EE does a 5G broadcast

In the latest installment of its snowballing 5G marketing drive, UK MNO EE claimed to have conducted a live 5G broadcast between Wembley Stadium and the Excel Exhibition Centre.

The two locations were chosen because EE has a 5G test network at Wembley and it was hanging out with Huawei at its MBBF event in the Excel. Specifically EE, together with BT Sport, ‘demonstrated the first live broadcast with remote production over 5G’ according to the announcement. It looks like MBBF attendees were the recipients of this broadcast.

“5G will next season enable BT Sport to deploy the most advanced remote production of any broadcaster,” said Jamie Hindhaugh, COO of BT Sport. “It will allow us to cover more live matches from more leagues and competitions, and to bring fans highlights action closer to the final whistle than has ever been done before in the UK.” Marc Allera, head of BT’s consumer group, said much the same.

The test network uses EE’s 3.4GHz spectrum from its 5G antenna in the stadium, connected to a 10Gbps backhaul link. How much of the 14 miles between the two sites was covered by actual wireless 5G is unclear, but EE is likely to have its claim to the first live 5G broadcast accepted unquestioningly by most of the media so job done there.