Austrian broadcast group ORS and video compression and delivery technology provider Ateme have announced what they say is the world’s first trial of an IP-based statmux over 5G-Broadcast, increasing 5G-Broadcast capacity for live streaming services.
This groundbreaking initiative leverages Ateme’s NextGen StatMux technology, which is designed to work with the latest broadcast standards from 3GPP, DVB and ATSC, transitioning from a traditional transport stream environment to an IP-based one. ORS Group successfully integrated this solution into its 5G-Broadcast Nakolos platform in Vienna, achieving the transmission and reception of a multiplex of five services.
“As 5G Broadcast gains traction for enabling linear television on mobile devices, broadcasters face the challenge of efficiently utilizing frequency bands of limited width, such as the UHF channels allocated for terrestrial television (6, 7, or 8 MHz),” Ateme observes. “By focusing on small screens rather than home TVs, broadcasters can deliver multiple services within the same band while maintaining high video quality.
“Statistical multiplexing remains crucial in this context, offering up to 20% efficiency gains over existing solutions, which allows the delivery of an additional service within the same 5G Broadcast band,” the vendor continues. “This enables broadcast operators to offer a broader range of services with an optimal quality of experience.”
Dr Johann Mika, Chief Innovation Officer at ORS Group, says: “The world’s first test of statistical multiplexing in our operational 5G Broadcast environment in Vienna has shown that spectrum efficiency can be further increased when using 5G Broadcast. This will also contribute to strengthening the future business model of broadcast network operators operating 5G Broadcast.”
Ateme’s NextGen Statmux solution will be on display at IBC 2024.
