SBS Korea Delivers Highest-Quality 5G Live Streaming of South Korea’s Historic Election Using LiveU Solutions

Multiple 5G-integrated LU600 HEVC and LU300 HEVC units were used to cover the voters, candidates and election results in the world’s first national coronavirus election

SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System), a leading national South Korean television and radio network, turned to LiveU’s integrated 5G technology for its live election day coverage in South Korea last week, utilizing the advantages of KT’s (Korea Telecom’s) premium live broadcasting solution with its 5G network. SBS chose LiveU for its field-proven video transmission quality and reliability, provided by its core HEVC hardware encoding.

SBS deployed LiveU’s 5G-integrated high-end LU600 HEVC units in the most congested areas, representing the first broadcaster to leverage KT’s 5G-Premium QoS solution. Live streaming provided by the MNG (mobile newsgathering) units reached the highest performance levels. SBS was able to secure the new network path, guaranteeing fast and reliable connection without any interruptions. In other congested areas, SBS used LiveU’s compact LU300 HEVC units together with the LiveU Xtender integrated antenna solution to maximize the network capture, ensuring high-quality streams.

LiveU’s devices were used to cover the polling stations, major candidates’ offices and reactions to the election results under the strict safe distancing measures in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All the live feeds were streamed to a single server and completely synched, operating as part of a cost-effective, remote at-home production model.

The success of SBS’s broadcast-quality coverage helped to drive a higher viewership rate and ratings. 

Yaal Eshel, General Manager LiveU Asia, said, “We’re extremely proud to have been selected by KT and SBS for their first 5G-live streaming service, with the election coverage during the coronavirus situation having a huge impact in the region. South Korea is recognized as one of the most technologically advanced countries and is leading the market in 5G deployment. We see great potential for utilizing 5G networks for live video streaming for news, sports and entertainment.” 

SBS is now looking to integrate the LiveU system not only in its news broadcasting workflow, but as another layer in its live content delivery solutions.