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Innovation and Focus On

5G Audiovisual Broadcast Broadband Network is the project with which Rai Way was awarded the Ministry of Economic Development (now MIMIT) "5G AUDIOVISUAL 2022" tender in July 2022, obtaining €1 million in funding.

The complexity and high degree of innovation of the project are also achieved thanks to the contribution of the 11 partners of the aggregation of which Rai Way is the leader. The aggregation consists of: Rai - with its Direction of Technological Innovation and Experimentation Research Center and the Turin TV Production Center - the City of Turin, Rohde&Schwarz, OpNet, the Milan Polytechnic, MainStreaming, Impersive, Kinecar, RETESETTE, La Sicilia Multimedia, as well as the collaboration with the Teatro Massimo of Palermo.

The project, which in total will last one year from July 18, 2022, the date of awarding, aims to test innovative technologies based on 5G networks in the audiovisual content production and distribution sector.

In the area of audiovisual production, innovative use cases has been realized through: the use of 5G Private networks in a multistage live jazz concert with synchronous contribution from musicians present in different locations, VR360 live immersive shooting of cultural events, content creation in a virtual environment created in the Metaverse, and more.

The distribution of live content in the cities of Palermo and Turin is based on 5G Broadcast and Broadband architectures and innovative technologies for enjoyment on mobile devices, in indoor, outdoor and automotive scenarios.

Broadcasting of audiovisual content to the user in 5G Broadcast mode will take place on the 700 MHz frequencies granted by MIMIT for the purpose and time of experimentation.

The dialogue between 5G Broadcast and Broadband deployments will be made possible by the development of a prototype receiver based on open source software, shared within the 5G-MAG group, which will enable the reception of the 5G Broadcast signal in the various configurations adopted and at the same time enable forms of cooperation between Broadcast and Broadband, for example with seamless switching capabilities between the two channels.

The project is at an advanced stage of development, the last events have been on March 17 in Palermo's Teatro Massimo with VR360 live shooting and on April 23 in Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin with the distributed TV production event "5G Jazz Jam Session" as part of the Torino Jazz Festival 2023.




5G Broadcast at the heart of the project

At the heart of the 5G Audiovisual Broadcast Broadband Network project Rai Way is experimenting with 5G Broadcast technology one-to-all content transmission mode, which guarantees a fixed and predetermined quality of experience regardless of the number of viewers.

An innovative feature of 5G Broadcast is SIM-agnostic reception, operating on network infrastructure and frequency resources independent of those of mobile operators.

5G Broadcast technology is a bridge between the classic 5G world of mobile operators and the world of broadcasters. A project with which we intend to give a stimulus to the market, for the possible activation of 5G Broadcast services on licensed frequencies.






The use cases of experimentation


Eventi Live Automotive

Reception of 5G Broadcast live signals on mobile devices even in mobile, automotive environment with integration on vehicle infotainment system.



Live Theater VR360 in Palermo

"Live Theater VR360" event offered an immersive experience discovering the heart of Palermo's Teatro Massimo from a never-before-seen perspective. The live content of the Ballet's footage was enriched with pre-recorded fragments in the Theater and in historical places in the city of Palermo, transporting the viewer into an immersive storytelling experienced firsthand through subjective moving shots.

The VR360 live performance was also broadcast in 5G Broadcast over the Palermo area and enjoyed with special viewers at the Theater and at the Giovanni Falcone National Boarding School.

learn about the use case


5G Jazz Jam Session 2023 Television Production

On the occasion of the Torino Jazz Festival 2023, the experimentation has involved the realization in Officine Grandi Riparazioni of synchronized audiovisual content shooting. The subject of the shting has been jazz improvisation by the Gianpaolo Petrini Big Band playing in distributed/multistage mode in three different locations of the Officine. The contributions have been sent to a remote director who has produced a live content later distributed in 5G Broadcast in the reception area of the city of Turin. The use case has also been enriched with innovative aspects such as live production and fruition in the Metaverse and a VR Art performance through the use of VR360 visors.

learn about the use case


Live Museum VR360

An immersive experience discovering Turin's Gallery of Modern Art from a never-before-seen perspective and accompanied by the hand of exceptional narrators who help bring to life this important place of cultural production in the country.

The live filming content will contain pre-recorded fragments in the GAM and in historical places in the city of Turin, transporting the viewer into an immersive storytelling experienced in the first person thanks to Impersive's solution that allows immersive Virtual Reality experiences in subjective motion (360-3D-POV).




Other important objectives of the project

The project develops the direction of innovation within the framework of the Rai Way 2020-2023 Business Plan to strengthen the presidium of the technological evolutionary scenario of audiovisual content broadcasting and value-added services to citizens.

Other important objectives of the trial are:

  • a nationwide 5G Broadcast service coverage study over the entire set of Italian municipalities
  • a campaign of interference measurements from the 5G Broadcast transmission carried out in laboratory
  • the experimentation of content distribution inside cinemas by exploiting 5G Broadcast technology



Highlights

The 5G Audiovisual Broadcast Broadband Network project:

  • Integrates 5G technologies within the workflow of live TV content production by taking network performance to the limit in terms of latency and capacity enabling innovative artistic scenarios.
  • Presents innovative technological elements for content delivery to the user, experimenting with hybrid broadcasting over 5G Broadcast and Broadband networks, in indoor, outdoor and automotive fruition scenarios.
  • Aims to effectively integrate 5G Broadcast and unicast networks through the development of programmable radio receivers based on the tools made available by the 5G-MAG (5G Media Action Group) initiative. The goal is the reception of high-definition video streams from broadcast and mobile networks in a transparent and user-beneficial manner.



The innovative aspects of the 5G Audiovisual Broadcast Broadband Network project

The innovative aspects of the 5G Audiovisual Broadcast Broadband Network project pertain to the content production and distribution part.

Regarding content production, the main innovative aspects are:

  • VR360 virtual reality production with Impersive's adoption of immersive techniques
  • Distributed/Multistage Television Production with remote direction
  • Innovative audiovisual production techniques such as, for example, tilt brush for VR Art performances realized by Impersive
  • Environments developed in the Metaverse by Impersive for content production and live fruition


Regarding contribution and distribution, aspects of strong innovation are:

  • Use of private 5G OpNet/Nokia networks with local 5G core for the collection of synchronous content to a remote director and for content distribution over dedicated broadband channel
  • 5G Broadcast dissemination of live content for playback on VR360 content viewers
  • Development and use of the 5G-MAG receiver developed by Politecnico di Milano for the reception of 5G Broadcast services
  • CDN Mainstreaming architecture for broadcasting over public broadband network, with deep edge cache in ISP data centers present on the cities of Palermo and Turin
  • CDN Edge Local Mainstreaming architecture, for broadcasting in the coverage area of the 5G Private Network, enabling the fruition of the content dedicated to the users present in the event location from a dedicated 5G Broadband channel in addition to the 5G Broadcast channel
  • Reception of 5G Broadcast services in Automotive scenarios through the use of the 5G-MAG receiver in the Kinecar, in urban mobility scenarios, integrating the received signals into the vehicle infotainment system, implementing a certain degree of interactivity and automatic and manual switching between the broadcast channel and the broadband channel