May 2, 2024 - VITEC, a market-leading provider of IPTV, video streaming and digital signage solutions, and RFmondial, a specialist in wireless transmission technology, have announced a groundbreaking achievement: the world's first demonstration of ultralow latency (below 100ms) video streaming over DECT NR+, the new non-cellular 5G standard. Achieved as part of the Sennheiser led Franco-German backed project MERCI, the demonstration took place at a public workshop in Hannover, Germany on April 19, 2024.

As partners in the MERCI project, VITEC and RFmondial joined forces to unveil the potential of DECT NR+ for wireless video transmission. VITEC’s market-leading video encoder and decoder – renowned for exceptional energy efficiency and industry-low glass-to-glass latency – and RFmondial’s compact and optimized NR+ implementation (based on the Nordic chipset) combined to demonstrate to workshop attendees robust HD video streaming with latency down to 50ms glass to glass over ranges of up to 100 metres.

Eric Deniau, VITEC’s SVP R&D commented: “This demonstration shows that UltraLow Latency wireless video transmission is now made simple even in very demanding environments, where today complex dedicated technical means are needed.”

Jens Schroeder, RFmondial’s Managing Director, added: “The simplicity of NR+ setup, which does not require infrastructure deployment, together with its robust and high-performance capabilities, make it an ideal solution for wireless video connectivity in applications such as public venues, industrial or medical environments.”

The MERCI project has support from the German and French governments as part of their 5G programmes, with work focused on two use cases where these capabilities will be needed:

• Public venue displays and remote video production where video quality and display latency are key factors.

• Industrial robots and remote vehicle operation where end to end latency and secure transmissions are essential.

NR+ enables ultra-low latency and ultra-reliable wireless connectivity for demanding network environments. Based on proven capabilities, it is anticipated that future silicon implementations of NR+ will allow for more throughput and improved robustness (as defined by the ETSI standard) to fulfil the requirements for wider adoption of wireless video transmission. Combined with the next generation high efficiency / low latency / low footprint video coding technology VITEC is currently working on, unprecedented performance will be possible, making the combination a perfect fit for many use cases where wireless video connectivity is currently lacking a suitable solution.