Telefónica and Orange highlight 5G TV initiatives in Spain

Telefónica and Orange España have separately teamed up with Ericsson to highlight the TV broadcast and production capabilities of 5G mobile technology.

Telefónica used this week’s Mobile World Congress to demonstrate the use of 5G connections to deliver signals from 5G-connected cameras over a 5G network, with production software installed at the edge, very close to where the cameras were, receiving their images almost immediately with very low latency, according to the group.

Ericsson provided network equipment, including 5G radio equipment, as well as the Edge and network core, with the latency and high bandwidth capabilities needed for these types of solutions. The technical production solution was designed by Madrid-based Idronia Multimedia Solutions, and the mobile devices used for the 5G connectivity are latest generation Samsung 5G smartphones; specifically the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G.

Juan Cambeiro, head of the Telefónica España Innovation Project, said: “Nowadays, high level media coverage is something reserved only for large events or competitions due to the cost and complexity of the infrastructure that it requires. This TV5G rebroadcasting and production solution allows to have professional media coverage for even very local content. In fact, we could talk about a democratisation of professional television coverage because it allows to broadcast very local content using less resources than ever before.”

Orange España meanwhile teamed up with Ericsson to implement what it described as the first real-time 5G transmission over a commercial network in Spain.

A real-time transmission of a Maori tribal dance, a Haka, was carried out over Orange’s 5G network between Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the Puerta del Sol in Madrid.

The transmission connected three separate venues, the Orange stand in the Barcelona Fira, Orange’s offices in Barcelona and its flagship store in Puerta del Sol.

Ericsson’s Radio System team provided three AIR6488 active antennas working in mid-band spectrum assigned to Orange.

Tomás Alonso, director of product engineering at Orange España, said: “Orange and Ericsson demonstrated in Barcelona how 5G can conan contribute to society with value proposition like these use cases, never before seen, that synchronise human activities from remote sites in the same temporal frame.”

Somaya El Marrakchi, head of networks at Ericsson Iberia, said: “With this demonstration, Orange and Ericssoin are taking a very important technological step for the evolution of the network and for reducing to the minimum the time-to-market when Orange activates its 5G network for all its users.”