Verizon is using 5G mmWave coverage to deploy a number of sports use cases, including football, basketball, hockey, and motorsports — Harsha Viswanathan, Senior Manager, Sports Technology and Innovation, Verizon, told the audience, after being introduced by Poggianti.
“We segment the use cases into two key buckets. One use case involves player performance, the training experience and how coaches can make more informed decisions,” Viswanathan said. “And then the other is an in-venue fan experience. When a fan goes into a venue and wants to do everything and see everything, this technology allows them to be really immersed in the excitement of what’s happening on field as well as what’s happening in that venue.”
At the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix, which took place May 6-8, 2022 at the Miami International Autodrome, attendees used the Verizon 5G Multi-View with a 5G-capable device to view up to seven unique, live camera angles in high definition and hear the live race commentary. Verizon launched The Hard Rock Stadium Express Shop using 5G Ultra Wideband and mobile edge compute to allow event attendees to avoid long lines using AiFi’s computer vision technology, which tracks and charges them for the items they pick up at the concession shop.
Using an Augmented Reality (AR) 5G portal and the Ultra Pass, Formula One attendees were able to experience concerts at the event from three different 360 degree camera angles with audio streamed in 4K high definition. “5G Ultra Wideband and, more broadly, edge computing, have been really integral to actually creating a lot of our experiences,” Viswanathan said.
Verizon has also partnered with the NHL using an AR application that pulls in real-time player puck tracking data, which supplies data on the acceleration of the puck. Engineers hosted the application on the mobile edge compute as well as in the conventional cloud. Doing a side-by-side comparison, they found latency improvements of 35 percent to 40 percent.
“The latency improvement is really impactful when you look at it from just a user lens, because it improves the quality of experience,” Viswanathan said. “Without mobile edge compute and without 5G Ultra Wideband, this experience would just not be possible and wouldn’t gain the trust or interest of fans of the NHL.”
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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