One Media & India's Saankhya collab on 5G broadcasting

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s One Media 3.0 has announced an agreement with Indian-based Saankhya Labs to develop 5G broadcast and broadband cooperative direct-to-mobile network development. 

According to the two firms the new cooperative network aims to relieve mobile network congestion with dynamic offload of OTT and live content in “one-to-many” broadcast OTA and DTT networks.

The deal accelerates the development of a 5G next-generation broadband offload platform.

Under the Agreement, Saankhya Labs, a leader in the development of wireless systems and cognitive Software Defined Radio (SDR) solutions, is developing an end-to-end cooperative network platform including radio nodes and mobile end user devices.

The platform will enable 4G and 5G wireless operators to offload OTT and live content dynamically on to “one-to-many” broadcast Digital Terrestrial Transmission (DTT) networks.

This platform sits at the centre of 5G convergence and demonstrations of the 5G-related components of this new cooperative network have been exhibited at CES 2019, Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2019 and the 2019 NAB Show 2019.

The first phase of product and system development will establish real-world proof-of-concept deployments in India and the United States.

ONE Media 3.0 was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group with a vision to build and globally deploy the next-generation broadcast platform, enabling broadcasters to be competitive across all platforms in delivering enhanced video and data services.

One Media 3.0 president Mark Aitken said: “Broadcasters have a critical seat at the 5G table. This work and product development will provide a ‘level set’ against expectations for broadcast services that are embraced by the 3GPP 5G standard.

“These first deployments will elevate understanding of the cooperative role NextGen (ATSC 3.0) broadcast can play to make 5G networks highly efficient Broadcast/Broadband convergent networks.

“The ‘direct to mobile’ focus of this activity will leverage the one-to-many efficiencies of broadcast in a new topology that can provide high-reliability and large bandwidth solutions and make them available to the competitive marketplace.”

Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, Saankhya’s solutions include industry’s first IEEE 802.22 compliant TVWS systems for rural broadband connectivity, Satellite communications modems for IoT applications and multi-standard DTV modulators and demodulators.

Saankhya Labs chief executive Parag Naik said: “Saankhya is excited to expand its partnership with One Media and Sinclair to build an end-to-end solution that transforms the delivery and consumption of both linear and non-linear video. Broadcast video networks are essentially ‘constant quality’ networks compared to the current ‘best effort’ unicast mobile networks, especially for video delivery.

“Our direct-to-mobile solution provides a new tool combining broadcast and OTT content over a new video distribution platform. We are convinced that OTT content players and mobile network operators will take full advantage of this unique video delivery solution.”

Earlier this week, IBC365 reported the two largest Indian DTH operators, Dish TV and Bharti’s Airtel DTH, are in the final stages of agreeing a long-discussed merger.

The union between Dish and Airtel would create the world’s largest TV distribution company with more than 38 million subscribers and 61% of Indian direct-to-home (DTH) market share.

• Read more India’s Dish and Airtel finalise merger plans