5G Mobile data connectivity will play a big role in the future of virtual reality. Various providers are experimenting with this technology. Vodacom in South Africa is the latest company to offer a live stream involving 5G virtual reality streaming this month. Together with Nokia, the provider will live stream 4K footage.
Another 5G VR Trial is Coming
July 7th is a big day for mobile data connectivity in South Africa. It will be one of the first tests involving 5G connectivity, which is of great interest for a wide variety of different purposes. Especially when it comes to live streaming VR content, 5G connectivity can change the playing field drastically. To ensure that is a possibility, there will be a few field tests to trial this impressive technology.
Vodacom acknowledges a field trial is in order. The mobile carrier will live stream 4K VR content from the Greyville racecourse on July 7th. This trial will be conducted over 5G connectivity and by using VR cameras to broadcast a live 360-degree video feed to the Vodacom hospitality suite. Guests will be able to view the entire race in VR from this location by donning provided VR headsets.
It appears a total of 2 VR cameras will be used for this trial. One camera is positioned at the Parade Ring, whereas the other will stream live from the finish line. The 4K VR content will be streamed over a Nokia Airscale 5G base station. That station uses 100Mhz of Vodacom’s spectrum on the 28GHz frequency band to deliver the signal accordingly. It will be a viable test to determine if the proper infrastructure is in place to power such a content delivery system.
Additionally, Vodacom will introduce 12 base stations at the Greyville racecourse to cope with the crowds visiting this race. In doing so the company is confident they can cope with the heightened 5G demand and not suffer from any lag during the live stream itself. Moreover, the base stations will have 4G+ technology to scale back on overall speed if needed while maintaining 5G connectivity during the video streaming itself.
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