French national public television broadcaster France Télévisions is using a private 5G network to transmit coverage of the Olympic torch relay in Paris at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It has been broadcasting over private 5G for 10 hours per day since May 9, covering the Olympic torch’s journey of 1,625 kilometres.
The footage has been shown on the dedicated france.tv PARIS 2024 channel. France Télévisions said it selected 5G for an “entirely cloud-based audiovisual production” for its “reliable, compact, high-speed, and ultra-secure” delivery, and to meet its “commitment to energy and environmental conservation”.
The broadcaster is using a private 5G product, called a ‘bubble’ Dome, from French start-up Obvios; it has also worked with US-based broadcast technology company TVU Networks and France-based system integrator TDF Group, which handled technical aspects of the “mobile units” carrying the 5G cells, edge compute, and broadcast software.
Satellite operator Starlink is also involved, apparently. France Télévisions said the solution has avoided “several dozen metric tons of CO2 emissions compared to traditional methods” – by connecting a high-fidelity video stream on a lightweight mobile 5G setup to a central control room without trucking lots of equipment about.
The Dome unit can be deployed in the trunk of a car, said Obvios, and does away with “heavy [and] costly resources” (such as production vans and helicopters”) to cover events of this scale.
It stated: “This minimalist device revolutionizes the way production teams work. Live feeds, multi-camera production, graphics management, commentary, audio mixing, intercommunication between teams, broadcasting: everything can be controlled remotely from the Paris headquarters of the French audiovisual group.”
Nicolas Dallery, vice president of marketing and sales at Obvios, said: “Our private 5G connectivity bubble is robust and maintains a perfect signal on the move. It overcomes the problems of coverage and saturation of public networks. That’s the strength of a private 5G network.”
Romuald Rat, director of TechLab and AI at France Télévisions, said: “Through this collaboration… [we] are setting a new standard for the future – one that prioritizes innovation, sustainability and the power of cloud technology to produce closer to events and bring fans closer to the action.”
