It has been said earlier that climate crisis is going to change the way we watch sports: in the future, Winter Olympics will likely take place on completely artificial snow. And by “the future,” we mean “starting now.” As detailed by a report from Loughborough University London, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are set to be the first ever where not a flake of natural snow will be on the ground – it will virtually all be human-made. So This Year’s Winter Olympics First Ever To Take Place On 100 Percent Artificial Snow. To make it happen 49 million gallons of chemically-treated water will make up the slopes for this year’s Winter Olympics.

Olympics is shown on television by many broadcasters. Many of the challenges that broadcasters faced when covering the Summer Olympics in Tokyo will remain as Covid continues to impact everyday life. However, there are a number of lessons learned and this new broadcast came just half year after summer event. Beijing IBC will be smaller than Tokyo’s because event is smaller.

There is some new TV technology taken to use. The TV Technology Behind the Beijing Winter Olympics article says that UHD, Immersive Audio and 5G highlight tech advances for Olympic Broadcast Services. More than 6,000+ hours of content is expected to be produced, and an increasing portion of it being delivered to non-traditional broadcast providers.

The most important technologies in covering this event are cloud and IP communications. Using IP tools and the cloud played an important role in planning and designing the IBC and its production workflows. Cloud allows to build a virtual infrastructure to be established long before we even go to the facility. For the Tokyo games as well as Beijing, OBS has teamed up with Alibaba Group to create OBS Cloud, a suite of custom-made cloud-based solutions specifically adapted to the extremely demanding, data-heavy broadcast workflows. “IP delivery is very important for the broadcasters to be able to easily to convert the content that we’re giving to them to formats that are used by the devices that they are putting online.”

The Tokyo Summer Games represented the first Olympics that the OBS provided UHD/HDR coverage and the 2022 Winter Games will mark the first such 4K UHD/HDR coverage of the winter event. Although various broadcasters have recently dabbled in UHD coverage of the Games, OBS developed an infrastructure that allows them to synchronize content whether it’s in 1080i HD or 4K UHD, making it easier for rights-holding broadcasters to manage and access ultra high-resolution content. Like very many earlier times Panasonic will serve as the official provider of a large part of the broadcast production gear to cover the Games.

For audio, OBS expanded its options to go beyond 5.1 channel audio that had been the norm up until Tokyo. For Beijing, OBS will provide immersive audio that is discreet and not compressed so it can meet the broadcaster distribution standard. And with a unified HD/UHD production infrastructure, “whether broadcasters pick up HD or UHD they will always be able to receive immersive audio.”

OBS’s coverage is increasingly using 5G wireless. The use of 5G “is even more important because in the Games we have a serious problem with the lack of frequencies, because we need a large number of RF crews just to do our coverage,” Salamouris said. “And 5G helps because you can rely on an established network to do our wireless transmissions instead of relying on dedicated technology that we don’t have enough of anymore.”

Related article links:

The TV Technology Behind the Beijing Winter Olympics

Broadcasting the Games – how the TV industry delivered the Olympics during a state of emergency

How video production has adapted to showcase the Olympic Games to the world

Olympics 2021: The host broadcast facts and figures for TV coverage of the world’s biggest multi-sport show

Conspiracy Theorists Buy Faraday Cages To “Protect” Themselves Then Complain When They Work
https://www.iflscience.com/technology/conspiracy-theorists-buy-faraday-cages-to-protect-themselves-then-complain-when-they-work/

Crackpots are buying Faraday cages for routers then bemoaning bad Wi-Fi
Buyers are enraged that it’s ruining their Wi-Fi signal. Amazon doesn’t care and continues to sell the devices conspiracy theorists claim “protect” against 5G.
https://www.inputmag.com/tech/crackpots-buying-faraday-cages-for-their-routers-on-amazon-then-bemoan-bad-wi-fi?utm_content=bufferf171a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&

It looked like 5G and wireless dominated the airways in 2019. It seems that year 2020 will be a real test for 5G if it will really take on or fails to full-fill the big expectations. It seems that 5G networks are available at some place here and there from many operators, but 5G end user devices are not yet widely available or desired. New year will bring more 5G base stations.

5G: How Much is Real vs. Marketing? Is 5G ready for prime time? Breaking down the marketing hype versus what’s really going on in the industry. Marketing claims 5G is pervasive. The question is when: 2020 or is it 2025?

First, let’s define 5G also known as 5G New Radio, or 5G NR:
There is sub-6-GHz 5G for the cellphone protocol that requires LTE: 5G NSA.
There is sub-6-GHz standalone 5G: 5G SA.
There is 20- to 60-GHz 5G: 5G mmWave.

It seems that 2020 will be the real test for 5G devices as the 5G device mass market has not yet really started. Samsung says it shipped 6.7M+ Galaxy 5G phones globally in 2019, accounting for 53.9% of the 5G phone market (Galaxy S10 5G and the Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G). 2020 is expected to be an interesting year for 5G growth across the smartphone market. Increased 5G rollouts by carriers means that customers will presumably be more interested in actually buying 5G devices. One June 2019 forecast made by Canalys has global 5G smartphone shipments crossing 4G smartphone shipments in 2023.

5G will be integrated to some PCs. Dell debuts a new Latitude 9510 laptop with built-in 5G, to launch March 26.

Ericsson says they are now 5G networks leader according to Ericsson ylitti odotukset kirkkaasti: ”Olemme 5g-johtaja” article. Nokia has cut its outlook for this year and next because of the need to step up its investments in 5G but ‘We don’t have a 5G problem,’ says Nokia’s head of software.

5G will be a good growing market for test device manufacturers as engineers will once again need to sharpen their skill sets and adopt new design and testing techniques. A lot of 5G Component Characterization and Test will be needed.Delivering 5G Devices to Market Will Bank on OTA Testing.

Network side needs also testing equipment. One approach being adopted to gain ground in the race to 5G involves the rapid prototyping and testing of network architectures. There is need for programmable RF devices. Industry seems to want their own private networks.

5G components are available from many sources already. The typical RF component suppliers are all providing 5G solutions: Avago/Broadcom, Huawei, MediaTek, Murata/pSemi (previously known as Peregrine), Qualcomm, Qorvo, Samsung, and Skyworks.

Challenges: Even the sub-6-GHz versions have technical issues in that the 5G target “air time” latency is 1 to 4 ms. Typical RF component manufacturers appear to be providing components that focus only on the sub-6-GHz frequency bands. The geopolitical situation relative to 5G also adds confusion to the 5G timeline.

There are many technical issues must be considered in the utilization of mmWave: mmWave frequencies travel relatively small distances. the mmWave transmitters consume a considerable amount of transmit power, providing additional challenges for battery-operated devices.

Market size: Several 5G market analyzers place the current worldwide market at approximately $40B (USD) and growing by a 57% CAGR to over $1T (USD) by 2025. With the standards still evolving, what are the likely changes that will occur by 2025?

5G in automotive: The automobile industry is experiencing exponential growth of self-driving features, and this trend is expected to continue. 5G network connections are expected to have a major influence on the development of self-driving cars making them faster, smarter, and safer. Where is car technology going in 2020?

As 5G work has started for many installers and marketers, the the researchers are already thinking about the nest step Beyond 5G chips. They are already planning technologies that could enable high-speed wireless devices beyond the 5G standard.

It presents 5G architecture, the identification of important assets, the assessment of threats affecting 5G, the identification of asset exposure and an initial assessment of threat agent motives.

You can download the document from this page:

https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/enisa-threat-landscape-for-5g-networks

There is also a 5G Cybersecurity Hackathon starting in Oulu Finland

https://ultrahack.org/5gcyberhack

Here is my news article on both of those in Finnish
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2019/11/29/5g-verkkojen-tietoturvariskit-listattu-oulu-testaa-ongelmat/

WRC-19 identified additional globally harmonized (millimetre wave) frequency bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), including IMT-2020 (otherwise known as 5G mobile).

Frequency bands 24.25-27.5 GHz, 37-43.5 GHz, 45.5-47 GHz, 47.2-48.2 and 66-71 GHz are allocated for the deployment of 5G networks.

In total, 17.25 GHz of spectrum has been identified for IMT by the Conference and 14.75 GHz of that spectrum has been harmonized worldwide.

Earlier 1.9 GHz of bandwidth was available before WRC-19.

Maybe we have now enough bandwidth to fullfill some of the 5G promises. Se still need to solve many technical issues and build network.

Etteplan had an interesting 5G demonstration at the event.

The 5G base station high on wall. In understood that it worked at frequency somewhere between 3400-3800 MHz.

There was a Nokia 5G router that made connection through the 5G base station to Telia data center at Pitäjänmäki (was know as Sonera data center when they started building it).

The smaller PoE powered 4G/5G Nokia Base station on top of rack was at 2600 MHz band. On the bottom left there is base station controller server PC and on the right local edge server.

This is now 5G was demonstrated today. I had a good talk on how those millisecond delays on 5G are only possible when connected to local edge server and when going to external resources, you easily get 10-100 milliseconds of delay on fixed Internet network. Also in video applications there video encoding and decoding delays can be significant compared to 5G radio network delay, for example 3 frames delay in H.264 in 30 images per second video will mean almost 100 milliseconds of delay from video coding itself.

Just read this article and advice also other people to read (including two earler articles referenced). It tries to cover both the sides that say 5G is safe and 5G could potentially dangerous. But does it succeed in covering that properly?

https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4462072/Does-5G-pose-health-risks—part-3-

Part 1 examined the potential ionization and thermal health risks posed by 5G. These are the conventional risks widely recognized and well controlled.

Part 2 examined electromagnetic (EM) effects. Here, the outcome was not so clear.

Source: Yle news https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10860384

Intel is quitting the 5G smartphone modem business: ‘There is no clear path to profitability and positive returns’
https://nordic.businessinsider.com/intel-quits-the-5g-smartphone-modem-business-2019-4?r=US&IR=T

Intel to quit 5G modem effort after Apple reaches deal with Qualcomm
https://www.axios.com/intel-to-quit-5g-modem-effo-after-apple-reaches-deal-with-qualcomm-1555457849-ea43a1c3-0d7f-4722-90d0-ae37e010d1b9.html

How does this decision affect the future bussiness expectations of 5G technology for other companies?

Millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies extend from 30 GHz to 300 GHz. From the literature, there can be three high-level concerns: thermal effects, ionizing effects, and electromagnetic (EM) effects.
The highest photon energy of a mm-wave photon is 1.2 meV that is 10,000 times less than what is needed to be ionizing. That still leaves thermal and EM concerns.

Most 5G systems use frequencies between 28 GHz and 80 GHz, the so-called FR2 frequency range. Many 5G systems also use the sub-6 GHz FR1 band.