Qualcomm wants to enable television reception via smartphones in Europe. The US mobile phone manufacturer is working together with Freenet subsidiary Media Broadcast and other European companies on so-called 5G broadcasting. The transmission standard aims to make live TV available on mobile devices without SIM cards and third-party providers. A GitHub profile that has now been published provides new key data.
Advertisement
Live is not live: Apple restricts live activities in iOS 18
For broadcasters, 5G broadcasting is a transmission option from one transmitter to multiple receivers at the same time (point-to-multipoint) rather than a private connection between only two devices (point-to-point). End users do not need a SIM card or a contract with a mobile phone provider to receive the service. No mobile data volume is required to use the new service. With the new broadcast feature, only a 5G-enabled device is sufficient, as long as it covers the frequencies used for 5G broadcasting.
5G broadcast aims to ease pressure on mobile networks
Unlike point-to-point mobile connections, 5G broadcasts do not put pressure on mobile networks. For example, the broadcast of a football game, whose audience has previously streamed it en masse via a point-to-point connection, can in the future be limited to just one Point-to-Multipoint Connection Broadcasting via 5G is no longer necessary. The first test run has already taken place.
For example, could Selected users in Paris, Stuttgart, Turin and Vienna can follow the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with suitable devices. Public broadcasters in Germany have also worked on the new standard. WDR, BR and SWR have already run research projects, including with Vodafone and the electronics group Rohde & Schwarz. A 5G broadcasting pilot project began in Halle (Saale) in May.
The first core data on GitHub
5G Broadcast was originally developed by 3GPP. In Europe, DVB-T-2 operators are working with Qualcomm and others to bring the Media Broadcast standard to market. A profile recently published on GitHub The new key data provides: At least LTE band n108 at 698 MHz in the downlink is required for 5G transmissions. Mobile phone chips installed in the end device must, among other things, be 100 percent MBMS allocation capable and support dual antenna reception and multithreading.
In addition, appropriate MBMS delivery methods must be supported (download and transparent) as well as protocols RTP (transparent), DASH, TSOverIP (transparent), HLS (transparent), Flute, Route (transparent). In addition to the service declaration functionality, the bootstrap.multipart file and MBMS URL functionalities are required.
The transmission standard requires audio codecs HE-AAC aacPlus, Advanced aacPlus, AC-3 and AAC, as well as video codecs H.264 High Profile, H.265 (HEVC) and H.266 VVC. In addition, codecs CMAF, mp4, ISO BMFF, MPEG-2 TS are listed as requirements on Github.
Television stations are hoping for a new transmission channel
Broadcasting companies see 5G broadcast as a new way to distribute their content. The use of terrestrial transmission standards such as DVB-T 2 is steadily declining. Antenna television platform operators such as Media Broadcast see 5G broadcast as a new line of business that can ensure their continued survival. A future market may also open up for Qualcomm with the production and sale of related chips.
It is still questionable whether 5G broadcasting will become widespread across Europe. Especially where LTE and 5G networks are already well developed, the loss of multiple point-to-point connections for large live streams will not really matter. In addition, smartphones need special processors for 5G broadcasting, which are currently only installed in a few prototypes.
(No)
Core Ultra 200V: Intel’s Lunar Lake CPU for slim AI notebooks
