An unassuming aerial box situated at Pitlochry’s recreation ground will allow 40,000 people to tune into the town’s popular Highland Games next month as part of a rural 5G broadcast trial.
While the games are in full swing on September 10, the action will be broadcast live to the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) taking place in Amsterdam.
The IBC sits at the crossroads of the media, entertainment and technology industries, providing an informative and engaging experience, and will involve a number of world leading broadcasters including the BBC and BT Sport.
The 5G private network has been developed at the University of Strathclyde, working alongside the Scotland 5G Centre.
“Pitlochry will help us show that 5G remote production can happen in many remote places and even in the middle of nowhere,” explained Mark Smith, the head of IBC’s Accelerator Media Innovation Programme.
“We are trialling in four remote areas of the world, in Ireland, in Kenya, New Zealand and in Pitlochry.
“It provides the perfect opportunity to focus on a private 5G network.
“As enthusiastic young dancers perform to pipe tunes and cabers whistle though the air, Pitlochry is providing a dedicated bandwidth with no interference or capacity issues affecting the quality of transmission even in big crowds”.
Professor Bob Stewart, from the University of Strathclyde and director of Strathclyde Software Defined Radio team said: “This trial will show how truly portable our 5G private standalone network is and how we can ‘pop-up’ private networks.”
The trial is welcomed by the Games’ chieftain Charles Butter, who said: “This is a truly Scottish endeavour and the choice of Pitlochry Highland Games as an event to help in the future development of broadcasting is a testament to the high regard in which Pitlochry Highland Games are held, not just from the point of sporting excellence but also our wonderful location.”
This year also marks the 170th anniversary of the first Pitlochry Highland Games and one highlight will be the playing for the first time of a new pipe tune composed specifically for Pitlochry.
