in Democratic Party leader briefing In November 2022, the move to 5G and wireless production was hailed as having the potential to “change everything”. Be wary of making bold claims, but then there’s the potential for 5G to dramatically change the way live events are produced, broadcast, and experienced, with events ranging from League Two football to the coronation of Charles III. It has been proven that there is.
Wireless cameras allow producers to capture the action from more angles, be more agile, and create more dynamic shots. The increased use of mobile phones instead of expensive cameras has democratized live production, lowering the cost of attendance and allowing non-commercial events to provide fans with high-quality content.
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5G improves sustainability by reducing reliance on large-scale OB vans and large-scale hardware infrastructure deployments. This reduces the time and human resources required to set up, manage, and tear down live event productions.
In 2020, IBC launched an accelerator for 5G remote production. The purpose of the Accelerator was to enable broadcasters to consider production use cases for their early 5G deployments. It turns out that 5G has the potential to enable a more efficient way to produce live events than traditional outdoor broadcasts.
However, this work also revealed some major challenges, such as the requirement for uplink capabilities that are not generally available in public 5G networks.
Public and private networks
High-quality live production requires large amounts of reliable, low-latency network capacity to move video feeds and data around the production site. If a producer chooses 5G, he can obtain this capacity in two ways: via a public or private 5G network.
Using a public 5G network means sharing the network provider’s spectrum with non-operational users. Competition can cause problems in ensuring reliable access to enough spectrum for video uplinks, especially at live events filled with fans publishing their own content on social media.
Public 5G networks solve this problem by “slicing” or reserving portions of the available spectrum for specific uses. This means that spectrum allocated for production is reliable and unaffected by non-production user activity. However, because reserved and unreserved spectrum is limited, carriers are challenged to ensure that slicing does not remove enough capacity to impact the general public.
Limited spectrum availability across public 5G networks leads many production teams to “combine” spectrum from multiple network providers to gather enough network resources for production purposes. A combined network can fuse spectrum from different providers into a single connection to provide additional capacity and redundancy in the event of a failure. Bonding has become commonly used to overcome limitations in public 5G networks, but it has also come under increased scrutiny from national regulators concerned about the potential for fraudulent use of so-called “SIM farms.” I am starting to receive it.
Private 5G networks are set up exclusively for specific uses. They rely on portable infrastructure that can be deployed virtually anywhere, from sports stadiums to remote rural areas. Private 5G networks can use legally available spectrum to provide a reliable, low-latency network without worrying about external users. However, the use of 5G networks may require weeks of advance planning, as permissions to use the spectrum must be approved by regulators.
The main advantage of private 5G networks is that they are software-defined and can be configured for specific uses. For example, this enables spectrum and auxiliary frequency optimization to improve uplink performance in multi-camera production scenarios. This kind of flexibility is not possible in public networks, which need to accommodate all kinds of use cases, even with slices.
What is low latency?
One of the benefits of 5G is that it offers the potential for extremely low latency, theoretically just 1 millisecond across the local network. Low latency is a must for live production, as even the slightest delay can cause synchronization issues. This is even more important in a multi-camera production environment to avoid discontinuous cuts.
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Although 5G offers a low-latency fabric, it introduces delays when encoding camera feeds for IP delivery. Until recently, most 5G bonded encoders had delays of up to 800ms, creating challenges for live events. However, advances in technology have successfully reduced latency to around 240ms, and some encoders can achieve 80ms.
However, the lowest-latency 5G encoders come at a significantly higher cost. This has caused many producers to reconsider their preconceptions about how much delay is actually acceptable. For example, in some use cases producers may be able to make more decisions about where to place cuts so that additional milliseconds of delay are not visible to the viewer.
Fusion of 5G and cloud
The increased use of 5G has converged on the development of cloud-based tools for live production. The combination of 5G technology and cloud-based production tools further reduces the physical infrastructure required on-site for live events. The cloud also allows production teams to reduce the need for operators to travel to the site, allowing them to work remotely and manage simultaneous events at different venues.
among us NAB 2023: Supply and demand In this report, DPP investigated how well the industry is responding to customer interest in both 5G and cloud-based live production tools. We’ve found that live production in the cloud has become a viable option for our customers, even for high-profile events. This is driven by advances in cloud-based applications that provide tools such as multi-camera switchers, multi-channel audio mixers, voiceovers, and dynamic graphics engines that run on virtualized video fabrics capable of low latency and asynchronous video processing. It’s now possible.
5G-to-cloud “bridging” technology now allows producers to link 5G and cloud-based services. The bridge consists of a hybrid edge technology that runs several cloud-based services within the local 5G network. This allows producers to run applications in the cloud without losing the near real-time benefits of running within a 5G network. “Camera-to-cloud” bonding 5G encoders with direct cloud publishing capabilities are a simple example of what is becoming increasingly popular in production environments.
Hybrid benefits
Of course, while 5G brings clear benefits to live production, it is not necessarily a panacea for all use cases. A successful transition to 5G requires careful planning that involves operational and business transformation. Many companies have found this out the hard way when moving services to the public cloud.
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The hybrid cloud lessons of running services both on-site and in the cloud also apply to deploying 5G in production environments. Converting everything to his 5G at once is not always necessary or even beneficial.
Working in a hybrid wired and wireless production environment is one approach producers are taking to control costs. It also allows him to deploy 5G in stages without having to completely retire legacy equipment. This is made possible by lower encoding latencies, allowing production teams to switch between wired and wireless camera feeds to deliver more engaging content.
Similarly, the choice between public and private 5G networks is not exclusive. Many producers have found that combining private and public 5G networks yields the best results. For example, public 5G networks are used to capture fan reactions off the sports pitch to provide more atmosphere.
5G future
5G production has made significant progress since the IBC Accelerator tested its concept and architectural theory in 2020. The industry has made great strides in the past year since DPP surveyed him at NAB 2023, with increased interest and investment following his successful use of 5G at several high-profile events. Did.
Continuous improvements in bonded encoders are finally allowing producers to take advantage of the low-latency capabilities of 5G networks. Latency is now low enough that wireless cameras on 5G networks are being tested to provide his VAR (Video Assistant Referee) service. This will enable 5G to be used in more production use cases.
The capacity and capabilities of both public and private 5G networks continue to increase, and changes in legislation are expected to make regulatory compliance for acquiring spectrum for private 5G networking easier and faster.
As the barriers to 5G deployment in production continue to fall, lower costs and more sustainable operations will enable broadcasters to create content from niche local events that were previously not commercially viable. . The biggest beneficiary of these advances will be viewers, who will be able to become more involved in live events on screen and through the lens of their mobile phones.
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