UK-first 5G broadcast trials at MK Dons football stadium set to revolutionise fan experience

The group behind 5G VISTA - a government-backed consortium using 5G technologies to deepen audience engagement, broaden content for fans and create valuable new commercial opportunities - completed a successful trial at a live football match at the 30,400-seat MK Dons football stadium. 

A group of lucky fans at the match between MK Dons and Ipswich Town on 12th February were able to try out a prototype of the 5G VISTA app. This allowed them to view six, high-quality live streams of different perspectives of the game - including behind the scenes footage - with the tap of a screen. 

Not only does 5G broadcast technology allow spectators to get even closer to the action at live events; it has the potential to offer solutions to a number of pain points experienced by broadcasters and TV crews at events venues and stadiums. 

This includes overcoming challenges associated with cabling and network complexity, and unstable 4G networks during events with a large number of attendees. 

In-stadia mobile connectivity for fans is notoriously weak, with challenges for large sporting venues in providing enough capacity to deliver enhanced spectator experiences at a reasonable cost. 5G broadcast allows these experiences at a cost advantage compared with more traditional cellular solutions.

Alex Buchan, Strategic Technologist, DTG and Project Lead said:

“DTG, through the VISTA project, is proud to be leading the TV industry into a new phase of interactive, personalised and live content driven by 5G for access anywhere, anytime. The trial at MK Dons shows the technology developed during the project has the potential to transform the way we consume content, and experience live events, over the coming decade.”

Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez said:

"5G has the power to further fans' enjoyment of live sports in stadiums while helping broadcasters to improve their live output.

"I'm delighted that this trial is the latest in a long list of cutting-edge tests we've funded through our £200 million programme to use 5G to drive economic growth and improve people's lives."

The completion of the technical trial was followed by a final showcase of the project on 14th February as part of the MK5G Create event in the Marshall Arena, also at Stadium MK.

5G VISTA partners including Virgin, Media O2, Rohde and Schwarz, DTG, GWS, Digital Catapult, Ori Industries, Imaginary Pictures, Ateme and the University of Surrey’s 5G/6G Innovation Centre joined sporting, tech and broadcast giants such as Microsoft, MK Dons, MK5G and the Open University to discuss business cases for live events solutions powered by 5G Broadcast. 

MK5G showcased several groundbreaking applications illustrating how major venues can harness 5G to operate in the future, including autonomous vehicles for transporting fans to and from the stadium, and AI-enabled traffic control on site.

These demonstrations included an exhilarating drone race around the MK Dons football pitch - filmed from multiple perspectives using the 5G VISTA app, as the final milestone of the 5G VISTA project. This constituted the world’s first drone race broadcast in high definition, sponsored by Virgin Media O2 and organised by the British Drone Racing Association.

Both 5G VISTA and MK5G had received funding from the Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport to boost live events using 5G. 5G VISTA was backed by £1.3 million, with a further £1 million contributed by partners.

Notes to editors 

Stakeholder quotes: 

David Owens, Head of Technical Trials at Virgin Media O2:

“This event marks the culmination of a lot of hard but very rewarding work with some fantastic partners. We're thrilled to bring 5G VISTA to life at a MK Dons game, showcasing the technologies to real fans and watching their reactions was fantastic. We're excited about the future possibilities of this 5G-powered technology for fan experiences in-stadium and at home.”

Kostas Katsaros, Lead 5G Technologist, Digital Catapult said: 

“Working on 5G VISTA has been a fantastic journey – from early tests in our 5G labs, to a preliminary showcase at the O2 Blueroom in September, and now streaming a football match and drone racing at a real sports stadium.“The project shows that taking spectator experiences to the next level using 5G Broadcast is a very real possibility, and I can’t wait to see what exciting developments are ahead for audiences, events venues, marketers, artists and sports teams.”

Dr Haitham Cruickshank from the University of Surrey's 5G/6G Innovation Centre said: 

"This landmark pilot is just a glimpse of how 5G will transform how we all consume live events such as football matches. For the 5G/6G Innovation Centre, it was an opportunity to showcase our end-to-end security capabilities that are the foundations that could allow thousands of people to share live experiences in unique ways. 

"We will soon add this multicast/broadcast security into our world-leading testbed in Guildford."

Douglas Mancini, CCO, Ori Industries: 

“The 5G VISTA project has highlighted the transformative opportunities for edge computing deployments and future network capabilities in real-time commercial settings. This new technology is changing the way people experience live events and we’re pleased to have been involved in this transformation.” 

About 5G VISTA: 

● Video in Stadia Technical Architecture (VISTA) takes full advantage of 5G New Radio, enhanced Mobile Broadband, and 5G broadcast services, trialled with LTE feMBMS, to showcase new and exciting in-stadia digital experiences. 

● This collaboration brings together complementary skills, knowledge and experience from across the whole mobile media delivery ecosystem from devices, to networks to broadcast to content and venues.

● The 5G VISTA project was awarded £1.3m of Government funding as part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) 5G Create Competition. 5G Create is part of the government’s £200 million investment in testbeds and trials across the UK to explore new ways that 5G can boost productivity, grow existing businesses or spark new ones. 

● For more information on how 5G is creating opportunities for transformation in the Creative Industries, please visit UK5G.

●The following companies have joined together to test and demonstrate the technical feasibility and the business potential of the FeMBMS features in 5G: 

• ATEME provides a containerized software encoding system, encoding and packaging the camera feeds into the correct formats for broadcast distribution by the feMBMS system. 
• Digital Catapult provides provision of the 5G testbed network, validation of the business cases and assessment of further applications and market verticals. 
• DTG provides project management, coordination and collaboration with the creative industries. 
• GWS provides consumer behaviour analysis and market research.
• Imaginary Pictures provides production and live camera expertise for technical demonstrations. 
• Ori Industries provides an Edge Compute (MEC) platform that enables workloads to be deployed at the edge of the network, supporting a multitude of use cases such as encoding solutions for live sports streaming services deployed on 5G networks. 
• Rohde & Schwarz provides the equipment, systems and expertise for a multicast/broadcast overlay network based on FeMBMS. 
• Virgin Media O2 has the UK’s largest and most reliable mobile network. As the project's technical lead, Virgin Media O2 has driven the development of the broadcast solution for the Vista programme and has strong associations with live sport and music.  
• The University of Surrey’s 5GIC explores multicast/broadcast security within the 5G-VISTA project. The work includes the design and validation of end-to-end security for group communications.