Following the 2025 partnership between BMC TV, RaceTech and Arena Racing Company (ARC) millions of viewers in the UK enjoy reliable, low-latency coverage of thousands of horse-racing events per year. Yet ensuring the contribution connectivity of these events can be challenging – and our 5G Flyaway is instrumental in meeting the challenges.
Challenges in Remote Broadcasts
Many racecourses are in remote areas, often reliant on a single fibre link, while cell towers can be many miles away, making consistent and reliable contribution connectivity a daunting task. BMC TV had to maintain the quality and responsiveness needed for live sports broadcasts, avoiding disruptions or delays, with low-latency encoding crucial.
This is where our 5G Flyaway solution came into play, designed to tackle the geographical and infrastructure challenges head-on.
5G Flyaway
5G Flyaway represents the most advanced cellular bonding solution built specifically tailored for sports and live events. It enables broadcasters to maintain the highest standards when using cellular bonding for video transport, something historically only possible with satellite.
Since October 2025, the 5G Flyaway has been deployed as a reliable backup at various racecourses. This ensures that high-quality, constant bitrate broadcast video feeds remain uninterrupted, achieving high uplink speeds even when using cellular technology, allowing for smooth broadcasting regardless of external conditions.
The solution features powerful external antennas that reach cell towers many miles away. At the racecourses, this capability ensures robust performance even in the most challenging environments, as shown in the image below. Cell towers are over 4km (2.5 miles) away from the track:
Below is another example of a challenging racetrack, historically considered difficult/impossible to transmit from, where our 5G Flyaway used 4G 2CA uplink capabilities, achieving an uplink speed of 40 Mbps on a single operator, even with a very weak signal. By leveraging advanced features of 4G technology, even when there is no 5G signal, our 5G Flyaway ensured reliable connectivity for broadcasts in difficult conditions.
Our 5G Flyaway also uses our low-latency SDI card and offers remote-control capabilities. This means operators can activate the system swiftly and remotely, ensuring low-latency broadcasts that commence instantly when needed.
Conclusion
By using 5G Flyaway, BMC TV performs exceptionally even in the most challenging broadcasting environments, providing reliable connectivity in remote locations where traditional infrastructure may fall short. Enhancing the quality of live broadcasts, it ensures that audiences can enjoy uninterrupted coverage, regardless of geographical limitations.
