NEC collaborates with NTT Docomo and Tobu Railway on a UHD transmission pilot over 5G

An 8K ultra-high definition live feed featuring a steam locomotive is transmitted from a 5G base station installed along a railway network to a 5G mobile station located inside a moving train and distributed on an 8K display.

NEC Corporation has collaborated with NTT Docomo y Tobu Railway in a pilot experience of ultra high definition video transmission using 5G in 4.5GHz and 28GHz bands.

In recent years, the demand for high definition video is constantly increasing. This demonstration has been carried out with a view to the application of 5G in the field of entertainment, including sports and tourism content.

Specifically, an 8K ultra-high definition live feed featuring a steam locomotive (SL) was transmitted from a 5G base station installed along a railway to a 5G mobile station located inside a running SL train and distributed on an 8K display.

In addition, the 4K high-definition video content, which had been previously recorded, was transmitted from the 5G base station to the 5G mobile station on an SL train and distributed to the mobile terminals of train passengers via wireless LAN. This demonstrated that the use of 5G allows the transmission of high-presence and high-definition video content, even on a moving train or bus, providing a service that allows the distribution of high-capacity content on a variety of media, regardless of location or situation.

The NEC 5G base station was equipped with a Massive MIMO antenna, which forms beams (directivity) that concentrate power at the location and direction of the 5G mobile station. Since the antenna always forms optimal beams for a mobile station by having the beams follow the moving mobile station, it is capable of realizing high data rate and high quality wireless data communication, even for a mobile station installed inside a moving train, as in this demonstration.