Screen & Broadcast

DTM delivers onboard video via private 5G network

German racing series uses Riedel’s Easy5G as the primary link for camera feeds from the cars.

Translated from Dutch by AI

The DTM has used a private 5G network permanently for the transmission of onboard camera feeds since this season. Riedel and TV Skyline’s infrastructure is designed for high uplink capacity along the circuit and is intended to enable more camera angles.

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, or DTM for short, is working with Riedel’s Easy5G platform and broadcast service provider TV Skyline for this purpose. According to the parties involved, the DTM is the first international racing series to use private 5G permanently as its primary transmission system for onboard video.

Rather than transmitting camera feeds solely via cable connections, local Wi-Fi or public mobile networks, the signals are carried through a dedicated mobile network around the circuit to the production chain. The network is designed with an emphasis on uplink: the cars send large video streams to receiving points along the track.

According to Riedel, all 21 DTM cars are equipped with onboard cameras. Six cars also have additional action cameras. For the Porsche Sixt Carrera Cup Germany, 24 camera angles are integrated into the production. The new infrastructure is intended to make it possible to process more signals simultaneously with less fixed cabling.

The network operates with 100 MHz of bandwidth and, according to the project partners, achieves uplink speeds of up to 140 Mbit/s. Depending on the circuit’s topography, four to seven antenna locations are required. That number is not a universal standard: the coverage required depends on track length, obstacles, vehicle movements and the desired capacity.

For live productions, the distinction between private and public 5G is important. A private setup gives the production party control over spectrum use, network configuration and priority for its own signals. This can limit congestion problems on a public mobile network, but it also requires its own planning, management and technical redundancy.

TV Skyline provides the DTM production and, alongside Easy5G, also uses Riedel’s DIVA+ infrastructure for data, intercom, video and audio at the production site. The combination shows that private 5G is being used not only as a wireless camera uplink, but also as part of a broader local production infrastructure.

The announcement contains no independent measurements of availability, latency or fault behaviour over a full season. The technology is therefore primarily an operational example for sports and event productions. Whether comparable networks are economically attractive for other sports depends on frequency access, circuit size and the number of simultaneous video streams.

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