Private 5G and monowheels transform European Athletics race walk coverage

During the European Athletics Championships, a private 5G network enabled four camera operators riding electric monowheels to deliver continuous live pictures from the race walk.

Host broadcaster Actua worked with Neutral Wireless to deploy the private 5G infrastructure across both Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium and the city-centre race walk course.

Four monowheel riders were then able to follow the athletes around the 1km city-centre course carrying Panasonic mirrorless cameras mounted on gimbals and connected to LiveU LU800 field units.

Each unit used the Neutral Wireless private 5G network as its sole connectivity path, continuously transmitting a 20 Mbps 1080i50 video feed back to the production facility.

All four feeds were integrated into the programme and went live-to-air throughout the race.

The combination of lightweight cameras, highly mobile operators and dedicated wireless connectivity gave the production team the freedom to move with the athletes and capture perspectives that would be difficult to achieve with conventional fixed camera positions.

Matt Stagg, strategy & partnerships at Neutral Wireless, said: “The exciting thing about private 5G now isn’t the network itself, it’s what it allows creative teams to do. The monowheels are a brilliant example. They gave the production team the freedom to move with the athletes and capture the race in a really dynamic way, while the connectivity simply sat underneath it and worked.

“This isn’t about replacing established production techniques. It’s about adding new creative possibilities. The conversation is moving from ‘can private 5G support live broadcast?’ to ‘what can we do differently because we have it?’”

Franck Choquard, director of Actua, added: “Working with Neutral Wireless at the European Athletics Championships perfectly demonstrated how private 5G unlocks incredible creative flexibility. The electric monowheel cameras gave us the freedom to move right alongside the athletes, capturing dynamic, close-up perspectives that conventional fixed positions simply couldn’t reach.

“Having a dedicated, rock-solid network gave our team complete confidence in the connectivity, even for high-priority live-to-air feeds. Just as importantly, the infrastructure proved its value by seamlessly supporting multiple distinct production requirements across the event, from our core host broadcast needs to international workflows, proving it is a versatile tool for the future of sports broadcasting.”