British Touring Car Championship test runs Vista's 5G Create project for in-stadium broadcast feeds By Ann-Marie Corvin
Friday, September 17, 2021 - 09:37
Print This Story
The Vista Project teamed with the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) to integrate into a 5G infrastructure to offer a high-quality in-stadium broadcast feed
The second phase of the UK government-backed 5G Create project Video In Stadia Technical Architecture (Vista) was unveiled at the O2 Arena in London on Wednesday (15 September), showing footage from the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) being integrated into a 5G infrastructure to offer a high-quality in-stadium broadcast feed.
Vista which kicked off with a feasibility study earlier this year aims to demonstrate how enhanced interactive viewing experiences can be delivered direct to devices, using 5G broadcast technology at live entertainment venues.
Run by the Digital Television Group (DTG), the £2.3 million project, which has received £1.3 million of support from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), comprises a ten company-strong consortium that includes network operator O2, innovation agency Digital Catapult, Rohde & Schwarz, Global Wireless Solutions and Imaginary Pictures.
The second stage of the project focused on a demonstration at the O2's Blueroom venue in Greenwich, using motor racing footage provided by BTCC.
Tour car test run
While the BTCC is given widespread exposure on the ITV network in the UK, organiser TOCA has been looking at ways to add value trackside for its legion of die hard fans; around 380,000 of whom attend the championship's events in an average year.
As Kevin Zemrowsky, co founder of Imaginary Pictures, which supplied the production and live camera expertise for the demo, explains: the organisation wants to give fans more of a sense of what's happening once the cars leave the pit lane.
Right now on-site spectators can see the cars lining up at the start line, but then they all drive off and you might not see the cars again until they come back but then that might be in a different order, or there might be fewer drivers, he says.
While television viewers are supplied with a constant feed of information, the venues tend to rely on a couple of screens, which is a bit of a one-size-fits-all solution, he adds
Sam Riches, technical officer at the BTCC, adds that TOCA had already been searching for ways to exploit 5G to make onsite viewing more seamless, delivering extra information to devices, allowing them to see replays, even jumping from driver-to-driver inside the car, or from different angles. However utilising such 5G cellular network capacity is expensive.
He says: At the moment we're limited in the number of on boards that we can physically get off the cars because of the cost of the infrastructure required to do it.
Alex Buchan, DTG strategic technologist and lead, adds that providing enough network capacity to support even a basic service let alone provide premium video is another challenge for organisers and venues.
The beautiful thing about FeMBMS is that you can put one or two antenna in a stadium and it is enough to cover the whole venue. That makes it particular effective in stadiums but also for other events too
Vista's objective is to offer a more efficient use of network resources by eschewing the standard unicast delivery model used by cellular networks in favour of an internationally-standardised multicast broadcast, multicast solution, FeMBMS, the 17th incarnation of which is set to be released for 5G next year.
As David Owens, head of technical trials at O2, which is acting as the technical lead on the project, explains: One of the complicated things with stadium solutions is that the more people you have involved in the stadium the more base stations you need and the more cost that incurs.
The beautiful thing about FeMBMS is that you can put one or two antenna in a stadium and it is enough to cover the whole venue. That makes it particular effective in stadiums but also for other events too.
Network deployment
According to Owens, the easiest way to converge 5G and broadcast is to create an overlay over the top of the network So you can still use your 5G network infrastructure to manage and control that.
For the Vista demo, Digital Catapult provided the 5G test bed network while Rohde & Schwarz provided the equipment, systems and expertise for a multicast/broadcast overlay network based on FeMBMS.
Footage taken from a BTCC race on the Thruxton circuit a couple of weeks earlier, which captured all the streams that the sport would normally cover for the broadcast, was passed over to the Vista team to transcode.
According to Zemrowsky, over the course of the project the team tested a number of different ways of getting the content into the system included taking direct IP feeds from the cameras.
However, a necessary processing step, containerised controlling in the cloud, was required before transmission over FeMBMS. Recently joined consortium member Ateme provided the encoding system that packaged the camera feeds into the correct formats for broadcast distribution while Ori Industries provided the Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) platform that enables encoding for live sports streaming services on 5G networks.
Buchan explains: The MEC solution removes the need for dedicated hardware at venues to be able to encode the video feeds. You could have the MEC solution provided by Ori, which would essentially have the Ateme encoding solution as an application on a phone that could be started up and shut down as needed.
This could mean for venues that are not in use regularly or that cater for smaller/not as well known types of events they could deploy this on generic hardware that could also be used for other things o
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/07/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has announced the appointment of Kathy Samuels ...
01/07/2026
Shade has announced Custom Objects and Automations, a platform expansion releasing June 29, 2026, that adds database and workflow automation capabilities direct...
01/07/2026
FOR-A America has announced the addition of Jaz Wray and Fernando Cruz to its U.S. sales team. Both report to Ernie Leon, Senior VP and Head of Sales and Strate...
01/07/2026
NBC Sports will air all 15 MLB games nationally on Sunday, July 5, across NBC, P...
01/07/2026
Clear-Com has announced a wireless communications upgrade for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, deploying FreeSpeak II and FreeSpeak Icon systems across both prod...
01/07/2026
England's performance team will use Sony's STATSports APEX GPS tracking system to monitor player physical data in real time during FIFA World Cup 2026 m...
01/07/2026
Adder Technology has announced the appointment of Neil Hillier as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Hillier succeeds Adrian Dickens, who transiti...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. has announced a strategic transaction creating two separate companies. The Production and Playout business will continue as Bitcentral, now own...
01/07/2026
DAZN has announced results from DAZN48, its creator initiative for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Launched in April 2026, the program received thousands of applicatio...
01/07/2026
Sarah Rose, VP, global services, Daktronics (NASDAQ: DAKT), will be inducted into the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA) Hall of Fame at t...
01/07/2026
Gravity Media and the World Economic Forum's production team provided broadc...
01/07/2026
Insight Productions has announced the launch of Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit built for esports production. The truck is built around a Ross Vi...
01/07/2026
ESPN has announced several content initiatives marking America's 250th anniversary, as part of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Celebrates America pro...
01/07/2026
Eleven production kits, REMI workflows, and cloud distribution bring 40 World Cu...
01/07/2026
The conference also discussed the opportunities offered an industry that is endu...
01/07/2026
The Mountain West Conference has announced the launch of MW , a direct-to-consumer streaming platform powered by Kiswe. The platform will carry live Mountain We...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Manfrotto Introduces UNCOVER, the new premium camera bag collection for modern h...
01/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Powers Houston Tamil Sangam Literacy Competition
Brie Clayton July 1, 2026
0 Comments
Volunteers use ATEM Mini Pro, Blackmagic Desig...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
PlayBox Technology has published State of Broadcast Infrastructure 2026, an in-depth industry research report examining the technologies, operational challenges...
01/07/2026
LONDON, UK, 1 JULY Jigsaw24 has appointed Alan Henry as Head of Sales for Media and Entertainment, reinforcing its continued investment in helping broadcaster...
01/07/2026
Content Vault, the patent-pending secure content distribution platform protecting high-value media from disclosures, theft and unauthorised access, today announ...
01/07/2026
Bitcentral, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise software and digital media solutions for news, sports and entertainment broadcasters, as well as streaming pla...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/07/2026
Groundbreaking First Nations Screen Business Accelerator launched through nation...
01/07/2026
Chyron Launches the All-New Chyron Academy: A Reimagined, Hands-On Learning Expe...
01/07/2026
Amplium Captures Kawasaki Brave Thunders Game with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersiv...
01/07/2026
Boris FX Optics Expands Plugin Support to Apple Photos, Capture One, and Affinit...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
British Touring Car Championship test runs Vista's 5G Create project for in-stadium broadcast feeds By Ann-Marie Corvin 
