Live TV via smartphone: Qualcomm wants to bring 5G Broadcast to Europe

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Qualcomm wants to enable television reception via smartphone in Europe. The US mobile phone manufacturer is working together with Freenet subsidiary Media Broadcast and other European companies on the so-called 5G Broadcast. The transmission standard is intended to make live TV available on mobile devices without a SIM card and without third-party providers. A recently published GitHub profile provides new key data.

5G Broadcast for broadcasters is a transmission option from one transmitter to many receivers simultaneously (point-to-multipoint) instead of a private connection between just two end devices (point-to-point). End users do not need a SIM card or a contract with a mobile phone provider to receive the service. Using the new service does not consume any mobile data volume. A 5G-capable device with the new broadcast feature alone is sufficient, provided it covers the frequencies used for 5G Broadcast.

5G Broadcast is intended to relieve the burden on mobile networks

In contrast to mobile connections, 5G does not place a burden on the networks. For example, the broadcast of a soccer match, which viewers have been streaming en masse via point-to-point connections, could be reduced to a single point-to-multipoint connection via 5G Broadcast in future. Initial test runs have already taken place.

For example, selected users in Paris, Stuttgart, Turin and Vienna were able to watch the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with corresponding devices. Public broadcasters in Germany have also been working on the new standard. WDR, BR and SWR have already carried out research projects together with Vodafone and the electronics company Rohde & Schwarz, among others. A 5G broadcast pilot project was launched in Halle (Saale) in May.

Initial key data on GitHub

5G Broadcast was originally developed by 3GPP. In Europe, DVB-T-2 operator Media Broadcast is working with Qualcomm and others to bring the standard to market maturity. A profile recently published on GitHub provides new key data: 5G Broadcast requires at least the LTE band n108, at 698 MHz in the downlink. Among other things, the mobile chips installed in the end device must be 100% MBMS allocation-capable and support dual antenna reception and multithreading.

In addition, corresponding MBMS delivery methods must be supported (download and transparent) as well as the protocols RTP (transparent), DASH, TSoverIP (transparent), HLS (transparent), FLUTE, ROUTE (transparent). In addition to the service announcement functionality, the Bootstrap.multipart file and MBMS-URL functionalities are required.

The HE-AAC aacPlus, enhanced aacPlus, AC-3 and AAC audio codecs are required for the transmission standard, as well as the H.264 High profile, H.265 (HEVC) and H.266 VVC video codecs. The codecs CMAF, mp4, ISO BMFF and MPEG-2 TS are also specified as requirements on Github.

Television broadcasters hope for a new transmission path

Broadcasters see 5G Broadcast as a new way to distribute their content. The use of terrestrial transmission standards such as DVB-T 2 continues to decline. Platform operators of terrestrial television such as Media Broadcast see 5G Broadcast as a new line of business that could ensure their continued existence. A future market could also open up for Qualcomm with the production and sale of corresponding chips.

It is still questionable whether 5G Broadcast will become widespread in Europe. Especially where LTE and 5G networks are already well-developed, the loss of many point-to-point connections for large live streams would not really matter. In addition, smartphones require special processors for 5G broadcast, which are currently only installed in certain prototypes.

(dahe)