Telefónica and Sony have tested live 4K video contribution over a 5G millimetre-wave network at Movistar Arena in Madrid. The reported uplink reached 1.8Gbps, providing headroom for a high-quality contribution feed and associated production data.
The chain used a Sony HXC-FZ90 camera, a CBK-RPU7 remote-production unit encoding HEVC at up to 100Mbps, a PDT-FP1 portable data transmitter and an NXL-ME80 decoder. The components moved a camera signal across the venue’s 5G radio network into the production environment in real time.
Millimetre-wave spectrum can offer high capacity in a contained venue, potentially reducing temporary cable runs and enabling camera positions that are difficult to reach with fibre. The trade-off is propagation: line-of-sight, body blocking and cell placement can matter more than on lower-frequency mobile bands.
The test confirms the equipment and peak uplink figure. It does not publish sustained throughput distribution, glass-to-glass latency, packet loss, cell layout, handover behaviour, RF redundancy or performance with a full audience. A demonstration is therefore not the same as a hardened match-day deployment.
