Overcoming the challenges of Live TV Coverage Amidst High Demand and Congestion
by Tiffany Wolf
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris kick off on Friday, July 26. Along with over 15 million tourists expected to visit the French capital and watch their national teams compete, there are also billions of people who will be following the games via live television broadcast. According to reports, the previous Olympic Games in Tokyo reached a global broadcast audience of more than three billion people, and according to a study from YouGov, two-thirds (66 percent) of people that plan to follow the Olympics will tune into TV broadcasts. The number of broadcast hours keeps constantly growing: from 3000 at the games in Atlanta 30 years ago, it has grown to 9500 at the Tokyo Olympics.
While the demand from spectators is high, can broadcasters meet it? The games in Paris are going to be a very different experience from Tokyo. Due to Covid restrictions, the Tokyo games were held with limited attendance, complicated logistics and remote broadcasting setups. In Paris this year, it’s quite the opposite – and yet, for TV crews the task of providing live broadcasting from France may be quite challenging. Many of them will rely on cellular networks for reasons of mobility, performance or fixed communications not being available. The problems that we described in more detail in one of our previous posts on broadcasting – coverage, latency and bandwidth – will be relevant to any crew trying to perform live TV coverage of sports events or ceremonies using cellular connectivity.
Will 5G become a panacea for all connectivity woes?
Media reported that Orange, the sole official connectivity provider for the Paris 2024 Olympics was setting up a standalone private 5G network that broadcasters can access during the games. The network will be separate from the public 5G one used by spectators, which Orange too opened to existing consumers at no extra cost from June to September.
Orange is confident that such a technology solution will guarantee broadcasters a premium service with high, stable upload speeds and ultra-low latency times and security. The private network is expected to provide coverage at more than 120 venues, including major stadiums, areas in Paris, transport hubs, athlete training grounds, and even a 3.5 mile stretch of the river Seine where the opening ceremony will take place.
However impressive carriers’ efforts to provide stable connectivity by deploying a private 5G network may be, this leaves on the table the question of coverage: what happens when a TV crew moves out of the private network’s reach? Besides, there are many other broadcasting teams using the same network. There is also the problem of uplink speed: according to the reports, in 2023, Orange offered the best uplink speed in France – 22.7 Mbps. In certain cases, it may not be enough – for example, when streaming video in 4K with a high FPS rate.
Leveraging existing public cellular networks may be complicated due to the highly congested network environments, with other broadcasters’ crews and crowds of sports fans performing calls and streaming video from the stadiums. It’s possible to use public 5G capabilities, but the same Opensignal report showed that 5G availability (the proportion of time that users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription had an active 5G connection) among all French mobile operators was no higher than 18.2%.
Will cellular bonding help?
To ensure high-quality video streams without the limitation of a single network connection broadcasting companies often use cellular bonding solutions that combine multiple networks. Quite complex, these solutions can use both public and private networks: right before the Olympics, French national public television broadcaster France Télévisions was using a private 5G network to transmit coverage of the Olympic torch relay. The broadcaster used a mobile unit providing a 5G connection deployed in the trunk of a car, and the solution could dynamically select the best network for transmission, using both private 5G and public 4G/5G networks to ensure optimal performance. The results were high viewer engagement with 1.2 million unique viewers and 80 million video plays in the first two weeks.
The mobile bonding technology that uses multiple cellular modems to combine available cellular signals can provide better connection stability and more bandwidth, ensuring a smoother broadcast. But there are also other important requirements like latency, which depends on the operator’s core network architecture. It can be particularly crucial in the case of remote production that can add further latency when switching between multiple live feeds, mixing in commentator audio and video, or adding graphics. That’s why it’s important for broadcasters to consider not only the characteristics of local cellular networks and necessary bonding devices, but also SIM capabilities that could ensure both flexibility and robust reliable connection. There are use cases that show how a combination of these elements can really transform live broadcasting and guarantee live coverage on-the-go with high bandwidth and ultra-low latency.
For example, a live TV coverage of the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi required a stable and powerful internet connection for real-time reporting, as well as flexibility for broadcasting teams operating across multiple locations, security to protect sensitive data, and full compliance with local regulations. It was complicated by inadequate traditional fixed communication infrastructure, stringent security measures including mobile signal jamming, and logistics challenges posed by the Summit’s scale with events held across 60 Indian cities and over 100,000 participants from 135 countries.
To overcome these connectivity challenges, an innovative solution was implemented. It utilized eSIMs that provided independent access to multiple carrier networks, maintaining connectivity in areas with restricted or unreliable mobile signals. Integrated into Peplink and LiveU devices for cellular bonding, the eSIMs ensured stable and powerful internet connections essential for broadcasting high-quality, live 4K/HD video. With low latency and high data throughput, the solution supported seamless broadcasting operations across diverse locations and under dynamic conditions.
Webbing’s solution
Webbing offers a connectivity solution that ensures global access to reliable and high-quality internet, with low latency and the best of class coverage. It provides secure and continuous internet connection for devices on the move, wherever they need it.
As a global MVNO, Webbing’s network of 600+ mobile operators guarantee world-wide coverage. It allows to roam on several carriers’ network in every region, solving the problem of weak spots that any mobile network may have and ensuring full coverage and continuous connectivity for broadcasting production teams even at remote locations.
A distributed core network with local breakouts, multiple network solution, and data server redundancy helps Webbing provide stable connection, high data throughput and low latency to all roaming devices. It also ensures consistent bandwidth and a reliable connection for devices that use cellular bonding technology, allowing for flawless 5G 4K HEVC live streaming and remote production.
Our eSIM solution ensures failover connectivity with the capability of using multiple mobile carrier profiles, easily changing carriers at any time with zero integration, and an option to fall back from a failing profile to a different profile without any need to communicate with a remote server or deal with multiple SIM cards.
A flexible approach to data packages allows us to tailor our connectivity offering for every customer based on the type of connected devices and their data consumption needs as well as the locations where the devices are used, aiming at overall optimization of the total cost of operations for the client.
Our solutions help enterprises overcome their connectivity problems and optimize costs for global deployments, providing the benefits of roaming with multiple carrier options in every country, and seamless transition between carriers, while maintaining low rates and low latency on a global scale with a single SIM.
Reach out to learn more about our connectivity solutions.
