software for real-time encoding and upstreaming to cover multiple camera angles.
Alessandro Reitano, SVP Sports Production at Sky Deutschland, said: “Reinforcing our reputation as an early technology adopter, Sky successfully completed the first end-to-end 5G transmission in Europe on skysport.de. With LiveU’s latest IP transmission technology and the great support of netorium, we were able to produce a solid 5G stream of the handball game and to let our online audience become part of a dynamic and highly engaging viewing experience.”
The live feeds were received via physical LiveU servers located in Sky’s mobile control room outside the arena. With each server providing four SDI output channels, the camera feeds could be fed into a hardware mixer and cut on the production site. LiveU’s IFB feature (Audio Connect) served as the audio backbone for two-way communication between the control room and the field.
Zion Eilam, VP Sales for EMEA at LiveU, said: “This joint venture demonstrates the disruptive power that emerges when four technology leaders join forces – with LiveU and netorium bringing the IP video transmission expertise, Sky Deutschland contributing outstanding live production skills and Telefónica providing the O2 cellular network of tomorrow.”
The live production in Flensburg was implemented in compliance with current COVID-19 safety measures.
