Case Studies
Introduction
Live sporting events increasingly rely on high-quality connectivity to deliver professional, real-time coverage to audiences locally and worldwide. Event production teams often operate from remote venues where reliable connectivity can be limited. From major sporting competitions to youth championships, live streaming enables audiences to experience the action in real time through platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo. This requires stable, high-speed and low-latency connectivity to support uninterrupted video streaming, production workflows and high-quality content delivery.
The Challenge
A key challenge for live sporting events is maintaining reliable connectivity for broadcasts across South Africa. While fibre might be available, many events rely on LTE to provide the required connectivity. However, LTE network performance can be unpredictable, with power failures, tower congestion, and inconsistent coverage creating a significant risk of interruptions during live broadcasts. Even where a strong signal is available, network conditions can change during an event, creating a risk of interruptions to the live broadcast. Reliable and resilient connectivity is therefore essential to ensure uninterrupted, high-quality streaming and provide production teams with the confidence that every event can be broadcast successfully.
The Solution
The Twoobii-OneWeb LEO service was recently deployed by SPOC, a Q-KON Channel Partner at a live sporting event alongside the client’s existing bonding equipment, providing stable and dependable connectivity throughout the broadcast. Powered by Eutelsat OneWeb, the service enhanced network resilience and significantly reduced the risk of connectivity disruptions during the event.
Using the Hughes HL1120W ESA flat-panel terminal, the solution delivered a high-performance connectivity platform with speeds of up to 100 Mbps/20 Mbps and sub-70-millisecond latency. These performance characteristics provided the stability, bandwidth and low latency required to support a professional-quality live broadcast.
“Reliable connectivity has been a long-standing problem. Now we can broadcast from any venue without fearing a complete communication failure”
— Broadcast and social media specialist
