What do the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen and a volleyball tournament in Mühldorf, Upper Bavaria, have in common? At first glance, probably not much. In our case, what connects the two places is a small router – and the question of how to get a stable livestream online even in a place where a single internet connection is pushed to its limits.
The story begins with Martin’s visit to Shenzhen. In addition to meeting the MiNEMedia team in person, the agenda naturally included a look at their latest products. One of them was brand-new at the time: the MiNE C3 Bonding Router.
The C3 caught our attention pretty quickly. That’s because, instead of relying on a single internet connection, it can combine multiple connections at once: three 5G cellular connections, Wi-Fi, WAN, and USB.
This is particularly interesting when it comes to livestream productions. That’s because high speed alone isn’t enough. It’s much more important that the connection remains stable even when a cellular network is unstable or experiences a temporary loss of bandwidth.
That is exactly what bonding is designed to do: multiple Internet connections work together to provide more bandwidth and, above all, greater reliability.
And then the Bavarian Volleyball Association got involved.
Four playing fields, Full HD – and an Internet connection
Throughout the year, the Bavarian Volleyball Association produces live streams of volleyball and beach volleyball events at a wide variety of venues. The feed is produced on-site and broadcast on YouTube. The challenge here is that, in some cases, up to four courts need to be streamed simultaneously in 1080p at 50 frames per second.
Until now, a 5G router with a Telekom connection has been used for this purpose. However, depending on the venue and network load, its upload speed was not consistently sufficient for multiple simultaneous Full HD streams.
The request we received was therefore quite specific: Is there a solution that provides sufficiently stable bandwidth even under changing conditions?
As it happened, we just happened to have something in our luggage.
Together with the Bavarian Volleyball Association, we launched a field test. stream1 provided the C3 and the associated bonding server infrastructure, and the association deployed the system for its productions at various venues.
And so the little router’s journey eventually took it from Shenzhen to Munich and on to Mühldorf.
It quickly became clear why bonding is particularly interesting for mobile livestream productions.
With bandwidth bonding, data isn’t simply switched over to a second connection. Instead, multiple lines can be used simultaneously, and the data can be distributed at the packet level. Ideally, this makes the combined bandwidth of multiple Internet connections available.
This is especially useful in situations where you can’t rely on the existing internet infrastructure—such as in sports arenas, at events, in remote locations, or during mobile productions.
“Sensational across the board”
After the first deployment, the feedback was correspondingly positive:
“We’ve completed the first livestream using your Bonding router. Everything worked well so far. In terms of bandwidth alone, the router is sensational.”
For us, it was exactly the test we’d hoped for. Not in a lab under perfect conditions, but right where the technology will actually have to work later on: in the middle of a real live production.
And perhaps that is also the most important lesson from the C3’s journey: The most exciting technology isn’t necessarily the one with the longest spec sheet. Rather, it’s the one that solves a very specific problem.
Reliable Internet for Live Streams and Events
Are you planning livestreams, conferences, or hybrid events and can’t rely on a single internet connection at the venue?
We develop solutions for bonding, mobile Internet connections, and redundant livestream connections —tailored to each specific location and production.
Please contact us at hello@stream1.eu or by phone at 089 41 41 453 10. We’d be happy to advise you on the right technical solution and, if you’d like, handle the entire implementation for you.
