This week saw some interesting new use cases for 5G. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom used a 5G uplink at the Berlin Marathon to transmit television images. Meanwhile, AT&T conducted a 5G Hackathon, awarding a total of $100,000 to the winners.
Using its new 5G network, DT worked with the marathon host broadcaster Infront Productions to transmit high-quality TV images in live reporting. The carrier optimized several 5G locations for the video upload, and 5G smartphones were used as modems on the professional cameras. They transmitted the camera images via DT’s 5G network to the control room.
Infront Productions incorporated the images into its worldwide live coverage. The parties said the test in Berlin confirms that a stable transmission of camera signals for professional TV productions with 50 frames per second over 5G is possible.
"5G takes data transmission to a new level,” said Tiana Trumpa, 5G product manager at Deutsche Telekom, in a statement. “The test in Berlin is an example of the possibilities that guaranteed uploads offer media companies. 5G offers production companies high quality and low latencies for live images."
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While 5G has the potential for faster speeds and lower latency for transmissions of live events, it’s critical that it be reliable. If the mobile network guarantees and provides fixed bandwidths, it will open up new possibilities for production companies. 5G could also allow high-quality content from private smartphones to be transmitted via the mobile network and used in the TV feed.
AT&T’s 5G hackathon
Also this week, more than 40 teams comprised of more than 200 developers met up in Los Angeles to demonstrate 5G use cases on AT&T’s 5G network, which reached speeds up to 1.8 Gbps onsite. All submissions were conducted on a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, using the onsite 5G network. The AT&T Hackathon contestants competed for $100,000 in prizes.
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The first place winner was FitStream, a startup that enables yoga instructors to stream their classes live on an interactive platform. Users can take the classes via their mobile phones and even interact in real-time with the instructor. FitStream’s app uses the principles of interactive gaming on 5G and artificial intelligence on edge platforms. In addition to winning $50,000 for its app, FitStream also took home “Best Edge Computing Solution” ($5,000) and “Best Entertainment Solution – Non-Gaming” ($5,000).
The second place winner of AT&T’s 5G Hackathon was Multistream, a security company that took home $25,000. Multistream’s technology gives the ability to relay multiple video streams at once. With Multistream, users like oil and gas companies, building management firms and farming industry workers can access several security streams at once through CCTV or internet feeds with accurate location tracking.