Deutsche Telekom has installed a private 5G campus network for RTL Deutschland, which will be put into operation in time for the European Football Championship.
With the solution, the media company is the first in Germany to supply its production studios with 5G via its own 5G standalone network, according to Telekom, adding that this makes TV production more flexible, for example by enabling the use of wireless cameras both inside and outside the studios.
The short ways of the independent 5G architecture support data-intensive applications with ultra-short response times in the millisecond range for fast data processing. In addition to wireless cameras, the network will also enable the operation of wireless microphones, a wireless intercom and dedicated access to the internet. Other production-relevant systems are also to be tested via 5G.
“RTL Deutschland produces its must-see content in outstanding quality. In partnership with Deutsche Telekom, we are now operating an independent 5G mobile network at our broadcasting centre in Cologne to bring our high-reach content to our viewers and users even more conveniently and efficiently,” said Matthias Dang, Chief Commercial, Technology & Data Officer at RTL Deutschland.
Klaus Werner, Managing Director for Business Customers at Telekom Deutschland, added: “With RTL, we have an innovative partner with whom we can jointly develop our products and solutions and bring them to market maturity. Thanks to its network architecture with 5G standalone technology, the 5G Campus network meets the particularly high requirements of live TV production and offers important features such as minimal response times and high bandwidths.”
The broadcasts surrounding this year’s European Football Championship will also benefit from the campus network. The network will be extended to a neighbouring event site during the tournament to capture images from the viewers. This will ensure a flawless live broadcast, even if the mobile cells of the public network are busy.
The 5G campus network, which will cover a total area of more than 35,000 square metres, operates separately from the public mobile network. The entire infrastructure, from the antennas and active system technology to the core network, comes from Ericsson and is installed locally at RTL’s headquarter in Cologne-Deutz. This means that all data traffic remains in the local campus network. A total of six antennas were installed for the campus network: two outdoors, one of which is used temporarily, and four more indoors.
High upload bandwidths of around 500 Mbps are realised for the live productions. The delay rate must not exceed 25 milliseconds. The network operates on frequencies reserved specifically for RTL Deutschland in the 3.7 to 3.8 GHz range. Up to 100 MHz bandwidth is thus exclusively available to the broadcaster.
