SK Telecom has reached another milestone by completing a live TV broadcast over a commercial 5G network, marking a significant advancement in next-generation media services.
The country’s largest mobile operator streamed South Korea’s New Year celebrations live, including the countdown and interviews held at the historic Bosingak bell pavilion.
Bosingak, first used during the Joseon Dynasty in 1619, traditionally signaled the opening and closing of the city gates each day. The bell pavilion remains an important cultural landmark where people gather annually to welcome the New Year.
Choi Nak-hoon, vice president and head of the 5GX IoT/Data Group at SK Telecom, commented on the achievement:
“With today’s successful live TV broadcast over a commercial 5G network, SK Telecom ushers in a new era of 5G-based media services.”
“In this new era, individual creators will be able to provide high-quality live broadcasts anytime, anywhere, via 5G smartphones.”
The 5G broadcast ran for about eleven minutes and was streamed live on the XtvN entertainment channel at 00:00 Korean Standard Time on January 1, 2019.
SK Telecom reported that the broadcast was successful: high-quality video was delivered with under one second of latency, despite the heavy network congestion typically present during large public events.
The demonstration showcased SK Telecom’s dedicated “T Live Caster” solution, which enables live broadcasting from smartphones over 5G and LTE networks. For the Bosingak event, smartphones running the T Live Caster app and connected through 5G mobile routers were used to capture and transmit live footage.
This development followed SK Telecom’s earlier milestone as the first operator to make a 5G video call using a Samsung phone, highlighting the operator’s ongoing role in commercializing 5G capabilities.
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