UHD Spain carries out a pioneering experience with UHD-HDR and 5G

The association that promotes Ultra High Definition in Spain, UHD Spain, carried out last Thursday a pioneering test of UHD-HDR retransmission and new generation audio (NGA), using 5G contributions, cloud mixing, multi-media broadcasting including 5G Broadcast, and use of the public Internet network for the transport of signs.

This is a milestone that paves the way for the future of these technologies and culminates the work of an entire year in which the association has been dedicated to 5G. For this experience, the broadcast of a live concert by singer Israel Fernández held at the Royal Astronomical Observatory of Madrid with the collaboration of Radio 3 was chosen.

The objective of the test was to set up a UHD workflow with HDR-HLG from camera to user device, using 5G communications, processing at the edge and in the cloud, and all available broadcast media: DTT (DVB-T2), satellite (DVB-S2), Internet (OTT, HbbTV) and the new 5G Broadcast system, simultaneously. The concert could be viewed on televisions, PCs, tablets or mobile devices through the official UHD Spain website.

“This is one of the first cases in which a multi-camera contribution of Ultra High Definition content is made through a 5G network,” says the vice president of UHD Spain, Xavier Redón, from Cellnex. “Spain is a country where there is very great innovation in UHD and at Cellnex we are proud to operate the network through which RTVE will become the first broadcaster in the world to broadcast a regular UHD broadcast on DTT.”

The workflow included the proof of concept of remote production, by including mixing and production processing in the cloud and remote control cameras (PTZ).

“This test shows us one more way for live production,” he says. Emily Planas, from Mediapro Group. “In the not too distant future, the production model that we have tested will become common to cover live events with the highest UHD-HDR quality, using the facilities of 5G and offshore operations through connected resources.”

Also included in the demonstration were monitoring and supervision systems of the transmitted signal both at the radio frequency level, protocols and video/audio quality.

Important technological challenge

This proof of concept is completely innovative and has represented an important technological challenge by combining the latest technologies in communication, processing and dissemination. All of this has allowed us to verify the benefits, advantages and limitations that can be found when combining the available technologies, so the members of UHD Spain have been able to experiment with different use cases that can be applied in the near future.

According to Pere Vila (RTVE), one of the objectives of this experience is to check “connectivity and production in the cloud, check the possibilities of 5G Broadcast and that the signal received by users does not consume data.” An advance that, in addition to its economic impact, is also functional: “Thousands of phones can be connected simultaneously without saturating the network.”

For the development of this broadcast, the role played by the member companies of the association led by Sapec, que ha actuado como coordinador y gestor del proyecto y especialista en codificación. Además, han participado activamente RTVE, Cellnex, Grupo Mediapro, Canon y TVU Networks en todas las fases. Han colaborado los también miembros de UHD Spain Ateme, CCMA, Dolby, Gsertel, Fraunhofer IIS, Rohde & Schwarz, Televés, Vestel, Video-MOS, entre otros. La difusión ha sido posible gracias a las redes de Axión, Cellnex, Hispasat y Telecom CLM. También han colaborado en esta prueba otras empresas como Acromove, Qualcomm, Spiner y Transparent Edge.

The test has also been possible thanks to the support of the Secretary of State for Telecommunications of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, who has approved the use of the spectrum for the test.

Miguel Ángel Cristobal, coordinator of this project and member of the Board of Directors of UHD Spain, emphasizes that “the experience of being able to see how a 5G network can be used to contribute UHD-HDR signals with enriched audio, upload them to the cloud to make a production remotely, processing them to be distributed by 5G Broadcast has been surprising, satisfactory and during the process has allowed us to learn a lot about these technologies and their combined use. A test like this would not have been possible without the spirit of selfless collaboration and the enormous experience accumulated by the members of UHD Spain.”

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