Staffers with the Anyang Broadcasting Center of LG Uplus provide support to television broadcasters’ televising of games during 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. (Photo: LG Uplus)

LG Uplus will provide support to back Korean territorial broadcasting outlets’ televising the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, to be held from Aug. 24.

The telecom service provider had already offered an international broadcasting network during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on its own.

The broadcasting network for the Paralympics will replay broadcasting signals, coming from Japanese stadiums via the International Broadcasting Center, to Korea’s terrestrial broadcasters: SBS, KBS and MBC via undersea cables and Korean broadcasting networks.

The broadcasting network consists of 113 lines, including three ultra high-definition lines, each with 8Mbps, 23 high-definition lines, each with 20Mbps, and three internet lines and 85 telephone lines.

The latest broadcasting has adopted state-of-the-art broadcasting technologies. Among the advanced technologies a super-delay technology, designed to stream live fast athletic movements and athletes’ momentary scenes and a “hitless method,” designed to maintain transmissions without interruption even if the network is cut.

Securing four undersea cable routes between Korea and Japan in a two-layer format aims to stabilize the telecom network against earthquakes and other emergency cases.

Engineers with a career of 10 years or more will be posted to offer services in a stable fashion around the clock for the 40-day period from an opening to closing ceremonies.

The Tokyo Olympics was an Olympic event with UHD streaming of all games. LG Uplus had transmitted UHD broadcasting signals without interruption with UHD broadcasting equipment and monitoring systems.

In particular, the telecom service provider has evolved the UHD broadcasting technology with SMPTE ST2082-1, the global UHD standard.

Besides, LG Uplus had monitored international and domestic lines and broadcasting equipment connecting Japan, Anyang Broadcasting Center and three Korean broadcasters in real time via the OneView System (NMS 3.0).

LG Uplus became the first company which monitored with the broadcasting relay surveillance system developed on its own in an international sports event.

The tripartite monitoring system was in place to monitor broadcasting equipment at any place in the case sufficient manpower is not available.

LG Uplus’ provision of the exclusive broadcasting lines for the Olympics was owed to expertise on broadcasting and stable operation of undersea cables the telecom service provider has accumulated for several decades.

LG Uplus did so in a variety of sports events such as London 2012 Olympics, Sochi 2014 Olympics and FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia.

Of late, the telecom service provider has offered high-definition, real-time services to broadcast European soccer league and French Open games to foreign and Korean broadcasters by expanding its international sports broadcasting services using undersea cables.

LG Uplus plans to provide stable broadcasting services on the games, to be staged during the Paralympics period between Aug. 24 and Sept. 5.

Vice President Lim Jang-hyuck, head of LG Uplus’ corporate infrastructure business group, said, “The successful broadcasting relay of the Olympics has globally recognized LG Uplus’ network stability and operational expertise.”

LG Uplus will aggressively participate in projects to stream live Korean athletes’ heartthrobing moments during the Tokyo Paralympics, to be held form Aug. 24 and future Asian Games and Olympics, he added.

LG Uplus Partners with Spotify

LG Uplus has teamed up with Spotify, one of the world’s biggest music streaming service providers, to offer the latter’s exclusive streaming services.

The partnership is expected to shake up the Korean music streaming service market, which has been saturated so far.

LG Uplus subscribers using its 4G LTE and 5G networks and registered with a 85,000 won or more monthly pricing product will be offered with Spotify’s premium service for free for six months from Aug. 10.

Subscribers who signed up with a product of less than 85,000 won monthly will receive Spotify’s three-month free streaming service.