In Broadcast - November 2017 - 27

27

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 7 - Issue 11 | November 2017

InStudio

Remote Uplinks
Teradek's Bond system takes an
interesting and modular approach that
sees users able to expand component
by component from something suitable
for a school play to a major breaking
news event. Based around the
company's H.264/.264 Cube encoder,
Bond expansion modules connect via a
pogo pin connector and add a further
four modem connections, while the
Node unit (USB for now, 4-pin coming)
adds a single 3G/4G /LTE modem. Even

Teradek's Bond expansion
adds four modem connections
to the company's Cube encoder

cont'd...

better, you can also contribute the LTE
connection of up to four iPhones to the
bonded broadcast via a free app.
The 5G Future
Given some of the hyperbolic claims
being made for 5G networks, the
question has to be asked whether they
will make all this complex bonding
redundant.
The consensus seems to be no. "5G
will bring a lot of bandwidth per link. It

should solve some congestion issues of
the network," comments AVIWEST CEO
Erwan Gasc. "However, in some areas
with poor coverage or in crowded
areas, bonding will be necessary
even with 5G. 5G should allow for the
transport of much more information
than currently with 4G. What would be
very useful is to increase video quality
and allow UHD-4K transmissions
through cellular networks."
AVIWEST has actually already done
some testing with 5G and sustained
data rates as high as 300 megabits
per second. "The initial tests look
promising,"
says
VidOvation's
Jachetta, US distributor for AVIWEST.
"In many cases, the bottleneck is the
backhaul connectivity from the cellular
tower to the central office. Hopefully,
as the cellular providers roll out 5G,
they will also upgrade their backhaul
networks."
There is also the issue of the network
itself. "It is anticipated that even
4G will only cover 37% of the world
landmass by 2020 and 5G will take
even longer to roll out," says Vislink's
Chris Dalton. "Only satcomms will offer
truly global coverage."
So, what else is on the roadmap? In
a decade remote uplinks have changed

considerably and with the pace of
technological change accelerating
all the time, the next five years in the
sector could be a turbulent one. A
quick straw poll reveals the growing
importance of HEVC, the increasing
penetration of 4K, and the emergence
of 8K as a serious consideration,
as well as a mushrooming in direct
delivery to social media platforms. But
the last word goes to Jacchetta who
sees the increasingly ubiquitous and
powerful smartphone as the obvious
endgame in the industry's quest for
miniaturisation.
"We are asked every day for cellular
and wireless solutions that are smaller
and more powerful," he says. "In the
future, more power will be available in
our smartphones. Today we can bond
the cellular modem in a smartphone
with Wi-Fi to transmit a live video
stream. We are working on solutions
to make this process more reliable."

"5G will bring a
lot of bandwidth
per link"
Erwan Gasc, AVIWEST
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://teradek.com/collections/bond-family http://get.liveu.tv/hevc/ http://get.liveu.tv/hevc/
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