Taking Broadcast to 4G and Beyond: Matt Stagg, EE

IBC Executive
http://issuu.com/newbayeurope/docs/ibc2015_executive_summary/28

In 2012 mobile operator EE launched the UK's first 4G network and has used its experience to understand how a high capacity data network influences user behaviour. A key learning is that video consumption on mobile is even more significant than expected, and set to grow beyond initial expectations. While Cisco predicts that 72% of mobile traffic will be video by 2020, “we are looking at 75% by 2019,” says Matt Stagg, EE's Principal Strategist. “When we saw this huge uptake in video we realised that what we'd built was in fact a media distribution network.”

EE is now pioneering LTE (or 4G) Broadcast, the main benefit of which is the ability to simultaneously distribute live content to an almost unlimited amount of users without running into capacity issues of each user watching individual content.

“The biggest fundamental shift we will see in the next decade for mobile distribution of TV is LTE Broadcast,” says Stagg. “EE’s vision for LTE Broadcast is that it will be better than TV.”

Stagg led the team that delivered the UK’s first engineering proof of concept at the 2014 Commonwealth Games (partnered with the BBC, Qualcomm and others), and followed that up with a trial at this year's FA Cup Final at Wembley to prove how it could combine the efficiency of broadcast with the functionality of unicast. “It's the next iteration of red button,” says Stagg.

EE plans a limited live rollout for LTE Broadcast toward the end of 2016. “We're not saying it's a commercial launch but we will start to put capacity on the network for certain events where it provides benefits.”

One benefit is to alleviate spikes in congestion around live sports events, not just for users wanting to access the same live content but for other network users whose normal browsing might be affected.

However, talk of the technology pushing aside DTT as the main distribution network for live and linear TV is, for now, premature.

“We are actively steering away from that and saying let's focus on where we need this technology now. In the future, who knows?”

The Mobile Video Alliance (MVA), which Stagg co-chairs, is in accord. “We are not discussing [LTE Broadcast] as a DTT replacement but as a way of improving performance and efficiencies of delivering live linear TV, predominantly, and on top of that we have all the other services [like mass software updates].”

Stagg co-founded the MVA (which now resides within the Digital TV Group) in 2013. “Personally, it is one of the best things that has happened. I was given quite a free reign. No one really saw how mobile video needed to be treated differently and what an impact it would have, but this has now become one of most active working groups in the DTG. It's done a huge amount for driving forward UK mobile TV and it's seen as a model, globally, for how you bring mobile operators, content delivery networks, broadcasters and contentproviders together to work on delivering a superior customer experience for everyone.”
As EE is still in the process of being acquired by BT for £12.5bn, Stagg's lips are sealed but he restates EE's broader strategy as being about 'connected everything' “exploring uses for mobile connectivity in the home, at work and in the car.”

Stagg, who has clocked 25 years’ experience in telecoms and was recently voted in the top 50 most influential people in New TV, is also a mentor for the 5GIC project at Surrey University where the awesome potential of a mobile technology without bandwidth limits is taking shape.

“5G may yield a perception of limitless bandwidth because you will always have enough for your purpose,” he says. “This could be the connected car, remote surgery or holographic projection. 5G is not just a new air interface and associated technology. It is best understood as an ecosystem which a lot of industries, not just mobile operators, are exploring to change the way we think about being connected.”