- As part of the “5G Today” project, a 5G broadcast test site is being established in Germany in the Bavarian Oberland region.
- Under the direction of Institute for Broadcast Technology (IRT), Kathrein and Rohde & Schwarz, partners of this research project, will test on a 5G network the broadcasting of television programs in FeMBMS mode (Further evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service).
- The project is also supported by Telefónica Germany and the Bavarian broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), whose broadcasting infrastructure will be used for 5G testing.
The future 5G mobile telecommunications standard has great potential for multimedia content distribution. Smartphones and other tablets are becoming television receivers that make it possible to watch live TV programmes while remaining open to other Internet and mobile telephone services. International standardisation work to enable such content distribution via 4G and 5G networks was completed in June 2017.
The first trials of television signal broadcasting should take place at the end of 2018. They will be simultaneously broadcast on channel 56 from the BR Wendelstein station (photo) and other points in the Munich area. Until then, components for transmission and reception will be developed and installed, and theoretical studies and preliminary research will be conducted. Large and small transmitter cells will be combined to provide a large radio coverage area.
“With the development of the 5G, the standard approaches the classical parameters of a broadcasting system, which will allow the economic and widespread distribution of television programmes,” says Professor Birgit Spanner-Ulmer, Director of Production and Technology at Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR).
“As a global network operator and member of the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN), we support the testing of multimedia content distribution on 5G networks. This is why, if necessary, we will provide the 5G Today project with another 700 MHz band, one of the frequency bands reserved for 5G by the European Commission,” explains Jaime Lluch, director of the radio access network at Telefónica Germany.
“We are participating in this research project, bringing our technological expertise in the field of terrestrial transmitters and mobile communications test solutions to build the foundation for efficient transmission of multimedia content to mobile devices,” reports Manfred Reitmeier, Rohde & Schwarz’s Senior Director of R&D Transmitter Systems.
Ralf Exler, head of innovation management at Kathrein, says the project plays an important role in the convergence of broadcasting and mobile communications: “Customers don’t have to worry about how they receive the content they use. With the 5G Today project, we will optimize antennas and network parameters in the field and perform test drives to provide innovative technology to our automotive customers . »
The 5G Today research project will be funded by the Bavarian Research Foundation over a 28-month period.
