The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced on Wednesday a $50-million grant to Dish Wireless from the agency’s Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. The money will go to the establishment of the company’s Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment, or ORCID. The Cheyenne, Wyo.-based testing facility will allow companies to test equipment and software to ensure their technology works with existing 5G networks. The funding for ORCID is an attempt to allow smaller vendors to enter the market.
The German Football League (Deutsche Fußball Liga / DFL) has broken new ground, ushering in a revolutionary approach to sports broadcasting. Teaming up with TVU Networks, the DFL executed a […]
TV stations hope to tap in to the huge market of mobile customers and move big groups of people back to the broadcast model. Pictured: A phone showing a 5G broadcast of France24’s English language programming. (Photo: Bill Christian)
TVU Networks, a provider of cloud-based workflow solutions for live content production and distribution, will show a lineup of cloud and on-prem solutions at NAB Show New York on Oct. […]
5G Broadcast, a technology that is starting to be tested by US low-power TV stations, took a big, official step forward. 3GPP on Friday formally published the technical specs for 5G Broadcast in version 18.3.0 of the specs for 36.101 (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access, or E-UTRA). The updated specs show approval for “LTE based 5G terrestrial broadcast” to operate in a new 108 band (470MHz – 698MHz). This effectively makes all U.S. low-power UHF stations 3GPP-eligible to broadcast in 5G.
Ateme, a global provider of video compression, delivery and streaming solutions with innovation at its core, said today that it was behind the first transmission of a 5G signal over a […]
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.
Data Dominates NextGen TV Conference
As ATSC marked its 40th 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 Go Private With 5G
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.
Debate Rages Over Dish’s Financial Future
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.
Sinclair Broadcast Group is deploying new cloud-based news and content gathering and production workflows by combining technologies from Avid, Sony and Marquis Broadcast. This new approach, Sinclair says, “leverages 5G networks […]