Music to the masses – with 5G

Telia has used 5G to empower some of the fastest and sharpest video coverage ever produced – from one of Norway’s coolest music festivals. The annual Oya Festival has been called “Norway’s biggest and most important music festival” and when this year’s edition went underway from August 6 to August 10, Telia and its partners used 5G technology to produce some of the most modern festival footage to date.

The event organizers joined up with Telia, equipment manufacturer Quine and production company Trippel-M Living Pictures to launch the first-ever commercial media production with 5G.

“There is no denying that we think it’s a challenge to be the world’s first to use this new and innovative 5G technology in the video production during the festival. We are proud of this,” says Oya festival manager Tonje Kaada.

The pop and rock music festival take place in Tøyenparken in Oslo, and since the start in 1999 it has become one of Norway's main music events. Now, people who follow the event from their screens get faster and more modern footage.

The cameras sent video files over the 5G network in real time, allowing the editing job to start right away. This makes it possible for edited, ready-to-go videos to be published much faster than before.

“The technical rig has become an increasingly important part of a festival experience. We can now produce finished videos to be viewed and shared online, used in social media or provided to the media and the audience at the same time as a concert is taking place. That is something completely new to all festival organizers, and of course it is great for us to be first, Kaada says.

The 5G festival production only became possible through the collaboration of the partners: Telia, Oya organizers, Quine and Triple-M Living Pictures. Quine developed both the software and the equipment, while Triple-M Live Pictures is responsible for the layout of screen solutions, camera production, interactive solutions, content production and streaming.

“With 5G, we get completely new opportunities to tailor-make communication solutions for specific purposes, such as what we are doing during the festival,” says Jon Christian Hillestad, Director of Telia Business. “The 5G network used in the production is lightning fast, has high capacity and is not affected in any way by the festival participants' mobile use. We use our own frequencies and bandwidths for the 5G signals. The speeds we get during the festival are more than ten times faster than the speed most people have in the broadband at home. We’re seeing a good example of how mobile technology enables a significantly more efficient work process.”