How 5G Is Evolving from a Network into a Creative Tool
Back in 2018, I stood at Wembley Stadium watching the world’s first live sports broadcast over a public 5G network. The EE Wembley Cup marked a genuine milestone for the industry. As director of mobile at BT Sport, I was heavily involved in exploring how 5G could transform sports production. BT Sport produced the event remotely for EE using public 5G, demonstrating that live sports production could move beyond the constraints of traditional connectivity. Public 5G, remote production, network slicing, and untethered cameras were all part of the vision.
The message was simple: 5G would change sports production forever. At the time, it felt revolutionary. And to be fair, it was.
Living Up to the Promise of Network Slicing
One thing that’s easy to forget now is that in 2018, almost nobody actually owned a 5G handset. Network congestion was practically nonexistent because there were very few devices competing for capacity. The expectation was that as adoption grew, network slicing would provide the guaranteed performance broadcasters needed. Operators would carve out dedicated portions of their public networks, allowing production teams to work with the same confidence they expected from traditional broadcast infrastructure.
The promise was compelling. The reality was slower.
The technology demonstration worked exactly as intended. The challenge wasn’t proving that 5G could carry live video; the challenge was scaling that vision into the real world as networks became busier and broadcasters demanded the certainty that live production requires. As is often the case in sport, waiting wasn’t really an option. Broadcasters needed solutions right away. So, the industry did what it often does best: it started solving the problem itself.
Cameras connected via private 5G at a 2022 Stone X Stadium match. Source: BT Sport
Bringing Viewers Closer to the Event
In 2021, while I was still at BT Sport, we were exploring how private 5G could support live production at MotoGP. Together with Dorna Sports, Neutral Wireless, and Vislink, we delivered the world’s first live sports broadcast over a standalone private 5G network.
5G live production in action at MotoGP in 2021. Image source: Neutral Wireless
The original objective was largely technical. Could private 5G reliably carry broadcast-quality video? Could it support a live production environment? Could it provide the control and certainty that broadcasters needed?
Then, something unexpected happened: the pictures coming back from the 5G-enabled cameras on the grid, in the paddock, and from the test bike weren’t interesting because they were travelling over 5G; they were interesting because they felt different. They brought viewers closer to the atmosphere, energy, and emotion of the event. The production team immediately started finding new ways to use them. Looking back, that was the moment many of us realised 5G wasn’t simply about replacing a cable; it was about removing creative constraints. The breakthrough wasn’t the network; the breakthrough was the freedom to capture live sport events differently than we ever had before.
Creating New Possibilities for Streaming Storytelling
For decades, production workflows had largely been shaped by the limitations of connectivity. Cameras could only go where the infrastructure allowed them to go. Now, with 5G, particularly private 5G, cameras could go places they couldn’t go before—not because they were smaller or cheaper, but because they were no longer constrained by the infrastructure that traditionally dictated where production teams could operate. Suddenly, the conversation switched from “Can we get a camera there?” to “What story are we trying to tell?” That might sound like a subtle distinction, but it fundamentally changes how live sport can be produced. When the conversation shifted from connectivity to creativity, the industry started moving quickly.
The question was no longer whether 5G worked. The question became where it could be used. Major sporting events, national moments, and international productions continued to prove the utility of the technology. The focus moved beyond demonstrations and into operational reality. Private 5G became another tool available to production teams rather than a future concept waiting to be validated.
The Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony live stream famously incorporated live footage from 200+ Samsung smartphones mounted on 85 athlete votes streamed via a private 5G network. Image Source: Samsung
At the same time, the use cases expanded dramatically. The industry still tends to talk about 5G as a camera technology, but that is only part of the story. Private 5G is now supporting accessibility services, venue operations, security systems, media workflows, and fan experiences. The technology has evolved from being a broadcasting solution into part of the wider digital infrastructure of modern sport.
The story has moved far beyond connectivity. Perhaps the clearest example of that evolution came earlier this year at San Siro. When AC
Milan hosted Lecce in front of more than 70,000 fans, a consortium that included Lega Serie A, CVE, Gravity Media Italy, Haivision, MediaKind, and Neutral Wireless integrated two Apple iPhone 17 devices directly into the host broadcast workflow for DAZN over a private 5G network.
DAZN’s broadcast of the AC Milan-Lecce integrated two iPhone feeds via private 5G. Image Source: AC Milan
The technical achievement was significant. The smartphones delivered 1080p50 pictures into the production gallery, with performance comparable to a traditional cabled camera chain. The complete workflow stretched from the Haivision MoJoPro application running on the iPhone, across the Neutral Wireless private 5G network, through the production chain, and into the live broadcast feed.
It Was Never About the Camera
By the time of the Lecce-AC Milan match, we’d already proved that 5G could transport broadcast-quality video. We’d been doing that for years. What interested me most was how the conversation had changed. Back at the EE Wembley Cup, the discussion centred on whether 5G could carry live video. At MotoGP, we started exploring how private 5G could unlock new creative possibilities. At San Siro, the discussion had moved beyond connectivity altogether.
The private 5G network wasn’t just supporting cameras; it had become a platform capable of supporting multiple services simultaneously. Broadcast contribution, return video, camera control, and communications could all operate across the same infrastructure.
Creating Value Beyond Production
For clubs, leagues, and venues, supporting operational communications, accessibility, security, and personalisation features on
the same network as video changes the commercial equation entirely. Instead of investing in multiple overlapping wireless systems, they have the opportunity to build a single digital platform capable of supporting a wide range of services.
That’s why I increasingly believe the future of private 5G in sport isn’t just about production. Production may have been the catalyst, but the destination is something much bigger. The most successful deployments will not be the ones carrying the most cameras; they will be the ones creating the most value across the entire stadium ecosystem.
The smartphones themselves were almost symbolic. They represented a production tool that could go places traditional cameras couldn’t, delivering more intimate and immersive perspectives. But they also demonstrated something much bigger. The network had evolved from a broadcasting solution into a digital asset that clubs could potentially own, operate, and build services upon. That feels a long way from where we started.
Looking back, each stage of the journey taught us something different. The EE Wembley Cup proved that 5G could carry live sports production. MotoGP showed us that connectivity wasn’t the destination, it was the enabler. San Siro demonstrated what happens when the technology becomes mature enough that people stop talking about the network and start focussing on what it makes possible.
That’s probably the clearest sign of success: The technology fades into the background, and the creativity comes to the foreground.
Related Articles
Rewind to last year and 5G was still more proof of concept than real world scenario. Not any more. "5G is here and real," said Brad Cheney, VP, Field Operations & Engineering, Fox Sports at the IBC2025 trade event in the Netherlands.
15 Sep 2025