As U.S. TV station owners’ prospects increasingly depend on how they deal with challenges posed by the global 5G juggernaut, newfound flexibility in the use of the fast-evolving cellular technology is opening more promising paths to their success in the battles ahead.

“We’re now at our last chance to remain a viable communications platform across all devices,” said Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media Technologies, Sinclair’s engineering unit. The opportunity lies in the fact that multiple strands in the long and complex evolution toward broadcast and mobile service integration are coming together on commercially viable chipsets capable of making things work across all fronts, he added.

“Whether our integration into the 5G domain is by way of ATSC 3.0, 5G Broadcast or some combination of the two, we as an organization don’t care,” Aitken said. What matters above all is “over-the-air broadcast remaining viable.”

Whatever Means Necessary
Many in broadcast TV circles, including Aitken, first viewed 5G Broadcast as an approach to multicasting video and other content to smartphones aimed at circumventing ATSC 3.0. But Aitken said he saw things differently after learning about the ATSC 3.0/5G Broadcast strategy implemented by Castanet, with live LPTV prototype services supporting the current 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) version of 5G Broadcast on ATSC 3.0 transmitters in Las Vegas and Silicon Valley.

In fact, Aitken said, ONE Media plans to test the Castanet platform on Sinclair’s WIAV-CD Washington, D.C., once the LPTV station receives the multiplexing and exciter equipment from Castanet partner Televes.

“We can see how [the Castanet solution] plays against the widest variety of 3.0 receivers,” Aitken said. “I think we have a bigger variety than just about anybody. If it comes out as claimed, why wouldn’t we support another means?”

How long before the solutions developed by Sinclair and Castanet will be relevant to getting ATSC 3.0/5G convergence off the ground remains to be seen. Eventually—and not so far in the future—TV station owners will be able to bolster the long-term viability Aitken said they’re looking for by leveraging 5G as a so-called bootstrapped radio access network (RAN) component of ATSC 3.0 transmitters through implementation of the recently announced Broadcast-to-Everything (B2X) standard.

The emerging 5G/TV convergence stems from the fact that both ATSC and the wireless industry’s 3GPP have moved their respective architectures ever closer through successive waves of standards development. Like LTE, ATSC 3.0 employs orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, and like the New Radio (NR) version of 5G, the B2X Radio Access Network (BRAN) framework will employ OFD Multiple Access (OFDMA) to support slicing capabilities with disaggregation between core and edge processing sites.

Optimizing 5G
But B2X does away with reliance on 5G broadband, although it employs techniques similar to those adopted in 3GPP’s latest Release 19 version. The idea with B2X is to optimize execution of all 5G-like functionalities in accordance with ATSC 3.0 architecture while ensuring smooth interoperability between the two domains.

Current U.S. broadcaster options related to using 5G Broadcast with ATSC 3.0, as supported by the Sinclair and Castanet solutions, are a bridge to opportunities across a virtually unlimited range of 5G multicast verticals anchored by B2X, ATSC President Madeleine Noland said. As for broadcasters that feel constrained by the fact that bandwidth availability for 5G multicasting is highly restricted by the current “lighthouse” sharing scenario of ATSC 3.0 spectrum, where Federal Communications Commission rules require full-power stations to continue ATSC 1.0 broadcasts, Noland said to stay tuned.

“I think it’s a good idea to keep an eye on B2X and what that can enable in the future,” she said.

One example of bridge-building to BTX already underway is in India, where government-run broadcaster Prasar Bharati and its technology partners are conducting direct-to-mobile (D2M) 5G/ATSC 3.0 service trials in 19 cities in preparation for commercial rollout by year-end. Smartphones and other devices will run on chipsets developed by Saankhya Labs, now owned by Tata Group’s Tejas Networks, with investment support from Sinclair. This full-reception system is built on a patented, software-defined radio platform that supports demodulator, antenna, filter and other front-end components, Aitken noted.

As this phase of the D2M strategy takes hold across India, Prasar Bharati and its tech partners have begun gearing up for the transition to B2X with high-profile standards development support from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. Sinclair and the other partners backing Saankhya Labs have launched Sampige Semiconductors to create B2X chipsets “in roughly the same time frame that semiconductors supporting 5G Broadcast will be appearing in some smartphones,” Aitken said.

Ready for Qualcomm
LPTV spectrum owners, who are free of 1.0/3.0 simulcast requirements, represent an immediate market for 5G Broadcast solutions providers, as long as they implement 5G Broadcast over ATSC 3.0 transmitters as required by the FCC. Castanet is allied with what founder and Executive Chairman Vern Fotheringham describes as a coalition of LPTV spectrum holders with footprints covering 60% of the U.S. population. Castanet documents point to expectations of expanding that base to 95%.

Castanet’s immediate goal is to ensure broadcast customers are fully prepared to capitalize on the projected 2028 rollout of smartphones equipped with new Qualcomm chipsets, Fotheringham said. Those chipsets support 3GPP Release 19 advancements that bring TV reception and 5G applications together on smartphones and tablets without requiring a separate tuner or SIM card and with no impact on a user’s data cap. These
systems-on-chips (SOCs) will enable interleaving, which allows non-TV 5G signaling to share the same spectrum with TV broadcasts, and CAS muting, which prevents that TV protection mechanism from impeding the 5G flows.

Once the smartphone turnover cycle puts these new devices into mass circulation sometime around 2031-32, the floodgates should open for broadcasters, Fotheringham said. “Our capex for the 5G Broadcast master site is equivalent to the cost of a 4G macro-level site but serves population areas covered by hundreds or even thousands of those cell sites,” he added. This translates to a massive cost reduction for 5G multicasting compared to MNO reliance on narrowcast streaming, he said.

The LPTV Factor
Of course, there are two sides to 5G tech advances, with benefits also accruing in directions unfavorable to the ATSC 3.0 agenda. One such trend is the widely publicized push by some segments of the LPTV community for freedom from FCC rules limiting use of 5G Broadcast to ATSC 3.0 broadcasters.

Last month, LPTV broadcaster XGN and sister company X1 Mobile, along with Tyche Media LLC, owner of WCRN-LD Boston, filed a petition with the FCC requesting permission to completely replace ATSC TV broadcasts with 5G Broadcast distribution. This goes beyond last year’s filing by the largest LPTV station owner HC2 Broadcasting—soon to be acquired by Dish founder Charlie Ergen—that seeks authority to use 5G Broadcast overlaid on a single ATSC 1.0 TV channel with no 3.0 requirement.

The proposed rule change would require LPTV stations to stream at least one free TV channel and to devote at least 50% of the remaining spectrum capacity to the types of public-safety applications ATSC 3.0 broadcasters are considering with use of 5G, such as emergency alerts, first-responder data and GPS backup.

WCRN for the past three years has been running FCC-sanctioned tests demonstrating 5G Broadcast delivery of linear programming streams, emergency alerts, global positioning and many other public-safety solutions, said Frank Copsidas, founder of XGN/X1 and founder and president of the LPTV Broadcast Association. Elsewhere, Copsidas said, LPTV stations in France, Africa and other countries with fewer regulatory restrictions are pursuing commercial rollouts of 5G Broadcast services.

“By 2029, short-form programming produced by the TDF Group for LPTV distribution will be available to 90% of the French population,” he said.

Another player pushing 5G Broadcast—but with the full expression of the Release 19 version—is Austria-based Big Blue Marble.
With support for interleaving and CAS muting, the company’s Nakolos platform is ideally suited for enabling 5G Broadcast over existing DVB-T2 infrastructure in Europe free of licensing restrictions, said Johann Mika, Big Blue Marble’s chief innovation officer.

“From a regulatory perspective, in Austria, for example, we can ask for a 10-year license for 5G Broadcast with no issue,” Mika said. But, as with Castanet, the “missing piece for us is mobile phones.” Broadcast organizations across Europe are “working to get phone costs lower,” he added, noting that with the wait for Release 19-capable chipsets, things “aren’t 100% set yet.”

But when they are, those Qualcomm-designed chipsets will also open the gate for MNOs and 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) providers to put 5G Broadcast to use over their own networks, said Andrew Towe, a 5G Broadcast specialist and participant in media streaming standards who worked closely with WCRN at the outset of the 5G Broadcast testing project in Boston.

“It will be pretty impressive when you get to an ecosystem with all the 5G advanced capabilities working on smartphones,” Towe said, noting there is a widespread expectation in many quarters, including among European broadcasters, that when that happens, “5G is going to take over.”

Aitken is well aware of the “threat,” which he said is a big reason suppliers and broadcasters must be incentivized to move ahead with preparations for 5G rollout on ATSC 3.0, free of the 1.0 broadcast burden.

“We’re just waiting for somebody to cut the shackles,” he said. “Until they do, we have to hop around on one foot with our hands behind our backs.”

We’ve all heard a lot of hype about 5G, the latest wireless broadband communications technology. 5G is real, is rapidly being deployed, and seems destined to become an increasingly important part of the broadcaster’s toolset.

NAB Show is putting 5G in the spotlight with a number of informative sessions tailored to provide information about the technology and its role in both increasing a broadcaster’s ease and agility in covering live events and helping to trim the costs involved.

This very high-speed wireless connectivity brings with it the potential for replacing conventional wired (and wireless) linkage to cameras at such outside events as sporting matches, music festivals and parades, reducing capital outlay and storage and maintenance expenses. 5G connectivity may even replace the large TV mobile production trucks with permanent centralized facilities linked wirelessly to large numbers of cameras and audio sources located anywhere from a few miles to a continent away.

With such a sea change stirring, it behooves content producers and broadcasters to learn as much as possible about the nature of 5G and how it may be applied to their endeavors.

5G IS WORTH A LOOK

“5G should be looked at from several points of view,” said Stan Moote is chief technology officer at the International Trade Association for Broadcast & Media Technology (IABM). “As the roadmap indicates, COVID-driven adjustments in both working from home and remote production are taking hold, and this means that 5G is becoming a key technology. Remote working means newer methods for collaboration are required and 5G is a clear backhaul contender. With home networks occasionally crashing, 5G also provides a much higher layer of confidence in connection with protected feeds, IFBs and [remote] control functions.”        

Video content is being consumed via smart phones, tablets and similar consumer devices at an astonishing rate and shows no sign of leveling off. A recent study forecasts that within five years 5G will be carrying 62 percent of the world’s smartphone traffic and that an astounding 79 percent of that traffic will be video content.

As more and more content producers and distributors tap into 5G for their distribution, the application of open-source tools will be essential in the development and deployment of services. A cross-industry organization, the 5G Media Action Group or “5G-MAG,” has been created to facilitate collaboration of all media distribution stakeholders in the deployment of services via 5G. As a particular effort to respond to the need for software, the 5G-MAG Reference Tools project has recently been established. Since its start in late 2021, a steadily growing developer community is committed to create common open-source reference tools to support implementation and interoperability of 5G Media technologies.

“The Internet is being increasingly used by service providers to expand content reach and by users to consume it at anytime, anywhere and on any device,” commented Thomas Stockhammer, Qualcomm’s director of technical standards. “With mobile technologies driving global video consumption, it is paramount to empower the media industry with the adequate tools to access the 5G media platform. Access to open-source tools to support prototyping, trials and possibly even deployments is of utmost relevance. The 5G-MAG Reference Tools development program is now developing the ecosystem of common open-source reference tools to support the implementation and interoperability of 5G Media technologies. “

Mickaël Raulet, chief technology officer at Ateme, discussed the importance of broadcasters learning as much about 5G in connection with TV content delivery.

“Over the last couple of decades, IP technology has transformed our mobile phones into tools to listen to music, store photos, do our banking and much more,” he said. “While the video world is also transforming with IP technology, this transformation is curbed by bandwidth restrictions. 5G promises to change that with higher bandwidth and multi-access edge computing, transforming the way audiences engage with content and creating new business opportunities for broadcasters.”   

ROLLING OUT 5G GEAR

Broadcast equipment manufacturers are already rolling out products for tapping 5G networks, and there should be plenty to see on the show floor.

Samuel Fleischhacker, senior product manager at Aviwest, said, “Our new PRO460 5G transmitter is the next evolution of Aviwest’s flagship PRO bonded-cellular transmitter series for remote and at-home video production. It’s a must-have solution for facilitating live remote production over 5G with the potential for greater mobility, productivity, premium quality and massive savings in operational and capital expenses.”

Also, look for Vidovation’s 5G-enabled encoder/transmitter being displayed at the Aviwest booth. And be sure to stop in at the LiveU exhibit to check their LU300 HEVC encoder for connecting to 5G networks.

Additional exhibitors addressing 5G include AVIWEST, Cisco, Dejero, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, HISPASAT, NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, NOVELSAT, Rohde & Schwarz, ST Engineering iDirect, Verizon, Viking Satcom and Vislink Technologies.

5G is destined to be a game changer for everyone, and broadcasters need to get in on the ground floor.

Copyright NAB Show Daily

BOSTON—5G could very well begin carving a space for itself among fellow TV and video providers, according to a recently conducted report from Strategy Analytics.

It is likely that new 5G wireless services will feature TV and video capability and recent demonstrations have suggested that 5G will support 1 Gbps data throughput rates. This new ability could take some of the space currently occupied by cable, satellite, IPTV and terrestrial broadcast service providers.

“The efficiency of the end-to-end network will determine whether 5G TV is possible, but we have seen enough from early demonstrations by operators like Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom, AT&T and BT to suggest that it will arrive sooner or later in many parts of the world,” said Sue Rudd, director, Service Provider Analysis.

Strategy Analytics’ report indicates that the number of households and devices supported by a 5G TV service within any cell will be a key determining factor for 5G TVs. The number of termination locations can be increased by a factor of three or more by deploying several network enhancements that deliver “trunking” efficiency in the Radio Access Network. These include MIMO and beamforming for optimal spectrum use, virtualization of cell sites, dynamic throughput over backhaul networks and network slicing to guarantee data rates to the home.

“The emergence of 5G TV would represent a further stage in the convergence of media and communications and wireless and fixed services,” said David Mercer, VP and principal analyst. “It would also raise important questions relating to the roles of different ecosystem players and the future structure of the media value chain.”

The full report can be accessed here.