Electronics giant Ericsson and telecom operator Sprint recently streamed ultra-high definition (UHD) 4K video streams over a live 5G wireless signal including a live camera stream from the Sprint Fan Zone at a Philadelphia sport field.

The companies were demonstrating to sports enthusiasts the new changes coming into play with 5G entering the sporting experience, a press release said.

John Saw, chief technology officer at Sprint, commented: “Achieving speeds up to 4 Gbps far outside the lab environment, in the parking lot of Lincoln Financial Field and in the midst of thousands of visitors, is exciting. It gives us a great opportunity to demonstrate how far we have come technologically, and why 5G will matter to fans.”

Visitors to the Sprint Fan Zone could challenge their friends with a “connected” soccer ball delivering stats while live 4K UHD video of the kick streams over 5G to monitors, allowing participants to see themselves and their results, Sprint said.

Going forward, both the game ball and the players could be connected so that fans could see real-time information and analytics about the speed, rotation and height of the ball. Commentary will also become more insightful, with new stats and graphical analytics on TV, the company added.

Glenn Laxdal, head of technology and strategy at Ericsson North America, said: “5G will make possible a wider range of services than any network has done before, and sporting events are a great way to show this off.  We are happy to help Sprint inspire fans with this peek into the 5G future, especially given our history together of bringing technology upgrades that improve the consumer experience. We look forward to Sprint’s evolution to 5G, particularly given their unique spectrum position and technology foundation.”

Other future changes coming to the fan experience with 5G connectivity include the ability to experience matches from new vantage points, using phones to switch between different 360-degree, ultra-high definition virtual reality cameras filming all around the stadium. 5G will deliver enough capacity to the stadium for fans to stream high-quality video and share the views from their seats with others at the same match, the press release added. –TradeArabia News Service