• EU initiative to showcase cost-effective live production 
  • Project combines 5G acquisition with software defined networks 
  • First phase completed with build of IP-based studio  

5G satellite

Virtuosa: EU funded project moves onto the next round of testing

An EU-funded project exploring the use of 5G and virtualisation for broadcast production has completed its first round of technology integration, building an IP-based studio based on industry standards SMPTE ST 2110 and NMOS. 

The 5G-Virtuosa project aims to demonstrate through real-life examples how 5G can be combined with virtualisation to allow broadcasters to produce live content such as sports or music coverage more efficiently and cost-effectively across locations. 

It is doing this by exploring scalable, software-defined network architectures for cooperative live media production, exploiting virtualised production resources and 5G wireless acquisition.  

The project group is comprised of Norway’s Nevion, Mellanox Technologies from Israel and Germany’s Logic Media Solutions and IRT (Institute for Broadcasting Technology).  

The first technical step of the initiative involved the integration of multiple products from various vendors at Nevion’s Service Operations Center in Gdansk, Poland.  

These included video cameras, a vision mixer, and a server from Sony; a multiviewer from Tag Video Systems; an audio mixer from Stage Tec; a media analyser from Telestream; IP switches from Mellanox; a PTP-compliant time and frequency synchronisation from Meinberg; software-defined media nodes from Nevion; and all of it managed by an orchestration and SDN control system from Nevion. 

Because of the restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus most of the work has been done remotely. 

IRT head of future networks Markus Berg said: “After a slight delay because of the Covid-19 situation, we are pleased that we are now in a position to start testing.  

“The set-up is the fundamental building block that we will be using to create the 5G remote production planned for later phases of the project.  

“The compliance to standards is a key part of the tests, and very important for IRT, as an internationally renowned research and innovation center for audiovisual technologies.” 

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