China Mobile Shandong Provides World's First Mobile Broadcast of Marathon via 5G

China Mobile Shandong Provides World's First Mobile Broadcast of Marathon via 5G

The 2019 Qingdao Marathon started out from the May Fourth Square on the morning of May 4. This annual event is organized by the Chinese Athletic Association and the People's Government of Qingdao Municipality and has about 25,000 runners from dozens of countries participating. Partnering with Huawei and Qingdao Media Group, China Mobile Shandong successfully gave a 5G live broadcast of this event. It was the world's first ever 5G live broadcast of a marathon and used HD cameras mounted on both moving cars and specific positions. The 5G broadcast relied on about 100 5G base stations and gave audiences a new viewing experience.

China Mobile Shandong authorized to provide 5G networks for the 2019 Qingdao Marathon

Start of the Qingdao Marathon

5G-enabled live mobile broadcast

The full marathon started in the North Square of the May Fourth Square (in front of the Qingdao government building) and ended in the Olympic Sailing Center, with the mini marathon ending in Huiquan Square. Participants ran along the coastline of the Shinan and Laoshan Districts and enjoyed the spectacular scenery and cultural atmosphere of Qingdao, the sailing city of China.

Marathon course (Source: 2019 Qingdao Marathon website)

World's first 5G mobile broadcast of a marathon

Since the end of last year, all kinds of major social events across China have used 5G networks for ultra HD broadcasts, including the Spring Festival Gala and the National/Provincial Political Consultative Congress and People's Congress. Needless to say, 5G has drawn extensive attention from the public. Currently, live broadcasts often use cameras with specific positions and settings with limited shooting angles. However, new 5G applications and solutions can do more than that.

China Mobile Shandong, Huawei, Qingdao Media Group, and related broadcast working groups began to design a 5G mobile live broadcast solution for the 2019 Qingdao Marathon in late February. A joint working group was established and all related parties extensively discussed network deployment and optimization, performance and service assurance, and various other topics. Network deployment and network performance optimization along the marathon course were completed in April, which supported the live broadcasts of several small-scale activities, and later that month, network performance tests for the entire course were completed. Ten days before the event, China Mobile Shandong and Qingdao Media Group conducted six rounds of 5G live broadcast tests to make sure performance was where it needed to be. China Mobile Qingdao has built over 80 5G base stations averaging 380 meters between stations so that the entire marathon is completely covered by 5G. This not only served to meet the needs of the 5G broadcast, but it will also provide 5G connections for the city's coastal areas from Badaxia (Eight Gorges) Park to the Old Stone Man Beach.

China Mobile Qingdao and Huawei engineers conduct 5G performance tests

Luanxin, Deputy Mayor of Qingdao and Li Guoli, Director of the Qingdao Sports Bureau visited the work site of network support. They expressed their appreciation to China Mobile Qingdao for providing secure, stable, and reliable networks for the 2019 Qingdao Marathon and highlighted its network quality.

Facilitating numerous industries and promoting Shandong's digital transformation with 5G

Using 5G solutions, China Mobile Shandong has successfully provided mobile broadcast of the 2019 Qingdao Marathon, which exhibits the progression of the 5G industry. 5G is developing faster than ever expected in many aspects. China Mobile Shandong will work with Huawei and other partners in the industry to deploy high-quality 5G networks quickly and to strengthen future-proof 5G leadership. The partnership will use 5G technologies in making industries smart, such as in broadcasting, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, agriculture, and marine. They are also working to provide a strong information infrastructure and platforms to help Shandong Province go digital.