02 November 2026

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has received the “2026 Implementation of the Year” from the international organization the IOWN Global Forum^™*1, for its collaborative Proof of Concept (PoC) for remote media production for broadcasters utilizing Open APN (All-Photonics Network) ^*2. This initiative was recognized as the most outstanding achievement.

The Implementation of the Year Award selects one team, from the PoC teams recognized by the IOWN Global Forum over the past year for a Significant Step Forward, that has made the greatest contribution to the advancement of the IOWN^*3 initiative, through voting by more than 180 member companies worldwide. Sumitomo Electric has received this award for the second consecutive year.

We jointly conducted a PoC for remote media production using broadcast production equipment for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 in July 2025. The PoC connected the Japan National Stadium, TBS Broadcast Center at Akasaka, and the Operation Building, together with TBS Group, NTT Group, and Sony Group.

In this PoC, we demonstrated that by dynamically switching optical paths via Open APN, remote production sites can be connected on demand with large capacity and low latency. In addition to transmitting multiple uncompressed video streams and remotely controlling production equipment, we also verified the network’s reliability and economic feasibility. Through these verifications, we proved the feasibility of new media production that meets diverse needs of the broadcasting industry by leveraging Open APN. The main use cases are as follows:

· Program production from remote sites: 
Key stations in the network and external specialists support local stations via APN, contributing to solving challenges such as labor shortage and aging workforce.

· Economical optical network provision by optical wavelength path switching:
 Event venues and broadcast stations are connected through APN, establishing an environment that enables economical and on-demand use of a large-capacity, low-latency, and low-power network as an alternative to dedicated satellite relay vehicles and leased lines.

· Consolidation and sharing of media production resources: 
Multiple sites utilize media production center facilities via APN, enabling efficient use of production resources.

We provided the following devices compliant with the IOWN GF Open APN specifications: a 25 Gbps remote wavelength tunable pluggable APN optical transceiver (APN-T) ^*4, an APN splitter device (APN-S) ^*5 that switches optical paths according to wavelengths, and an optical Ethernet network device (FTU9100) that aggregates APN and terminates within the on-site network. By coordinating these with the NTT Group’s APN line control device (APN-C), we proposed and demonstrated a configuration that delivers a high-speed, low-latency, and low-power-consumption APN on demand between required sites, contributing to the verification of reliability and economic feasibility.

We remain committed to product development and the proposal of solutions to realize next-generation optical communication services, leveraging findings and related technologies obtained from this PoC.


*1 The IOWN Global Forum™ is an international forum that includes over 180 organizations and groups, aiming to realize next-generation networks and information processing infrastructure. (https://iowngf.org)

*2 APN is a technology that converts network devices and equipment that have traditionally required optical-to-electrical conversion into photonics-based (optical) systems capable of achieving large capacity and low latency with low power consumption. Open APN refers to the specific standard architecture and specifications for realizing APN, based on multi-vendor and open specifications developed by the IOWN Global Forum.

*3 IOWN^TM is a trademark or registered trademark of NTT, Inc.

*4,5 The APN-T is an optical transceiver capable of remote wavelength control. Combined with the APN-S, it enables path switching. The 25G APN-T/APN-S were developed through a grant from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) (grant No. JPJ012368G50201).

*6 The details of this PoC can be found on the following official website of the IOWN GF.
(Overview) https://iowngf.org/remote－media－production-in-broadcasting-what-the-latest-iown-global-forum-poc-proved/
(Details) https://iowngf.org/remote-media-production-in-broadcast-industry/