Conquering the Air (Waves): Taking a Close Up Look at the IBC Accelerator Private 5G from Land to Sea to Sky'

Conquering the Air (waves): Taking a close up look at the IBC Accelerator Private 5G from Land to Sea to Sky' By Heather McLean

Monday, October 27, 2025 - 13:23

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One of the annual IBC Accelerators was this year in its third iteration, focusing this time around on 5G networks in the sky, whereas in previous years it has looked into both land and sea.

The project titled Conquering the Air(waves): Private 5G from Land to Sea to Sky' aimed to make live production more efficient, flexible, and sustainable by reducing costs, lowering CO emissions, and improving safety and coordination during events.

The project's goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of using airborne private 5G (P5G) to supplement and improve existing production workflows in challenging environments.

Several proof-of-concept (PoC) trials across Europe demonstrated the potential of P5G to enable immersive, reliable, and greener media production.

On how the team behind the project came up with the concept for the third version of this project, Caroline Z ttel, Haivision senior marketing manager, says: So there was the initial conversation where it was like, okay, we've done land, we've done sea, what can we do next? And it was like, how about we do sky? And that's when it first started a year ago.

At Henley, QTV's wireless broadcast camera crew as well as Neutral Wireless were involved in a test for IBC Accelerator, Conquering the Air(waves): Private 5G from Land to Sea to Sky: Using drones and ultra-light aircraft to extend private 5G networks for live production on the move over distance, bringing fans closer to the action

Conquering the Air(waves): Private 5G from Land to Sea to Sky

Champions: BBC, RAI, EBU, Globo, RTE, Adapt Media, France Televisions, QTV, University of Strathclyde, Orange

Participants: Haivision, Neutral Wireless, Open Broadcast Systems, Shure, D&B Solutions, Eutelsat

France T l visions joined the IBC2025 Accelerator Media Innovation Programme to explore how private 5G networks can revolutionise live production. For the Accelerator, France T l visions collaborated with major broadcasters, tech companies, and academic institutions, including Haivision, BBC, RAI, Eutelsat, and Orange Events, to test aerial private 5G networks for high quality, low latency live broadcasting.

This project found itself running PoCs later in the summer than it would have preferred, due to complications in finding a suitable aircraft for the project that the owner would allow to be customised, and then making those customisations without damaging the integrity of the aircraft.

Comments Z ttel: We had to deliver the POCs before IBC so it was pretty stressful because we had plans before in the summer, but we couldn't get the plane ready because we had to work with the manufacturer of the plane so there was a lot of back and forth there in Italy.

Going up!

There were three PoCs for this project over the summer. Z ttel adds: We did a proof of concept at the Henley Festival where we tested the uplinks and downlinks and the cameras, the MoJoPro [MoJoPro mobile app from Haivision]. And then we went back in the air with the aeroplane; we did a test over three days in Brittany, and the last day we were actually involved in the race; we flew over the race, which was the Bretagne Classic. A lot of partners were involved; AMP were there, they were their production company so we did a lot of testing.

France T l visions organised the key PoC, which took place at the Bretagne Classic in Brittany, France, from 29 to 31 August. France T l visions used Neutral Wireless private 5G connectivity from an ultralight aircraft to receive footage from a motorbike and mobile handsets using Haivision mobile video transmission solutions.

This ambitious and innovative project has the potential to revolutionise how wide area wireless connectivity is deployed for live events. Firstly, the suitable aircraft and amenable pilot were found, and working directly with the manufacturer the plane was customised to accommodate an entire P5G network and onboard video processing.

Spectrum access was negotiated with the French regulator and military, with a licence approved two days before the race.

On the race days, the plane loitered at 300 metres to 500 metres above the ground and successfully provided connectivity for video and audio. The streams were relayed using the P5G downlink from the plane to a production vehicle a Eutelsat mobile vehicle where it was recorded and streamed to the cloud over a LEO satellite constellation.

Live transcode onboard the ultralight also allowed a lower-bitrate version to be backhauled on the Orange public network directly from the aircraft. Professional audio feeds captured using an array microphone from Shure was also streamed via the ultralight to the Eutelsat vehicle.

Having live video from the off-the-shelf mobile devices relayed from a plane and available to a cloud production was a great result for this ambitious and innovative project, and hints at the creative possibilities such connectivity could unlock.

Authentic atmos

Two other PoCs took place earlier in the year. Technical services provider QTV got involved with the project at the Henley Music Festival at Henley-on-Thames, UK, on 10 to 11 July. Here, a Neutral Wireless private 5G network supported both broadcast cameras and roaming smartphones on gimbals using Haivision mobile video transmission solutions, capturing authentic crowd reactions and atmosphere shots.

Working with QTV, Adapt Media Services and d&b Solutions, the trial also demonstrated remote camera control, intercom, and onsite video distribution, showcasing new creative possibilities for live festival production.

Shortly before that, broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) carried out the first PoC with an airborne tr

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