BOSTON—WWOO-LD successfully showed a proof of concept for 5G broadcasts on Sept. 13 with a 1080p programming stream of content from France 24 and tests of emergency alert services. The organizers described the event as the first 5G broadcasts from a U.S. station to a smartphone.
“In my career, I've seen broadcast technology go from film to 5G and we think that this small step could be the start of something big,” said Bill Christian, owner of the low power station WWOO-LD.
"This is a big thing," said Frank Copsidas, founder of Low Power TV Broadcasters Association (LPTVBA) and XGen Network. "It's 5G Broadcasting right to a cell phone. What does that mean? You can watch your shows on the phone, sure. But what it really means is what it means for first responders" and the best use of broadcast spectrum for the public interest and safety.
Copsidas noted that the technology was still in its infancy in the U.S. but predicted that 5G broadcasting would be rolled out to the public in about a year from now.
On June 12, Boston-based LPTV station WWOO-LD filed for an experimental license with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to test a 5G broadcast system and received approval in July from the FCC.
Speaking via a remote video connection after the demo, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington noted that the media landscape has changed dramatically in recent years with content being delivered over a variety of platforms to many different screens.
“Broadcasters are now neither the primary creators nor the primary distributors in the media [landscape] and yet, broadcasters are made entrusted with public airwaves and consequently must discharge their vital public interest obligations [with an] ever narrowing slice of media revenue," Simington said. And so as broadcasters...[adapt to this], the Commission must help in clearing a regulatory path [that is] no longer solely grounded in primary video distribution.
"That's why…I was very pleased to hear that my colleagues in the Media Bureau acted quickly to grant temporary authority to engage in 5G broadcast testing," he added. "And I'm pleased to hear the interest already expressed by those in the vendor ecosystem and the public safety community in partnering to deliver new and innovative services across broadcast spectrum….5G Broadcasting represents an exciting possible evolutionary path and broadcast future.”
Prior to the demo, Lorenzo Casaccia vice president, technical standards & intellectual property at Qualcomm noted that 5G services have already been deployed in many parts of the world.
“5G broadcast is also sometimes known as enhanced TV and [it]...is ready for primetime now," he said. "This technology can be easily deployed over commercial broadcasting networks available today in most parts of the world. And it can also leverage smartphones economies of scale, which is really a game changer for the broadcasting community.”
“In addition to 5G broadcast, [it is] opening doors to new business models, more flexible capacity and expanded customer reach for broadcasters,” he added. “It also brings many benefits for consumers. For instance, 5G broadcast gives us smartphone users access to linear TV on the go. So users can watch content like sports game broadcasts in real time. Another good example is reliable access to public safety information and timely warning in case of emergencies.”
“5G broadcast also does not require the users to have a SIM card to receive or casinos so it is truly free to air mobile TV,” he said. “Most importantly, 5G broadcast leverages all of the building blocks of existing cellular systems that are already built into billions of smartphones. This means that the barrier for inclusion in commercial device devices is lower, as there is no need for a separate system to be integrated by smartphone vendors in their products.”
Andrew Tao, vice president of operations at XGN, showed the reception of France 24 feed via an antenna to an set-top-receiver (STR) and a TV.
“The 1080 picture it looks fantastic here in the studio,” said Copsidas. “And that's what 5g Broadcasting can do in its very infancy. A great solid picture.”
“We use the same transmitter,” Copsidas said for the 5G broadcasts. “We use the same antenna as we currently use. We just changed out some of the equipment before that to broadcast in 5G.”
As part of the demo, which is available on YouTube, Tao also provided a tour through the station showing some of the equipment in use including a variety of equipment from Rohde & Schwarz, which also supplied the transmitter. (The tour starts at the 38th minute in the YouTube Video. The launch event starts in the 29th minute.)
Tao also showed the broadcasts being received on a special smartphone created by Qualcomm for the test.
After showing emergency alerts on the Qualcomm phones, Copsidas noted that the one to many architecture of broadcast allows them to alert all the cellphones capable of receiving the 5G broadcasts in under one second. “If it is an earthquake, you have three seconds,” to warn people he said. “So this could be a huge improvement.”
He also said that they could also send encrypted data of videos and other information directly to the cell phones of first responders.
Robert Verdone, the executive director of the southeastern Massachusetts 911 Center added that “this is exciting for the first responder community for sure. It takes the three aspects of one aspect of broadcast technology where we're able to communicate to the public on mass and brings it right into someone's hand and adds on to additional layers of being [able]...to communicate to the first responder community in the field...right into devices.”
Vendors involved in the tests included Nakolos, Qualcomm, West Pond, and Rohde and Schwarz, who provided the transmitter and broadcast chain.
Copsidas acknowledged that “ATSC 3.0 is about eight years ahead of us, 12 years ahead of 5G broadcasting [in terms of development] and is a much more robust platform right now. For multiple streams for 4K broadcast with Dolby surround sound it can deliver an amazing user experience. 5G Broadcasting hasn't quite gotten to that stage.”
But, he added, it “goes into cell phones, and everybody has cell phones for emergency purposes. It really can notify people much faster and also deliver crucial emergency information quickly to everybody who has a cell phone. That's the big difference.”
He also stressed that with the thousands of low-power stations around the U.S. “we can cover the U.S. pretty well.”
Others, notably Sinclair have argued that ATSC 3.0 represents a clearly superior broadcasting platform.
