Live 8K over 5G at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
Live 5G+8K ultra-high-definition broadcast during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, from the Olympic Tower to an exhibition hall.
- 8K over 5G to the exhibition hall
- 4K/HD down-conversion
- Live 8K program feed over 5G
- Aerial 8K city views from the Olympic Tower
- Simultaneous 4K/HD down-conversion
- 8K program masters
The brief
During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the programme needed a genuine live 8K broadcast — not upscaled 4K — carried over 5G from the Olympic Tower to an exhibition hall, with aerial ultra-high-definition views of the city. Live 8K over 5G at a global sporting event is one of the hardest broadcasts in the world: four times the data of 4K, zero tolerance for dropouts, and a fixed, immovable schedule.
What we did
We deployed a true 8K camera chain (8K bodies with broadcast optics) at height on the Olympic Tower, encoded the 8K signal in real time with hardware tuned specifically for 8K-over-5G, and carried it live to the exhibition hall over a 5G link. A dedicated technical director managed the program feed while our engineers held redundant encoding and transport paths ready throughout.The production ran in partnership with Sharp and Socionext, alongside a major Chinese telecom operator. Every element was tested and rehearsed in full 8K before broadcast — because 8K, at the Olympics, leaves no room for surprises.
The result
A stable, genuine live 8K broadcast over 5G during one of the world's largest sporting events — placing this among the very few true live-8K productions delivered at that scale anywhere. The same 8K program was down-converted simultaneously to 4K and HD so every screen received the best feed it could show, and 8K masters were retained for on-demand and display use.