#5GMediaRoad – How and when will 5G impact the media sector?

The next generation for mobile communication, 5G, promises a wide range of new solutions to all sectors, including that of the media and creative industries. And indeed, 5G has the potential to substantially impact media production workflows as well as media services for the consumers.

On 8 and 9 May 2019, roughly 150 broadcast experts and decision makers focusing on media production and on content distribution as well as media innovation managers and researchers met at IRT in Munich to discuss opportunities and challenges for specific 5G-related use cases within their domains. In addition, different operational models for 5G networks were discussed together with potential regulatory challenges. The event provided an in-depth overview of different scenarios and solutions for 5G.

The participants widely agreed, that 5G is expected to soon play a key role in the production as well as in the distribution of media services. At the same time, it became apparent how crucial the early and open collaboration between the different players in the market is. Only if manufacturers, infrastructure operators and equipment providers fully understand the needs of the media industry, it can be assured that 5G will become a success. Collaborative R&D projects like the ones funded by the EU under the 5G-PPP framework as well as numerous national initiatives play a key role in this process. Eventually, there’s a mutual interest that 5G will efficiently support the wider rapid evolution of the audiovisual media landscape and the ways consumers access content.

The four key promises for the media domain are: increased flexibility, lower cost, higher reliability and better quality of experience. If these goals can be met, all involved parties will profit.

Please find a detailed summary of presentations and discussions in the article below. All presentations can be found at https://www.irt.de/en/news/symposia-and-workshops/review/5g-mediaroad2019/

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“Internet reinvents broadcast Radio” – better radio for everybody

AER, the Association of European Radios, organised a unique Special Focus Workshop in the context of Radiodays Europe, the most important annual conference for radio professionals in the world, held in 2019 in Lausanne. The AER/MediaRoad workshop titled “Is Internet reinventing broadcast radio?” and held on 31 March 2019, explored, in a series of three thought-provoking sessions, how the radio industry will change in the next years, the innovations transforming the role of radio in people’s lives and the most recent technological disruptions seen as an opportunity and a threat at the same time.

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Radio Hack Europe 2019 – “Radio and media of tomorrow”

Radio Hack Europe 2019 was a 48-hour hackathon around the theme “Radio and media of tomorrow”, which took place on 29-31 March on the EPFL campus, with the support of  MediaRoad and the Initiative for Media Innovation.

This spin-off event from Radiodays Europe, which occurred the weekend before the conference, was intended for anyone interested in shaping the future of radio in Europe, and brought together media professionals, entrepreneurs, researchers and students, as well as people who had an interest or curiosity in media and innovation. In this respect, hackathons are an opportunity for people from different backgrounds to work together in an open and collaborative manner, over a short period of time

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First evaluation meeting of International network of broadcast sandboxes held in Bergen

The first evaluation meeting of Sandbox Hub was held on the 28th and 29th March at Media City Bergen. The purpose was to strengthen the cooperation between sandboxes and sharing of organisations and practices.

Fifteen managers from VRT and RTBF (Belgium), NPO (Netherlands), Sveriges Radio, France TV, Radio France, ERT (Greece), YLE (Finland), BBC (UK), RTP (Portugal) and Media City Bergen participated in the Sandbox Hub gathering. These are media organizations from all over Europe which cooperate to promote innovation in the media industry

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Take part in the Stakeholder Consultation on future and emerging technological trends for the media sector

Digitisation is reshaping industries, with technology transforming the way they function. The media industry is no exception, and technological innovations have been – and will be – adopted in every part of the media value chain. Technological trends are influencing the audiovisual and radio ecosystem, prompting changes in political, social and economic dimensions.

Are you part of the media industry, the audiovisual or radio sector?

Are you interested in understanding the evolution of the media sector and are you interested in technological innovation?

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5G in the media sector

Written by Hans Brand and Ralf Neudel, IRT

5G, what is it all about?

Following the latest news from the mobile industry, 2019 is getting ready to become the break-through year for 5G. Smartphone manufacturers present new 5G-capable devices and telecom equipment providers are announcing the roll-out of 5G networks around the globe.

With huge technology potential behind 5G, it is often portrayed as the next evolution of digitisation that could again transform many businesses. At the same time, many experts call for expectation management. Up to now, there is not really a common understanding of what 5G will exactly deliver and especially when. This is quite understandable since the standardisation of 5G by 3GPP (like other specifications before) is progressing iteratively and is fixed in

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VRT’s Sandbox “On-Hertz” project obtains MediaRoad’s Quality Label

MediaRoad assigned the Quality Label to VRT’s Sandbox On-Hertz project, started in May 2018.

In a very quickly evolving media landscape, traditional media must reinvent themselves in order to maintain brand engagement and generate new revenue streams.

Radio holds a very special place in people’s lives, reaching very large audiences daily and achieving the highest scores in terms of trustworthiness. Radio is the media of proximity by excellence: global reach, large & deep offer, responsive, strong communities, and deeply human.

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MediaRoad Quality Label: France Télévisions’ Sandbox project “Newsbridge idX”

During fall 2017, the News Service of France Télévisions (French public national television broadcaster) chose Newsbridge to join its very first media accelerator. Supported by France Télévisions Innovation Department and the Medialab, Newsbridge deployed an AI-based video pre-indexing system that would help journalists and documentalists to better handle, explore and browse the huge amount of content received every day. This project coincided with the beta launch of Newsbridge’s automatic cognitive indexing service: Newsbridge idX.

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MediaRoad Quality Label: France Télévisions’ Sandbox project “ToonYou: personalized content for kids”

MediaRoad assigned its Quality Label to France Télévisions’ Sandbox “ToonYou: personalized content for kids” project. The project started in October 2017, and the collaboration is still ongoing.

France Télévisions and ToonYou have teamed up to bring a unique experience to their young audience. They can watch an educative cartoon series called My Dream Jobs on FRANCE 5, one of the most watched TV channels for kids in France, and then are invited in the closing credits to go online with an app called TOONYOU to personalize the main characters with the faces of the family. Mom or Dad and the kid inside a series of 70 episodes of 3 minutes. With one selfie ToonYou can generate more than

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MediaRoad Quality Label: VRT’s Sandbox project “Sensifai Celebrity Recognition System”

MediaRoad assigned the Quality Label to VRT’s Sandbox project namely “Sensifai celebrity recognition system”. The Sensifai’s celebrity recognition system has been integrated into VRT’s archives to empower content search. See here for information about the MediaRoad’s Quality Label.

Media companies, publishers, social media and multimedia asset management providers often require finding and tagging celebrities in large archives of video and images. Powered by visual deep-learning technology, Sensifai offers an easy-to-use interface which automates the process of recognizing celebrities with a very accurate face

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