With a 5G launch round the corner, Bharti Airtel on Thursday showcased its high-speed, low latency capabilities for video entertainment. Using its 5G test network, the operator recreated the in-stadia experience of Kapil Dev’s famous 175 not out vs Zimbabwe, during the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
A special 175 replayed video, in 4K mode, brought to key moments from the match to life, which had no video footage due to a strike by TV technicians.
With speeds of over 1 Gbps and latency of under 20 ms, more than 50 concurrent users had a personalized 4K video experience of the match on 5G smartphones, with real-time access to multiple camera angles, 360-degree in-stadia view, shot analysis and stats. During the session, users also had 5G powered hologram interactions with Kapil Dev.
Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, said: “The gigabit speeds and millisecond latency of 5G will transform the way we consume entertainment. With 5G based holograms, we will be able to transport virtual avatars to any location and this will be a game-changer for meetings and conferences, live news and will have so many other use cases. Airtel is fully prepared for 5G in this emerging digital world and is building a solid pipeline of innovative use cases for India.”
Airtel conducted the demonstration at its network experience centre in Manesar (Gurugram) using Ericsson 5G radio over 3500 MHz band test spectrum allotted by the department of telecom.