VIRTUOSA has successfully tested and demonstrated its 5G pilot system in a live TV production trial using LAN/WAN and wireless 5G acquisition and signals from five different remote locations in Germany and UK (see photo 4-9).
The 5G pilot system has been a complete VIRTUOSA product solution tailor-made to connect three broadcaster’s sites: ARD-Sternpunkt (Frankfurt, Germany), WDR (Cologne, Germany) and SWR (Baden Baden, Germany) for all IP-based multi-site remote live productions with two private 5G-campus networks: one located at Adastral Park (Ipswich, UK) and another one located at MEDIA BROADCAST GmbH (Nauen, Germany); both serving as a remote ‘event’ location for live contributions captured by 5G-connected professional broadcasting cameras (for example for an interview with a soccer player in a stadium).
In practice, we have extended the successfully tested WAN pilot system (Phase 2) by two private 5G campus networks.
This has involved integrating equipment from multiple vendors: video cameras, a vision mixer, and a server from Sony; a multiviewer from TAG Video Systems; an audio mixer from Stagetec provided by SWR and WDR; a media analyzer from Telestream; measurement equipment from Leader and Bridgetech; a PTP-compliant time and frequency synchronization from Meinberg; IP switches from Mellanox; software-defined media nodes from Nevion; and all of it managed by an orchestration and SDN control system from Nevion.
Previously in Period 1, the LAN pilot system (Phase 1) has been successfully tested and validated by IRT according to relevant industry standards (SMPTE, NMOS, AES).
Previously in Period 2: the WAN pilot system (Phase 2) has been successfully tested by LOGIC according to relevant industry standards. The test results have proven that the WAN pilot system and its components are fully compliant with the relevant SMPTE, NMOS, AES and IEEE standards. On top, it has demonstrated an extremely high stability, suitable for high quality live media production. The technical tests did not show any critical problems in the whole system. All components have worked problem-free and has shown a high reliability.
In Period 3: the 5G pilot system (Phase 3) has been successfully tested by NEVION and LOGIC according to relevant industry standards and in particular for its 5G performance. We have characterized in depth the native 5G performance capabilities as well as the Application layer of the professional Video- and Audio that sits on top of it. By this, we have successfully demonstrated an amazing number of opportunities for future applications within the broadcast-Industry leveraging 5G-technology.
In parallel, the Consortium has promoted the VIRTUOSA project (5G-VIRTUOSA) and its success through various communication and dissemination activities focusing to gain traction in Europe and abroad as one of the frontrunners in the Use of Virtualisation and 5G.
Of particular note has been VIRTUOSA’s reach out to international industry associations (i.e. IABM, International Trade Association for the Broadcast & Media Industry), international industry working groups (i.e. AIMS, Alliance for IP Media Solutions), and standardisation working groups (AES, AMWA, SMPTE, VSF).
