5G

The Boston low-power station demoed a programming stream and tests of emergency alerts using a Rohde & Schwarz transmitter. The organizers described the event as the first 5G broadcasts from a U.S. station to a smartphone.

The FCC has granted low-power WWOO-LD Westmoreland, N.H., special temporary authority to test 5G broadcasts. LPTV stations are looking to leapfrog the ATSC 3.0 standard’s data offload potential with what is being billed as “5G broadcasting.” “Anybody who has been frustrated in a crowded football stadium trying to watch the game on a phone can understand the value of sending out on-demand streams and data via broadcast,” Preston Padden, long-time industry executive and chief strategic officer of the LPTV Broadcasters Association, has said of the effort to turn LPTVs into turnkey 5G players.

As ATSC marked its 40^th anniversary at last week’s conference, conversations resoundingly turned to alternative uses for the NextGen TV spectrum including datacasting and PNT applications.

The Boston low-power stations says the experimental license it’s requesting could become a “game changer” for TV stations and consumers.

Dish Network appears increasingly desperate to sell assets and raise money — and continues to battle speculation from insiders that it could face bankruptcy. The struggling satellite TV giant is expected to meet its commitment to cover 70% of the U.S. with a 5G wireless network by the end of the month, but sources are growing increasingly skeptical that Dish will have money to finish its buildout.

Dish Network is in talks to sell wireless plans for its nascent mobile phone service through Amazon, according to people familiar with the matter, an arrangement that could give the telecom company’s 5G rollout a critical lifeline. Details of the new phone plans sold through Amazon’s U.S. website could be announced as soon as June, the people said, though several factors could still delay or derail their launch.

Broadcasters are now making active use of 5G in everyday production operations, usually alongside LTE in contribution feeds sent with bonded cellular systems. But the most exciting production applications to date for 5G have actually used private 5G networks that broadcasters have set up themselves for big-event coverage.

Players across the telecom industry are openly debating whether Dish Network will crash and burn. At issue is whether Dish Network and its chairman, Charlie Ergen, can successfully leverage the company’s aging satellite TV business to finance the construction of a nationwide 5G wireless network. And then, after that, if the company can successfully use that network to challenge behemoths like T-Mobile and AT&T.

The fifth generation of wireless cellular technologies, 5G, isn’t as venerable and ubiquitous as the long history of broadcasting technologies being celebrated at this year’s NAB Show Centennial. Yet, 5G will have a major impact, both in terms of immediate applications in the new production gear and in more futuristic demos and discussions of 5G broadcasting that could transform the media and entertainment landscape over the next five to 10 years.

A Sinclair/Sony/Avid experiment aims to optimize news photographers’ field time by immediately logging metadata into cameras in the field, while Starlink and 5G rollouts continue to boost reliability in more remote scenarios. Above, Vislink’s MVP Streamur Live Streaming App in action, allowing reporters to broadcast into the production workflow using a mobile device.

Broadcasters kept their focus largely on a NextGen TV narrative headed into this week’s CES in Las Vegas, where around 100,000 attendees are expected. Sinclair is discussing its own flurry of ATSC 3.0 developments, while the demise of pay TV service Evoca was one setback in the NextGen saga.

Tech executives from Fox News, Fox Television Stations, WPVI Philadelphia and LiveU are shifting away from traditional microwave and satellite technology and finding other IP-native paths to send live and edited video, they told an audience at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum last week. Above (l-r): LiveU’s Mike Savello, Fox News’ Scott Wilder, WPVI’s Elizabeth Plyler and Fox Television Stations’ Erik Smith (Alyssa Wesley photo). Read a full report here and/or watch the video above.

The cellular tech will be in the spotlight at the IBC technology show in Amsterdam that gets underway tomorrow. Vendors say the 5G buzz is finally justified, as broadcasters are starting to use it regularly for live production applications.

IBC’s first in-person event since 2019 may have fewer days and attendees than at its high-water mark, but vendors are packing their schedules with meetings and say they’re excited to be doing business in person again.

Dish wants to deploy 5G wireless services in the 12 GHz spectrum band. DirecTV thinks that’s going to present serious interference issues with its satellite TV service.

Dish Network on Tuesday announced a new $3.3 billion agreement with T-Mobile that lowers the prices Dish must pay to put its customers onto T-Mobile’s 5G network. The financial analysts at New Street Research speculated that the agreement represents a “modest negative” for AT&T, which inked its own $5 billion network-access deal with Dish last year. According to the analysts, Dish now has less incentive to move its Boost Mobile customer traffic onto AT&T’s network.

Verizon, Bloomberg Media, Zixi and Amazon Web Services are all teaming up to test broadcast news that skips satellite delivery in favor of 5G.

AT&T and Verizon on Tuesday each agreed to temporarily delay their 5G rollouts near certain airports amid concerns over possible flight disruptions. The move follows mounting outside pressure and comes amid warnings from U.S. airlines that new 5G wireless service that was set to start Wednesday could ground flights and leave potentially thousands of Americans stranded while also delaying goods.

The implementation of 5G wireless technology has created a strain on radio frequency spectrum that is putting the industry at odds with administration agencies, with the FCC stuck in the middle. One analyst compares it to the 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, where a ravenous, human-eating plant can’t be sated. Similarly, telecommunications companies appear to have an endless need for additional bandwidth to provide ever-faster mobile data services.

Major set manufacturers Samsung, LG and Sony glanced over NextGen TV in their presentations, although Hisense and Tablo unveiled new NextGen-enabled products in this year’s heavily slimmed-down event.

AT&T and Verizon Communications said late Monday (Jan. 3) that the companies will delay their planned Jan. 5 rollout of 5G wireless service in the C-band, at least briefly, at the request of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (above). The secretary had asked for a two-week delay to try and resolve issues of possible interference with radio altimeters that use the adjacent ban.

The airline industry has filed an emergency petition at the FCC asking that the commission stop implementation of rules for the rollout of 5G in the band and suggesting not to do so could cost the airline industry a billion dollars and delay shipments of COVID-19 vaccines and tests. It is just the latest battle line in the air war between the FCC and aviation over what the latter says is the potential for dangerous interference to critical aviation systems like altimeters.

The Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday it is in direct talks with the telecom industry about its aviation safety concerns involving the planned use of spectrum for 5G wireless communications.

AT&T and Verizon will delay the launch of 5G on key frequencies amid concern that it might interfere with airplane safety systems, federal officials said Thursday. The companies will “further assess any impact on aviation safety technologies,” the FCC and Federal Aviation Administration said in a joint statement. Both companies confirmed they will delay their rollouts for about a month, to Jan. 5.