Imagine you want to broadcast a football match live. Today you need a huge truck full of equipment parked outside the stadium, a dedicated crew on-site, and expensive cables connecting everything. VIRTUOSA built a system that moves most of that work into the cloud — cameras at the stadium send video over 5G or regular internet to a virtual control room that could be 1,000 kilometres away. Think of it like how Zoom replaced physical meeting rooms, but for professional TV production. The result: broadcasters can produce more live content at 30-40% lower cost without sacrificing quality.
Live TV production is expensive and resource-heavy. Every live broadcast — a football match, a concert, breaking news — requires dedicated crews, equipment trucks, and infrastructure at each location. As audiences demand more live content across more screens and platforms, broadcasters cannot scale their current production model without costs spiralling. The industry needs a way to produce more live content with fewer on-site resources and lower per-production costs.
The project delivered three piloted systems: a LAN-based virtual studio setup, a WAN system connecting production facilities over long distances, and a 5G wireless camera acquisition system. It also produced final prototypes of an SDN-based Media Server and Ethernet/IP switch (both meeting SMPTE 2110 broadcast standards), plus media network orchestration software for managing virtualised production resources.
If you are a broadcaster struggling with rising production costs while audiences demand more live content across more channels — this project developed a complete SDN-based virtual production system that lets you produce live events remotely over IP networks and 5G, cutting production costs by 30-40% while enabling parallel productions from a single control room.
If you are a production company that deploys crews and equipment trucks to stadiums and concert venues — this project built and piloted a system where cameras connect via 5G wireless acquisition and video flows over standard IP networks to remote facilities more than 1000 km away. This eliminates most on-site infrastructure and lets your talent work from a central hub.
If you are a telecom provider looking for high-value 5G use cases beyond consumer mobile — this project validated a 5G pilot system for professional live media acquisition, proving that 5G can reliably carry broadcast-quality video from event locations. This gives you a concrete enterprise service offering with demonstrated demand in a USD 545 billion live content market.
The project does not publish specific pricing. However, the objective states that virtualised production reduces live media production costs by 30-40% compared to traditional setups. With the global live content market at USD 545 billion, even modest adoption represents significant savings. Contact the coordinator Nevion AS for commercial pricing.
Yes. The project specifically designed for scalable production across distances of more than 1000 km. Three pilot systems were built and tested: LAN (local studio), WAN (wide-area between facilities), and 5G (wireless camera acquisition). The system enables multiple live productions to run in parallel from shared facilities.
The consortium is 83% industry-led with 6 partners across 5 countries. The coordinator Nevion AS (Norway) is an established media networking company. As an Innovation Action under Fast Track to Innovation, the IP is held by the consortium partners. Licensing and commercial terms should be discussed directly with Nevion.
Yes. The deliverables explicitly mention that the SDN-based Media Server prototype was adapted to meet SMPTE 2110 and AMWA IS standards, which are the current professional broadcast interoperability standards for IP-based media production.
The system is designed as tailor-made solutions installed at broadcaster facilities, with or without connection to remote locations. Since it builds on standard IP networking, SDN, and established broadcast protocols (SMPTE 2110), it can integrate with existing IP-based infrastructure. The project completed its 24-month development and validation cycle by February 2022.
This is piloted technology. The project delivered working prototypes of both the Ethernet/IP switch and SDN-based Media Server, plus three full pilot systems (LAN, WAN, and 5G) tested in operational environments. The funding scheme was Fast Track to Innovation, specifically designed for near-market solutions.
The coordinator Nevion AS is a commercial company specialising in media network infrastructure, not a university lab. They have an established product portfolio and support infrastructure. Based on available project data, commercial support would come through Nevion's standard channels.
This is a strongly industry-driven consortium: 5 out of 6 partners are companies (83% industry ratio), with zero universities or research institutes — unusual and a strong signal of commercial intent. The coordinator Nevion AS is an established Norwegian media networking vendor, not a startup. The consortium spans 5 countries (Germany, Israel, Norway, Poland, UK), covering key European broadcast markets. Two SMEs bring agility while the larger industrial partners provide market access and integration capability. For a business buyer, this means the technology was built by people who sell broadcast equipment for a living, not by academics writing papers.
Nevion AS (Norway) — established media networking company. Search for their commercial contact via nevion.com or use SciTransfer's matchmaking service.
Want an introduction to the VIRTUOSA team? SciTransfer connects businesses with EU research teams. We prepare a tailored brief matching your specific production challenges to VIRTUOSA's capabilities and arrange a direct meeting with the right technical contacts.
