In a project that the partners say highlighted the efficiency and ease of use of 5G with IP-bonding, Sky Deutschland and LiveU have revealed their work on a 5G multi-cam and cloud production proof-of-concept (PoC) at the recent Special Olympics World Games.


Held in Berlin from the 17-25 June, the Special Olympics World Games is described as the “the world's largest inclusive sports event" where thousands of athletes with intellectual disabilities compete together.
Sky Deutschland and LiveU have a longstanding relationship, reaching beyond the traditional customer/solution provider connection to include multiple 5G trials, involving football and handball, designed to highlight the ease-of use, flexibility and cost-effectiveness enabled by using 5G for media contribution. To bring what it said was engaging and dynamic footage from other events across the Games, both Sky Deutschland and NEP, who were providing services at the Games, used widely the LiveU EcoSystem with its IP-video field units.
Looking at its role, Sky Deutschland said that it was clear that it needed to keep highlighting to the media, and particularly the telecoms industries, the technical and financial advantages of 5G as a transport layer. There was, insisted Alessandro Reitano, SVP sports production, Sky Deutschland, still too much dependency on traditional transport mechanisms
“This is an important multi-day global event with a powerful inclusivity message and, with the support of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and LiveU, we saw this as an ideal chance to further highlight the future of contribution and production using 5G,” Reitano remarked. “The beauty here was that broadcasters and OB companies – as well as other technology suppliers – could see 5G contribution in action, supported by the efficiency and flexibility of IP-bonding and the very easy and quick set-up time, and contrast it with more traditional workflows… We see demand growing from broadcasters who want to use 5G and IP-bonding at major events to drive more extensive and diverse coverage.”
Working with both the LOC and a 5G service provider to create a private 5G network, and expanding upon its venue consulting role, the broadcaster identified the table tennis tournament as being ideal for the POC.
The table tennis tournament ran from 19 June through to the final day of the event. The broadcaster deployed the LiveU EcoSystem with a multi-cam LU800, in four-camera mode, plus three LU-Smart equipped smartphones to capture the event. The feeds from the LU800 were, as with the feeds from the smartphones, encoded and sent to Munich, where they were decoded by two LiveU decoders. Vision mixing occurred in the cloud with the final output made available to both the director of the world feed and also to Sky Deutschland’s unilateral feed.
“[The games marked] another important milestone highlighting the flexibility, reliability and power of using 5G for contribution, working in perfect combination with our technologies,” added Bart Meeus, senior manager, sports EMEA, LiveU. “We very much see this as the future and we agree with Alessandro that there is a need to continue to push the use of 5G as an industry.”
Sky Deutschland and LiveU have a longstanding relationship, reaching beyond the traditional customer/solution provider connection to include multiple 5G trials, involving football and handball, designed to highlight the ease-of use, flexibility and cost-effectiveness enabled by using 5G for media contribution. To bring what it said was engaging and dynamic footage from other events across the Games, both Sky Deutschland and NEP, who were providing services at the Games, used widely the LiveU EcoSystem with its IP-video field units.
Looking at its role, Sky Deutschland said that it was clear that it needed to keep highlighting to the media, and particularly the telecoms industries, the technical and financial advantages of 5G as a transport layer. There was, insisted Alessandro Reitano, SVP sports production, Sky Deutschland, still too much dependency on traditional transport mechanisms
“This is an important multi-day global event with a powerful inclusivity message and, with the support of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and LiveU, we saw this as an ideal chance to further highlight the future of contribution and production using 5G,” Reitano remarked. “The beauty here was that broadcasters and OB companies – as well as other technology suppliers – could see 5G contribution in action, supported by the efficiency and flexibility of IP-bonding and the very easy and quick set-up time, and contrast it with more traditional workflows… We see demand growing from broadcasters who want to use 5G and IP-bonding at major events to drive more extensive and diverse coverage.”
Working with both the LOC and a 5G service provider to create a private 5G network, and expanding upon its venue consulting role, the broadcaster identified the table tennis tournament as being ideal for the POC.
The table tennis tournament ran from 19 June through to the final day of the event. The broadcaster deployed the LiveU EcoSystem with a multi-cam LU800, in four-camera mode, plus three LU-Smart equipped smartphones to capture the event. The feeds from the LU800 were, as with the feeds from the smartphones, encoded and sent to Munich, where they were decoded by two LiveU decoders. Vision mixing occurred in the cloud with the final output made available to both the director of the world feed and also to Sky Deutschland’s unilateral feed.
“[The games marked] another important milestone highlighting the flexibility, reliability and power of using 5G for contribution, working in perfect combination with our technologies,” added Bart Meeus, senior manager, sports EMEA, LiveU. “We very much see this as the future and we agree with Alessandro that there is a need to continue to push the use of 5G as an industry.”