Neutral Wireless & QTV - Successful Tay5G Broadcasting Trials
Tay5G Broadcast is led by Scottish multi-award winning 5G radio/telecommunications company, Neutral Wireless, and is delivered alongside outside broadcast and remote production partner, QTV who also hold the contract with the Scottish Premiership to run centralised VAR (virtual assistant referee) systems. Previous 5G-enabled broadcast successes include televising the final departure of HM Queen Elizabeth II from Scottish soil, the coronation of HM King Charles III in London, as well as several 5G-enabled live broadcasts from Kenya, New Zealand, The Netherlands, and Ireland. Under the Tay5G Challenge Fund, 5G-enabled bi-directional camera control is being showcased at football sporting events in Tay Cities Region to support live broadcasts and video assisted refereeing (VAR). The demonstrations culminated with Dundee vs Aberdeen at Dens Park on 13th March 2024.
Neutral Wireless is a spin-out from Strathclyde University that also has a presence in Tay Cities Region (TCR).
About 5G Broadcasting
Traditionally, media broadcast cameras deployed to cover major sporting, cultural, news gathering, and entertainment events are either hard-wired or use dedicated wireless unidirectional RF radio channels to transmit video footage to the production desk. However, with advancement in video resolution to HD and UHD formats and increasing requirements for low latency video transfer and bi-directional camera control, private 5G-enabled broadcast connectivity is showing how it can enable new and more creative production workflows and operational benefits for broadcasters and other stakeholders. 5G connectivity also helps to replace the need for outside-broadcast trucks and extensive cabling.
Neutral Wireless partnered with Glasgow-based production company QTV to explore the broadcasting of live Scottish Premiership Football using Private 5G-enabled wireless cameras with bi-directional IP capabilities including camera control, talkback, tally, and return video. A pop-up Private 5G network was deployed at the Scot Foam stadium in Dundee, operating in a 100MHz licensed n77 band from Ofcom.
Several Blackmagic Design cameras were used with Haivision mobile video transmitters to capture HD footage of the match and encode it for transmission over the 5G network to the production area and on to the QTV control room. Camera control was performed both onsite and remotely from the QTV MCR.
This undertaking was part of the Tay Cities Region Tay 5G project — organised in collaboration with the Scotland 5G Centre and industry partners — which seeks to accelerate the development of innovative 5G-powered projects in various sectors. Thanks to Tay 5G and production technology partners QTV, and also Blackmagic Design and Unity Intercom.
Get more detail in this report by Joe O'Halloran
Read more about Neutral Wireless.
This video is from an IBC global media industry event –5G-enabled broadcast from the middle of nowhere.
