SFR first with 5G SA slicing for live-streaming of football match

Source: SFR

Altice France-owned service provider SFR has for the first time deployed 5G SA slicing in real-life conditions for live-streaming video from its parent company and sister media outfits RMC Sport and RMC Grand Lille.

The live-streamed video coverage of the UEFA Europa Conference League match at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Lille between LOSC Lille and KÍ Klaksvík, followed an experiment with the technology a year ago at the Altice Campus.

Teams from TV channels RMC Sport and BFM Grand Lille covered the run-up to the match, the match itself and post-match coverage live from the stadium – live pre-match coverage during the Bonsoir Lille show on BFM Grand Lille from 18:00 to 19:00; a special pre-match report on the same channel from 19:45-20:45; pre-match coverage on RMC Europa from 18:00-18:45. And the transmission of the match itself on RMC Sport1.

All used the technology provided by Aviwest compatible with 5G SA (‘standalone’ 5G that relies only on 5G transmission).

SFR said that the different channels were retransmitted in real time over end-to-end 5G.

SFR used its new 5G SA network, deployed by Nokia, leaning on the latter’s Digital Automation Cloud, along with the telecom infrastructure inside the Decathlon Arena Stade Pierre Mauroy de Lille, and made the resulting streams avaialvle to third-party operators.

Source: Altice France

5G SA slicing involves creating dedicated 5G resources or slices for specific applications. Each ‘slice’ can be isolated from others to deliver content with specific requirements.

SFR says the technology will enable it to improve Quality of Service in relation to specific needs, optimising the use of frequencies for strategic applications in real time.

The operator said that the technology was ideally suited to deliver live transmissions in rapidly changing conditions such as during a football match. It can also be used to serve any application that requires heightened quality in relation to guaranteed performance, latency or security.

SFR plans to commercialise the service from next year through its SFR Business unit.

The operator said that, in addition to being first with 5G SA slicing, it was the first to connect 5G SA with a compatible retail smartphone, prefiguring the medium-term evolution of current 5G to 5G SA.

“With this new, concrete advance in 5G technology, SFR, in this case along with the teams of Altice Media, is modernising the industry, creating new high-performance services that boost the development of commercial use-cases and the competitiveness of businesses. Beyond our capacity to deploy 5G and fibre, this innovation shows once again the pertinence of SFR’s policy of investing in its networks,” said Arthur Dreyfuss, CEO of Altice France.